At least once in our lives, we have held a book penned by the anonymous author Bob Ong. Perhaps ABNKKBSNPLAko?! or Bakit Baliktad Magbasa ng Libro ang mga Pilipino was your gateway to
“Broad City had just ended, I was very heartbroken, and I really wanted to write about those things,” Abbi Jacobson tells Tavi Gevinson at Books Are Magic, a picturesque indie
Just when we think things can’t get any worse in our country, the government decides to do this. Back in 2014, a memorandum by the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd)
It is the summer of Italy. The grass is green and the flowers blooming. Smell of pancakes fills the room as freshly baked croissants and Italian wine which has no
THIS STORY WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AT PREEN.PH Have you ever wondered how fiction writers come up with characters or why people are still intrigued by coming of age stories? I
Our mythologies have always been sewn into the fabric of our culture. Tales of diwatas and aswangs have mesmerized generations of Filipinos even today. It’s our own culture translated into
These pieces of Filipino literature are worth dropping your latest reads for, especially if you’re currently reading Lang Leav I don’t know about you, but a good read always seems
As the school year finally starts, so is the beginning of the grand Hunger Games for the cheapest textbook finds. Each student scouring through every corner are trying to find
High school history classes were never fun. Unpleasant flashbacks of massive textbooks, memorizing entire timelines, and knowing who shot who all come to mind. But as the age-old adage goes:
There are several reasons zines have experienced a resurgence. It could be our lack of access to homegrown literature in major bookstores; it could be that we are ultimately nostalgists at heart; or it could be their cheap and DIY nature we’re so drawn to. But at the spine of it all is the form of escapism they offer, both to the artist and the audience. Stapled and flawed, zines piece together an untampered creative freedom the mainstream usually deprives us of. Getting everyone’s sheets together, they are a refuge for young creatives to express paper-led testimonies of feelings, aesthetics, and cultural ideologies.
As far as we know, local zine culture has flourished since the ’80s, but it wasn’t until the early 2000s that we saw the community actually turning a page. A major factor in this growth is a small press expo called Better Living Through Xeroxography (BLTX). Since its inception in 2010, BLTX has not only branched out into different locations around the Philippines (Quezon City, Naga, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, and Baguio), but it has also been providing a safe space where voices of women and the LGBTQ community can be heard. It inspired zine enthusiastic collectives like Magpies Press and Studio Soup Zine Library to strive in leaving paper trails of diverse expression as well.
We go behind the zines with BLTX’s Adam David; Magpies Press’ Mac Andre Arboleda, Shaunnah Cledera, Paulyne Gonzales, and Pam Mendoza; Studio Soup Zine Library’s Camz Dagal and Eva Yu; and comic artist Hulyen to discuss how small-circulation self-published work can make a significant difference in our society.
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