ZINES4QUEERS
ZINES4QUEERS is a queer Black zine duo, press, and distro led by founder Julie Elliston (aka Irie Ingénue) and co-founder Oumou Sylla (of ConnectWithOumou)
founded in los angeles, california in 2022, Z4Q has grown into a home for DIY publishing, zine education, and creative community, now split between los angeles and miami, florida.
wait, what is a zine?
a zine (sometimes short for “magazine”) is a self-published "book" made by individuals or collectives, shared directly between people. zines have no limits in form, topic, or purpose, or impact. they are a medium available to all, not artists and designers alone. a zine can be a personal essay, a recipe collection, a political manifesto, a field guide, a research summary, a how-to, a fan tribute, a community resource, or a public diary. anything you feel moved to print and share can be a zine.
if you ask us, zines are more than paper. they’re tiny archives of care, intention, and connection. they let anyone tell their story on their own terms. at Z4Q, we uplift marginalized voices through print, remind everyone they can be a zinester, and keep the diy spirit alive through our publishing, workshops, distro, and occasional paper party.
as hosts of the inaugural black zine fest la (2024), we’re keeping that energy going with pop-ups, this online shop, our good mail club (on patreon), and whatever other paper-based chaos we dream up next.
our mission? keep print alive, keep it weird, keep it ours.
BTW.... you don’t have to identify as queer to be part of this world. our name comes from our identity and praxis toward queerness, but also because zines are already pretty queer by nature! queer as in weird. queer as in curious. queer as in, exists outside traditional publushing. queer as in, for anyone who sees themselves in the pages. if you love print, you fit right in!