Photo of the Alumni Plaza and the Student Services and Classroom Building on the University of Houston-Clear Lake campus. Image courtesy of UHCL Office of Communications. — UHCL Student Services and Classroom Building. Image courtesy of UHCL Office of Communications.

Zine workshop encourages do-it-yourself media

By Online Editor On Apr 25, 2016 95 0

University of Houston-Clear Lake students, faculty and staff transformed from media consumers to media producers at a zine workshop with author and Lee College English instructor David Ensminger in April.

Ensminger, a folklorist and a historian of the punk movement, said zines are hand-made, amateur magazines that play an important role in punk culture, which emerged during the 1970s, spread worldwide and continues today. Members of the movement engage in “participatory culture,” creating their own music, fashion, art and texts to express ideas that mainstream culture excludes.

“Punk was about stirring culture from below with people who didn’t know they could participate in culture,” Ensminger said.

Communications student Ciara Suesberry helped create a group poster during the hands-on portion of the workshop, combining text and images from magazines with drawings and words.

“Don’t be afraid to be yourself and be different,” she said of the poster’s message, noting that the group wanted to communicate unity in troubled times. “Even when there is chaos, you can still come together.”

For more information on coming events at UHCL, visit http://newsroom.uhcl.edu.