imaginary windows

photo snagged from Erin’s site www.faerygrrrl.com

Secret time! Ok so it’s not that much of a secret for anyone who has known me for a few years but I used to be a *major * zinester. I ran a successful and vibrant distro that lived for years, wrote countless zines, taught workshops at the PDX zine symposium and overall was just an active participant in that world. In 2005 at the Portland Zine Symposium Kestryl and I had our distro (Assimilate This) set up when I happened to meet Miss Erin Fae, a femme zinester who had traveled up from San Francisco to attend the event and sell her wares.  She and I immediately bonded over our love of quirky fashion, of zines, and of pigtails (I was just starting to grow my hair at that time, so she kindly spent some time throwing her hair over my face to help me remember that someday I would have long hair).

I had a few of her zines but alas as those things sometimes go we failed to keep in touch with one another—-that is until two years ago when as fate would have it we both ended up living in New York City and working for the same national gay4pay organization! Since then we’ve become dear friends, and yesterday while Kestryl and I met up with her at the Brooklyn Flea I was finally able to get my hands on her newest zine “imaginary windows issue no. 4”

It’s a really lovely little 40 page ¼ size zine that talks all about gender, her bike Petal  (who goes on a very mysterious adventure sans miss fae which you will have to buy the zine to read about), explorations of her deep love of Brooklyn (which as a recent transplant from Manhattan to Brooklyn I can now completely appreciate) and lots of interesting thoughts about gender and femmeness. One of the things I most appreciated about her writing in this zine was how she spoke about how in order to become a serious cyclist she had to change her perception of what she could do in the femme clothes she prefers (she is a vintage fiend, and only wears dresses, skirts, bloomers, and petticoats) as well as what she was capable of doing as a very small femme on her very big heavy vintage schwinn.

“It had to go from ‘I don’t wear the right clothes, I don’t have the right bike,’ to ‘ok, I do wear the right clothes, I do have the right bike. I had to have the right perception. It required me to further play with my gender, to ask what it means to me to be femme. That is, I had to let my own preconception and understanding of myself shift along with the way that I move and exist. It had to be intentional.” -Erin Fae

The zine is a lovely read, and well worth the $2 she charges for it.  To learn more about Erin Fae’s art, and to purchase the zine visit  www.faerygrrrl.com

Also, if you’re a femme author or zinester I’d love to review your work for the site! If you’re interested, please shoot me an email at Sassafras@PoMoFreakshow.com

Other posts by Sassafras

• Femme friends are the desserts of my world - July 26th, 2010
• Sunday Morning Cartoons! - July 25th, 2010
• July Femme Prompt - July 1st, 2010
• being out & visible - June 26th, 2010
• The beauty of femme - June 13th, 2010