Zine Club Chicago: Zinemaking Hangout on Marz Life on Marz Community Club, 1950 N. Western Ave. in Logan Square/Bucktown 7 – 9 p.m. Tuesday, April 30 Free!
Local zine friends, Zine Club Chicago is thrilled to announce that we’re launching a new in-person meetup for folks who want to get together and make zines! We’re teaming up with Life on Marz Community Club, a brewery taproom and café space that we love, for an evening of zinemaking and camaraderie every other month, beginning in April.
Please join us for our first Zine Club Chicago: Zinemaking Hangout on Marz, 7-9 p.m. Tuesday, April 30 at Life on Marz Community Club, 1950 N. Western Ave. in Logan Square/Bucktown. Free!
Zine Club Chicago will provide the zinemaking supplies! Just bring your creativity. Life on Marz Community Club offers awesome alcoholic, CBD, and non-alcoholic beverages from Marz Brewery and more, plus some very fun snacks, for purchase.
Life on Marz also hosts a Drink & Draw with resident comic illustrator Matt Salazar every Tuesday evening starting at 5 p.m., so feel free to arrive early or stay late to check that out, too!
Zine newbies and longtime enthusiasts alike are always welcome at Zine Club Chicago. This free event series is produced by Cynthia E. Hanifin and sponsored by Quimby’s Bookstore. Anna Jo Beck designs our monthly flyers and created our logo.
More info on the Zine Club Chicago social media channels: @zineclubchicago
Image description A flyer featuring a background image of the red surface of the planet Mars and this text: “Zine Club Chicago: Zinemaking Hangout on Marz; 7-9 p.m. Tuesday, April 30; Life on Marz Community Club, 1950 N. Western Ave; Free; Info: quimbys.com”
Yet again, Chicagoland proves itself to be the dream destination for book lovers and readers of all ages! More than 40 independent bookstores in the greater Chicago area—from Lake Forest to Beverly, and Naperville to the Loop—are collaborating on our annual Chicagoland Bookstore Crawl, which encourages book lovers to indulge in bookstore tourism by visiting 10 or more stores in a single day.
The annual challenge is being held again on Independent Bookstore Day (IBD), which is a one-day national party celebrating indie book stores on the last Saturday in April. Each store creates its own unique events—including guest authors, special kids’ story times, readings, contests, giveaways, and special sales.
How to Participate…
Select your first bookstore and receive a passport and your first stamp.
Now check out the map—which lists all the participating stores—and start planning your route!
Additional bookstores you visit throughout the day will provide you with a stamp with no purchase required! (However, showing them some love today, too, would of course be a very cool thing to do.)
And to remind you of the goals:
• Visit TEN stores in one day and get 10% off at all participating bookstores for an ENTIRE YEAR!
• Visit FIFTEEN stores in one day and get 15% off at all participating bookstores for an ENTIRE YEAR!
After visiting 10 or 15 participating bookstores, on your last bookstore visit show your passport and receive a limited edition pin!
Readers are encouraged to post a snapshot of themselves and their Independent Bookstore Day haul on social media with the hashtag #TEAMINDIE and #ChiLoveBooks.
See chilovebooks.com for more info about IBD in Chicago, including info about tickets for 3 bus routes to different stores.
Rob Drew Celebrates Unspooled: How the Cassette Made Music Shareable, In Conversation with Liz Mason at Quimby’s Bookstore 1854 W. North Ave Saturday, June 22nd, 3pm
Quimby’s welcomes Rob Drew to celebrate the release of his book Unspooled: How the Cassette Made Music Shareable on Saturday, June 22nd at 3pm, in conversation with Quimby’s manager Liz Mason.
Join us to hear Dr. Rob Drew trace the history of the cassette tape, a cheap, low-fidelity music medium that fans grew to love. Rob will discuss how cassettes upended the music industry, inspired independent musicians, and initiated rituals of music sharing through mix tapes.
Well into the new millennium, the analog cassette tape continues to claw its way back from obsolescence. New cassette labels emerge from hipster enclaves while the cassette’s likeness pops up on T-shirts, coffee mugs, belt buckles, and cell phone cases. In Unspooled, Rob Drew traces how a lowly, hissy format that began life in office dictation machines and cheap portable players came to be regarded as a token of intimate expression through music and a source of cultural capital. Drawing on sources ranging from obscure music zines to transcripts of Congressional hearings, Drew examines a moment in the early 1980s when music industry representatives argued that the cassette encouraged piracy. At the same time, 1980s indie rock culture used the cassette as a symbol to define itself as an outsider community. Indie’s love affair with the cassette culminated in the mixtape, which advanced indie’s image as a gift economy. By telling the cassette’s long and winding history, Drew demonstrates that sharing cassettes became an acceptable and meaningful mode of communication that initiated rituals of independent music recording, re-recording, and gifting.
“Offering a comprehensive history of the cassette from its origins in post-World War II taping technologies to the recent revival of the music cassette as a hipster artifact, Unspooled is the first book to give an extended account of the various ways that cassettes have transformed musical culture. This wonderfully engaging, clear, and witty book will appeal to a wide audience of music fans and critics interested in mixtapes, cassettes, and cassette culture and will become a classic in many fields.” -Will Straw, Professor of Urban Media Studies, McGill University
“Rob Drew is one of my favorite writers on music, and I wish more people knew about his work. This is the definitive cultural history of indie music’s tangled but fascinating love affair with the audiocassette.” -David Hesmondhalgh, author of Why Music Matters
“Any readers who have ever received or created a mixtape will appreciate this narrative. A solid blend of history and nostalgia about cassette tapes that’s perfect for Gen Xers.” -Tina Panik, Library Journal
“The story of the cassette tape Drew and Masters tell is compelling: how a lo-fi, accident- and deterioration-prone, and more-or-less parasitic audio technology not only achieved market dominance but captured a permanent place in the imaginations and practices of music-makers, labels, distributors, and fans the world over. Unspooled and High Bias show readers that the peculiar technology of the cassette tape exemplifies the inherent contradictions of popular music perhaps better than any other medium.” — David Pike, Popmatters
“Divided into six sharp chapters, Unspooled walks readers through the rich history of music nerds who used cassettes in ever-evolving ways. By following the chronology, Drew provides a detailed exploration of the cassette in terms of format, medium, and artifact.” — Adam P. Newton, Treble Zine (Read the full review here.)
Rob Drew is Professor of Communication at Saginaw Valley State University and author of Karaoke Nights: An Ethnographic Rhapsody. Follow him at @slobster48602
Liz Mason is the manager of Quimby’s Bookstore, a zine publisher, a mix tape aficionado and a karaoke enthusiast. Follow her at @caboosezine
Want the Facebook event invite for this? Here ya go!
Watch Rob on the “Cassette Books Mixtape” panel with Marc Masters (High Bias: The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape), Jerry Kranitz (Cassette Culture: Homemade Music and the Creative Spirit in the Pre-Internet Age), moderated by Tom McCourt.
Zine Club Chicago: My Own Private Chicago Cartography Zine Workshop 3 p.m. Saturday, March 23, 2024 Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North Ave. Free!
This month, Z marks the spot at Zine Club Chicago’s cartography-inspired zinemaking event, led by producer Cynthia E. Hanifin. We’ll each be creating a personal map of an area in Chicago we love and transforming it into a mini zine!
Please join us for Zine Club Chicago: My Own Private Chicago Cartography Zine Workshop at 3 p.m. Saturday, March 23 right here at our shop. Free!
We’ll provide zinemaking supplies and snacks. Feel free to bring your own maps, photos, and other materials for inspiration!
Zine Club Chicago is a mask-supportive environment; we’ll have masks available if you’d like to wear one. Please note that seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Zine newbies and longtime enthusiasts alike are always welcome at Zine Club Chicago. This free monthly event series is produced by Cynthia E. Hanifin and sponsored by Quimby’s Bookstore. Anna Jo Beck designs our monthly flyers, created our logo, and made our Zine Club Chicago Shout-Outs site, where folks can peruse and recommend zines we’ve discussed at our events.
Facebook event here. More info on the Zine Club Chicago social media channels: @zineclubchicago
Image description: A flyer featuring hand-drawn personal notations and stickers on a 1975 CTA map and the text: “Zine Club Chicago: My Own Private Chicago Cartography Zine Workshop; 3 p.m. Saturday, March 23, 2024; Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North Ave.; Free!; More info: quimbys.com”
Quimby’s welcomes celebrates Independent Bookstore Day with Chicago-based artist Bianca Xunise on Saturday, April 27th at 3:30pm to celebrate the release of their book PUNK ROCK KARAOKE. Xunise will be joined in conversation by director, producer and author Jessica Hopper.
PUNK ROCK KARAOKE is the explosive new YA graphic novel from Ignatz Award-winning and nationally syndicated cartoonist Bianca Xunise (Six Chix, Be Gay Do Comics), following three friends and their Garage Punk band on their quest to make it big in Southside Chicago’s underground music scene. Drawn from Xunise’s passion for their city and extensive Punk knowledge, PUNK ROCK KARAOKE explores questions about authenticity, the importance of community, and what it means to succeed on your own terms. Complete with a zine-style guide to the real-life Punk icons referenced throughout the story, the book is sure to be a hit with listeners of The Linda Lindas and viewers of Netflix’s Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.
Asked about their inspirations for the project, Xunise said, “PUNK ROCK KARAOKE is a love letter to the diverse and rambunctious underground scene of the DIY music community. I hope that readers fall in love with the same community that allowed me to march to the beat of my own drum and are inspired to create spaces for each other in their own backyards.”
In PUNK ROCK KARAOKE, School is out for summer and Ariel Grace Jones is determined to make it one for the books! Together with their bestie bandmates, Michele and Gael, Ariel believes they’re destined to break into the music industry by singing lead in their garage punk band, Baby Hares. But before they can officially get into the groove, the realities of post grad life start to weigh on this crew of misfits. Ari begins to worry that it’s time to pull the plug on their dreams of making it big.
Just when all hope feels lost, a fellow punk and local icon takes an interest in their talent. It seems like he might be the only one Ariel can rely on as frustrations between bandmates reach at an all-time high, but is he really all he seems? And will Ariel and Michele’s friendship survive the journey?
“Incredibly grounded in its neighborhood and scene, this is a great ride from start to finish.” -Booklist
“Stole my heart from the first page to the last. Endlessly funny and sincere.” -Tillie Walden, Eisner & Ignatz Award-winning cartoonist
Bianca Xunise is a cartoonist based out of Chicago, Illinois. Their work primarily focuses on the plight, joy, and daily struggles of misfits within the black community. In 2017 Xunise earned an Ignatz for Promising New Talent for their comic Say Her Name, an autobiographical story of police brutality and social justice. In 2020 Xunise earned their second Ignatz for their contribution to Be Gay, Do Comics published by IDW. Xunise has collaborated with Vogue, The Washington Post, The Nib, and Believer Magazine. They are also a contributor to the book How We Fight Supremacy: A Field Guide to Black Resistance along with Ta-Nehisi Coates, Tarana Burk, and Harry Belafonte. Bianca became the first nationally syndicated non-binary cartoonist when they joined the comic strip Six Chix in 2020 as their first black creator. Bianca is also the April Quimby’s artist-in-residence! CHECK OUT THE AMAZING BANNERS THEY DESIGNED IN OUR WINDOW! More info at https://linktr.ee/biancaxunise
Jessica Hopper is a director, producer and author based in Chicago. Most recently, Hopper directed and executive produced the upcoming four-part docuseries Women Who Rock, releasing summer of 2022 on Epix and Sky. She has written for Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, the Chicago Reader, Punk Planet and more. She ins the author of The Girls Guide To Rocking, The First Collection of Criticism By A Living Female Rock Critic, Night Moves. She is series editor of The American Music Series at the University of Texas Press. More info at jessicahopper.org.
As always, Quimby’s events are free. Want the Facebook invite for this event? Click here.
This event is also on Independent Bookstore Day 2024! Quimby’s is a stop on the Chicagoland Bookstore Crawl. Get info about that here. Stay posted for more #IBD24 surprises!
