Minneapolis Zine Culture

Learn about the world of zines with this Twin Cities exhibit, and get inspired to create your own.

By: Srihita Raju

Zines, which typically come in the form of little staple-bound booklets or folded pieces of paper, have long been a way for members of underground subcultures to communicate and share their ideas with each other. Zines can be collections of personal essays, poems, information about local protests, reviews of bands, and anything else that can be put onto paper. 

The Minneapolis Institute of Art is currently showing the “Fly Zine Archive: A Chronicle of Punk, Queer, and Ararchist Counterculture” exhibit, which will be displayed until April 2022. The exhibit shows highlights from the artist Fly NYC’s zine collection, which are categorized into four main categories: punk rock, squatting, anarchism/protest, and anarcho-punk traveling. The zines on display in each section did an amazing job of highlighting what makes a zine a zine; it isn’t about the materials or form used, it is about the intention. One of my favorites was in the punk rock section. It was an essay about how the occult presence in punk rock music is attractive because people are looking for tools to improve their life, which help them not become tools for other people to use. Another from the protest section was flipped open to a page with a political cartoon about Fox News and brainwashing. There were so many more in different formats, topics, and sizes. If you visit, you’ll definitely find something that’ll resonate with you. 

Zines are vessels for writers, poets, protestors, artists, and anyone else who has something that they want to say and wants full control over how they say it. They are accessible and don’t require the artist to have any expensive materials to be a part of the city's zine scene. With a minimal barrier for entry, zine culture allows for many voices to be shared and amplified without approval or censorship from any larger entity. If you want to learn more about zines or be inspired to make your own, I’d highly recommend visiting the MIA’s exhibit.