Local chingón Des Alaniz (they/them) wanted to counter the density of voter guides and disseminate information in a more palatable way, so they sought to reach voters in a less conventional but equally engaging manner: zines. They rounded up their interested friends and colleagues, and over weekly Zoom meetings, Love Your Work Collective (LYWC) formed. LYWC has created a zine (zeen) for every proposition on the California ballot, which you may now find scattered in various free libraries, laundromats, newsstands, and other nooks and crannies throughout town.
What is a zine, some of you may be asking. Well, simply put, a zine can be anything you want it to be. All you need is paper, a pen, and your imagination. While there are infinite possibilities, zines themselves are rather finite because they are traditionally distributed by the creators themselves and not mass produced.
Des’ first introduction to the craft was through B*tch Magazine, which unbeknownst to me, started off as a zine. During their Master’s program, a position was created for them to expand this budding zine-making passion for course credit where they instructed students how to make zines for class presentations, in addition to digitizing, creating archival descriptions and cataloging. To their astonishment, the internship later evolved into a paid gig. “I would like to think I didn’t peak then, but that was pretty lit,” they chuckle. The “fly-by-your-pants” work style and freedom of that position is also when they began making more personal zines outside of the classroom.