And what better way to introduce “Side by Side” into the world than with a pair of beautiful side-by-side photos taken by two rad folks: the first, by “Worcester punk,” and the second, by @the_bejeweled_narwhal. Both Worcester punk and Laura kindly heeded my ask for pictures, since I lack easy access to a copier at the moment. That, in itself, feels like the kind of act of love and solidarity that this zine revolves around. For as Afrotistic says in their written contribution to this collection of 16 stories, “Anti-repression work is community work,” and we must “strengthen the ways we supply one another with solidarity,” including, to my mind, the webs of communal care we weave in the most seemingly everyday of ways. So big shoutout to punk and Laura for supplying such beauty.
Big shoutouts as well to:
* Lee at @sheerspite for creating PDFs from my layout+design, and soon hosting the PDFs for this and other zines in this series of mine on their website
* Each and every person (such as on IG, @inkanduprising, @miz_meaux, @kezleyseeslife, @peopleslaw.co, and @supportericking) who brought their words to this edited zine, sharing hard-won insights from their experiences with the messy beauty of anti-repression work and the ugliness of state repression — each story a gift, especially, to those new to doing support and/or facing statist violence
* And @dioishh, who on seeing my original “call for contributions,” DM’d me, offering to create the original artwork that now graces the front and back covers. As dio explains, “This is a lovers’ knot, with black-eyed Susans and hummingbird vines entangled. With the hummingbird vines, I think of the Prairieland defendants recently sentenced to unimaginable decades in prison. With the black-eyed Susans, I think of my friends here in Minnesota, facing brutal state repression. I think of them all connected in struggle, and all of us, interwoven with them. Our resistance is connected, and our fates are tied.”
This zine humbly holds so much love and solidarity, #UntilAllAreFree
For free readable and print-ready PDFs, DM me an email address!!
