zine
n. 
magazine; especially: a noncommercial often homemade or online publication usually devoted to specialized and often unconventional subject matter

If you’ve never heard of zines, this is a good definition to start with, but it doesn’t really capture the wild world that’s out there. In many ways, zines are natural additions to an archive — personal, of the moment, and unique.

The 60 or so items in the Radical South Zine Archive at Hoole Library range over so many subjects that a full list would be even longer than the list of the publications themselves. In these handmade pieces, you’ll find reflections on art, music, and popular culture. You’ll also hear  people’s thoughts about themselves and society, and the messy intersections in between, like race and ethnicity, religion and spirituality, and gender and sexuality. What’s fascinating about these zines is how they are often both highly personal and highly political — and most of them very much a product of the South.

Here’s a sampling of titles, with descriptions where they were provided by the author. (Click on any image to see a larger version.) Heads up: these writers pull no punches, even on their covers.

For more information about these and other titles, check out the collection’s finding aid.