While I am busy working on my upcoming book, India Street Lettering: A Journey through Typographic Craft & Culture, and making a noise about its crowdfunding campaign, I don’t want to forget about zines, especially not during International Zine Month. Our big stretch goal for the campaign is a brand new zine that collects lettering from Indian cemeteries. I love cemeteries, always have. And if we can raise about $1600 more, I’ll get to work on something I’ve had my eyes set on for quite some time. So if you can, please support the campaign, and share it with friends!
It has been a busy year and a half, and I realised only recently that I didn’t even announce the second batch of lettering zines — focused on cinema signs from Hyderabad, Lucknow and Kolkata — on this blog. In case you missed this news elsewhere, you can read about the story of these zines in my newsletter. Despite that, all six zines have made their way to new stores and libraries recently, and I’m excited that you can find them at events in July and August.
Zine Mela: South Asian journeys in DIY Cultures
While I won’t be in London this month, my zines will be. Go catch them at Zine Mela: South Asian journeys in DIY Cultures, a fair and reading room curated by artist, writer, curator and activist, Hamja Ahsan. Ahsan has been making and collecting zines for three decades, and I am envious of the collection he must have amassed. The fair, which is also hosting panel talks about zine cultures, education and liberation, is on July 26. The reading room runs between July 24 – August 14.
Paper & Play
Last month, Pulp Society’s annual summer show, Paper and Play, kicked off. The India Street Lettering zines are on display there like they were last year, along with dozens of works by other independent publishers. The show is on till August 20 and if you’re in Delhi, I urge you to visit. You can peruse all the publications, games, etc. and pick up copies for yourself. Read about last year’s exhibition in the New Indian Express.
Mehrab Bookshop and Sanatkada
Along with The Bookshop Inc (Delhi) and Champaca Bookstore (Bengaluru), my zines are now available at two more physical stores — Lucknow’s Sanatkada and Kochi’s Mehrab Bookshop. I was in Kochi only a few weeks before Mehrab opened, and I can’t wait to be back in the city and visit. Stocking of the zines there was made possible by Blaft Publications, who also tabled them at various fests in the US recently. In fact, the Blaft e-shop is the best place to pick up the zines if you need them shipped outside India.
Kannadi Cupboard
Every time I see what’s cooking at Kannadi Cupboard, I want to be in Chennai. Kannadi Cupboard is an “everyday gallery” that houses a zine library, where the India Street Lettering dispatches are also held. It makes me very happy to see the zines in a library, and if you’re a Chennai-based lover of zine-making, do participate in the gallery’s fortnightly zine-making club, One Side Paper.