28 July 2024: Updates, Q & A, Prompt (Bernadette Mayer ), and Paid Subscriber Perks
Bismillah. We begin everything with the name of Allah. We say Bismillah to initiate an act to acknowledge the intention and the ethics we carry with all that follows Bismillah.
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☺️ Hello!
Table of Contents:
🤒 A Quick Update 🤢
💬 Q & A: How to Design a Zine Curriculum!
✍🏽 Writing Prompt: Bernadette Mayer
🎫 Reminders about paid subscriber perks!
1. 🤒 A Quick Update 🤢
I went from a bizarre cold in Harstad to canceling my performance, book launch, and workshop in Los Angeles for my REDCAT show because of some weird gastro incident to getting COVID upon returning from Montpellier. My little brother said, “Yeah, I do not think your body is supposed to experience that many time zone changes in that short period; your body is just confused.” I am inclined to agree. I am supposed to be moving right now, but I am laid up newslettering and emailing horizontally. I am switching between episodes of Fringe, Veep, The Office, and some random true crime show. Delerium has set in several times and tomorrow, I am hoping for an upright day tomorrow!
2.
💬 Q & A: Designing a Zine Curriculum
You can submit a question here or complete this form! Questions are due on Saturdays by 5 pm EST.
Dear Kameelah,
I was on vacation in Brooklyn this summer when I stumbled upon the Old Stone House and the surrounding gardens. I was inspired by the care and reflection with which the gardens had been designed and planted. Every aspect of the garden had been kindly considered, from the macro to the meso to the micro. The garden felt cared for and treasured. As a teacher, I immediately decided I wanted that level of care for my curriculum. On the way out, I saw a flyer for a Booklyn Zine workshop in which you were listed as the curriculum designer. I went down the happiest rabbit holes, inspired by your work and inspiration. I am in the process of setting up my curriculum for next year. I will teach grade 8 Language Arts at Stone Ridge School for the Sacred Heart (I see you are an Atherton alum). My priority this year is adding joy, creativity, and expressiveness to my curriculum, and I plan to use zines throughout the year. For my inspiration, bell hooks’ Belonging: A Culture of Place and your art installation “No Instructions for Assembly, Activation VII” are wellsprings that bring joy to my heart. Still, I am grappling with where to begin, and am treading water amidst all this inspiration, looking for my footing to push off and get going. I will be using the Brooklyn Education Book to create our zines. Still, I wonder if I need to assemble a zine library as example texts for my students and if you recommend a particular starting place. I am sorry for the length of this question. Your work and your ethos are so inspiring to me and giving me new life as a teacher.
In gratitude,
Sally Ingram
Hi Sally!
Yes, I did have the pleasure of building the Booklyn Zine Curriculum with my consulting business, Orange Tangent Study
! I love everything about the learning process and designing the educative materials for practioners is both challenging and exciting.
My first thought: The narrower, the better! Right now, you have too many choices so my main suggestion is to get as specific as possible. I would love to teach a zine class in a case study format where we focus on a specific zine, zine author, distro, or region.
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