One of the benefits of studying at University of the Pacific is being enmeshed in a vibrant art scene. Across Stockton you can find formal institutions like the Haggin Museum and community-oriented spaces like Hatch Workshop. There are plenty of options to both appreciate art and create your own.
You can also engage with local art without even leaving campus. Pacific’s Reynolds Gallery hosts exhibitions featuring work from a diverse array of artists, including Pacific students and staff. Music students play concerts, the library puts on multimedia exhibitions and some departments even invite local artists to conduct workshops.
One of those artists is Eli Eberhardt, pictured below, who came to Pacific’s Center for Identity and Inclusion mid-November to teach students how to make zines. Zines, pronounced like the end of magazine, encompass a wide variety of self-published work. They can take many forms, but the most common is a single piece of paper, folded into a booklet. Inside you may find poetry, writing, hand-drawn art, collages and more.
Surrounded by art supplies, Eberhardt walked attendees through the form’s history, from the Harlem Renaissance’s “little magazines” to the fanzines circulated by Star Trek devotees in the pre-internet age.
“Now,” they said, “we see people making zines about Nicholas Cage.”
A zine can be anything: a diary, a political or educational tract, art, fiction or a mix of everything. The important thing is that they’re easy to make, photocopy and distribute. It’s a low-cost way for communities to stay connected and learn from each other.
“I like trading them like Pokémon cards,” Eberhardt said, holding up examples to show attendees. Several of them had a picture of the author on the back, accompanied by a short biography or social media handles.
Some of the examples were light-hearted, filled with comics and drawings. Others split the mood, combining poetry and self-reflective writings. A few tackled heavier issues like mental health and social justice.
“One of these is about Furbies and the other is about depression,” Eberhardt joked, sorting through a pile of zines. “They’re both wholesome, though.”
Eberhardt is a Stockton native whose work in poetry, zines and visual art touches on topics like childhood trauma, mental health stigma and community advocacy. They’re the founder of 209 Poets, dedicated to spreading the work of local artists. They also manage everything zine-related for the nonprofit Tuleberg Press, where they facilitate a class on the subject twice a month in downtown Stockton.
Going forward, they hope to expand access to zines by setting up a way for the Central Valley community to mass-produce them. They also want to make an online archive of local zines to improve accessibility.
“There are a lot of disabled people who can’t leave their homes,” Eberhardt said. “This way they can still read them.”
After showing off example zines, Eberhardt began to walk attendees through making a simple zine. It’s a quick process, although it takes a little bit of practice to fold and cut a piece of paper correctly.
Very quickly, each student took it in their own direction. Some drew, others cut up magazines to make collages. One pair even ended up engrossed in old copies of National Geographic. As they worked, students and staff had a wide-ranging conversation about the state of art in the Central Valley.
By the end of the workshop, most students were only partly done. The CII staff and Eberhardt agreed: They needed to plan another one, angling to bring the workshop back in the spring.
The center’s staff and student workers already run regular art events, inviting attendees to paint, craft and make pinch pots. On top of that, Program Specialists Yvette Quintana and Missy Rae Magdalera said the zine-making workshop is part of a broader effort to invite the local art community onto campus. Their hope is to help Pacific students build bridges with Stockton’s artists and the community as a whole.
Pacific also has student-run clubs focusing on arts like poetry, weaving, calligraphy and ceramics. For the time being, there isn’t one focused on making zines. As Eberhardt points out, though, distributing your zines can be a great way to build that community as people find them. Ultimately, you get to decide why you want to make zines.
“The cool thing is that you can share it or not,” Eberhardt said. “You decide what happens to it.”
See more Center for Identity and Inclusion events.