bradford zine fayre

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On Sunday 21st June The Treehouse Café, Bradford, will become host to a glorious celebration of all things DIY and papery.

Zine synposiums are a chance for people to exhibit their creations and distros, meet likeminded self-publishers and general wander round with a joyful abandon, amazed at the wonderful things people can do with an old type-writer, some felt-tips and a prit-stick.

So we at Claptrap Zine thought it was about time Bradford played host- basically so we can coax all our favourite zinesters up/down here, whilst also showing off some Bradford-made publications.

The Bradford Centre for Non-Violence / Treehouse Cafe will be transformed into a den of DIY.

Three rooms will be full to the brim with lots of incredible zines from all over the UK. Feminism, queer issues, anarchism, music, personal experiences, crafts, art, photography, history, comics, illustration… zines can and do cover everything; you’ll have a chance to peruse through these lovely self-published tomes of joy and meet the creators too! Manifesta, Lola and the Cartwheels, BD7 Punx, Branches Distro, Subtext, Mobile Menstrual Zine Library, Claptrap, Beep! and ZNA Distro will all be there for your enjoyment, plus a load more.

Then there are the special workshops! --

All day
Footprint, a lovely printing co-op from leeds, will be making a ‘Zine on the Day’ – bring A5 submissions and see it come together through the hours.

All day
Bradford Zine Library- The Beginning. Ellie, general legend, hive housing co-op resident and publisher of one of the best new zines in ages ‘Every Text My Girlfriend Ever Sent Me’ will be taking submissions for a new Zine Library, to be based at the Café and 1in12 Club. Everyone has spare zines lying around at home, so bring yours in to be part of this!

All day
Claptrap 4 Launch- We’ll be unveiling the new Claptrap Zine to the world, as well as the results of our special ‘Photos of Bradford’ map and display.

All day-
Children’s peace library / Commonweal collection. This is a great chance to look through all the ace books in the library already at our centre… kids can enjoy the world’s only children’s peace library, whilst also contributing to a ‘Toddler Zine’, which will be made up on the day from contributors of a smaller age.

All Day-
Treehouse Café – we’ll be serving the usual fantastic vegan / vege soups, cakes, main meals, salads, teas and coffees. With the best fair trade, organic, local and volunteer-made credentials around.

2pm till 3pm
Adam and Cat- the dynamic parenting and craft duo- will be going through their legendary ‘Knitting for Beginners’ zine- with wool and needles provided.

3pm till 4pm
Adventures in Menstruating
‘Sanitary Disposal Units and you!’ Plus ‘Period Euphemisms- the colouring book!’

4pm till 5pm
An open discussion with people from mono, Beep!, Good Form Club, Claptrap and more-
‘Music Zines in Bradford- What is the importance? What are the challenges?’

5pm till 6 there will be a little bit of a rest bite for dinner and swapping tables around as we move into a poetry and music after party!
This is when we will be celebrating the first year wedding anniversary of Chella Quint and Sarah Thomasin, who are the pair behind Adventures in Menstruating, with a chance to eat loads of cupcakes and chat about the joy of love and zine making.

6pm – 7 – Zine readings.

7pm – 10 Poetry + Music evening.
Featuring Sarah Thomasin, Simon and Joel joint beatnik word and double bass pairing shocker, Garfunkle and Simon, Excerpts from ‘Slam’ the Saul Williams poetry film and probably Katie Hyatt and Jed Forward. Open mic slots aplenty too, so bring your own words or songs to perform.


It's just opposite the uni on the left as you wander up Great Horton Road.

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