Zine Assignment in the Composition Classroom

This semester, I am teaching Kathleen Hanna’s Rebel Girl and Carrie Brownstein’s Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl. Since I am teaching two memoirs by musicians who came of age and still work within the punk and indie scene, I wanted students to make zines for one of their projects. I have always thought about having students make zines in class; however, I have never had the opportunity to assign the project in a course. Below, you will see my assignment prompt. It consists of two parts: the zine itself and an essay describing why the individual chose to construct the zine the way they did. They can make whatever type of zine they want, from an 8-page mini-zine to a larger 24 page zine.

Seen your pictures in the ‘zines
And you look real good
Pale blank faces-black and white keen
London boys-cigarette lean –The Go-Go’s “London Boys”

Both Kathleen Hanna and Carrie Brownstein write about the role that zines played in the Riot Grrrl movement and how zines served as a way to communicate ideas in both local communities and across other geographical spaces. Zines have been around for decades. In fact, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s first Superman story, “The Reign of the Superman,” appeared in Science Fiction: The Advance Guard of Future Civilization, a fanzine they created…