5:30 - 7:30
Using a single sheet of paper folded four times, make an eight-page zine for your loved ones for Valentine's Day. You can create a masterpiece from scratch using our supplies, or customize one of our love-themed templates to quickly make dozens for your extended social network.
Up for cutting and pasting into your zine:
- Valentine's Day imagery borrowed from the library's children's books
- Love-themed haikus translated from the Japanese and photocopied from poetry books in the general humanities collection
- Greek linguistic texts expounding on the various types of love
- Plus the regular supplies of hand-made decorative paper, collage ephemera, old magazines, markers, stickers and stamps
Once you finish your "master zine," we'll help you make a run of color photocopies that you can then give away.
Get creative using your hands, listen to music, hang out and make friends at this bimonthly program led by a Magazines and Newspapers Center librarian.
2026 Feelin’ on the Fifth Zine Club Dates and Themes:
Thur., Feb 12, 2026, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
- Love is a drug! In celebration of Valentine’s Day, make a zine reflecting on the different types of love people can experience. We’ll provide text and images on this theme for collaging into your creation, including the Greek variations on love.
Thur., April 9, 2026, 5:00-7:00 p.m. (note earlier time)
- April is national poetry month! Bring some lines of your own verse or by your favorite poet to cut and paste into a zine. Try to format your selection to fit into a 4” x 2.5” single page or 4” x 5” double page spread. We’ll provide some options from recent issues of Poetry magazine and other literary journals as well.
Thur., June 11, 2026, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
- Summer Stride kick-off! What do you plan to learn, see, do and explore this summer?
Thur., Aug. 13, 2026, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
- Summer Stride wrap-up! What epic adventures in learning did you experience this summer?
Thur., Oct. 8, 2026, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
- Oh, the horror! In 2023, U.S. consumers spent $840.6M on jack-o-lanterns during the Halloween season (according to Finder.com). Why dish out the big bucks when you can make a scary zine with us for free?
Thur., Dec. 10, 2026, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
- New year, new you? Looking ahead, express your 2027 goals in image and text. Looking back, what was your favorite moment of 2026 and how will you continue that good juju into the new year? Manifest!
What is a zine?
Zines are cheaply made printed forms of expression on any subject. They are like mini-magazines or home-made comic books about favorite bands, funny stories, sub-cultures, personal collections, comix anthologies, diary entries, pathetic report cards, chain restaurants, and anything else.
Zines can be by one person or many. They can be any size: half page, rolled up, quarter sized...
Zines are read by anyone willing to take a look, from concert-goers and the mail man to people on the train. They are sold at bookstores, thumbed through at zine libraries, exchanged at comic conventions, and mailed off to strangers.
Zines are not a new idea. They have been around under different names (chapbooks, pamphlets, flyers). People with independent ideas have been getting their word out since there were printing presses.
It’s a great feeling to hold copies of your zine in your hand. Go ahead, there is no wrong way.
--Mark Todd & Esther Pearl Watson, Whatcha Mean, What’s a Zine? The Art of Making Zines and Mini-Comics, page 12
Resources
What is a zine? [Website]
How to Make A Zine [PDF]
Zines! [SFPL-created reading list]
SFPL Little Magazines Collection [Website]
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