This collection contains eight zines created at the New School Archives and Special Collections “Festival of New” zine workshop in October 2019. The workshop was part of a week-long event series hosted from October 1-6, 2019, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of The New School’s founding. The zines are mostly by New School students, although some might have been created by other members of the New School community.

The New School Archives and Special Collections contributed to the Festival of New by sponsoring a zine workshop on October 5, 2019. The New School community was invited to create a zine made from duplicate and weeded material removed from archival collections.

Zines can be a means of expression for marginalized voices or personal experiences. The zines in this collection explore topics like poetic expression, self-expression, and the questioning of one’s existential purpose. The zines are not topically related to The New School or the university centennial celebration.

Zines (derived from the term “fanzines”) are handmade magazines that can be of different shapes, sizes, and formats. The origin of zine-making in the United States dates back to the 1930s and subsequently grew in popularity as part of 1970s-1980s counterculture movements that occurred in both in the U.S. and the United Kingdom. They are often handwritten and photocopied for wide-spread distribution, although zines can be professionally printed, magazine-like publications. Zines are unique forms of self-expression and can be about any topic that the creator, or “zinester,” is interested in sharing with others.

The definition of zines used in this finding aid was adapted from the definition used by the New York Public Library: https://libguides.nypl.org/zines#:~:text=Zines%20(pronounced%20zeens)%20are%20easier,like%20publications%20and%20professionally%20printed.