A virtual visit to the New York Queer Zine Fair

The New York Queer Zine Fair, traditionally held at Bureau of General Services Queer Division bookstore and gallery or the Brooklyn Public Library, has moved to a digital platform this year, offering Zoom workshops, a digital gallery, and a directory.

This week I was lucky enough to have a digital sit-down with two of my favorite New York City queer artists and organizers, Paul Moreno and Kel Karpinski. These two hilarious and playful people, along with Charlie Welch who helped start the New York Queer Zine Fair, are among my personal heroes in the NYC independent queer artist scene. Traditionally held at Bureau of General Services Queer Division bookstore and gallery or the Brooklyn Public Library, the event has moved to a digital platform this year, offering Zoom workshops, a digital gallery, and a directory. A while back I talked to Charlie about the gallery show and the a bit about the birth of this event. With Paul and Kel I get to take a deep dive into how the fair has changed in the pandemic and how they are doing diversity and inclusion work within the event, even as a digital space. 

Thank you for taking the time to talk with Queer Forty. Start by telling us a little about yourselves and your personal artistic practice in relationship to your queer identity.

PM: I draw dicks…

KK: I collage pictures of dicks, sometimes attached to sailors.

PM: HA! 

KK: Seriously, my zine work springs from my academic work and research which is about masculinity, performance and desire. Zines are a way to share everything that doesn’t fit in my academic work, the stuff that sort of spills out of the margins… it is also a way for me to work through my own desires. 

PM: Really, I just draw dicks. Just kidding. I don’t really think of queerness as something I am injecting into my artwork. It just sort of seeps out of me and into my paintings and drawings. It is not conscious. But I realize it is there. Like, when I do a dick drawing, I am actually thinking, can I draw my friend’s big dick and end up with a drawing that is not about the big dick? It is like Chekov… I want to introduce the gun in the first act, but I never want it to go off. 

Well, the gun has to go off by the third act! HA! So, where did the NYQZF come from? What’s its genesis? Who comes? Who vends?

PM: NYQZF happened as an act of caprice by Charlie Welch (Lobo Del Mar Gallery) and myself. We had been making a zine called KNOWSGAY and had an exhibition at Bureau of General Services-Queer Division. We were asked to do programming, so we whipped together a little one-night zine fair. That was in 2015. And the rest is history.

I remember! I came and bought zines I teach in my class! What about you, Kel?

KK: I was an exhibitor for the first time in 2018. Paul and Charlie had both been collecting my zines. They were both very sweet and took me under my wing and made me feel safe and welcomed. After that fair, I went to mass with Paul one day, and he told me that Charlie was leaving New York, and Paul was looking for a new space for the fair. I had suggested Brooklyn Public Library because I had connections from when I had worked there. We thought it would be nice to bring the fair to Brooklyn and potentially a new audience. 

PM: After BPL graciously agreed to host the fair free of charge, I realized that I needed to have Kel by my side to keep the fair thriving, now that Charlie had moved on to other projects. As far as vendors, last year we had about 50 vendors but over 100 applicants.  Plenty of them are from New York but some came from France and Mexico and other locales across America. 

KK: In terms of who comes to the fair… for sure the gays show up but also, especially having moved to BPL, a broader range of Brooklyn folks also discovered the fair. It was our most well attended fair to date.

That’s great! But, how has the pandemic changed the fair and what are you learning that you can take back into the physical world?

KK: What physical world?

PM: I have learned that zoom can be used for more than video sex. 

KK: The fair this year has morphed into an online directory. While we wish we could be in person, the benefit of being completely online is that we have a wider range of vendors able to participate this year. Not just folks who were able to get to New York the day of the fair.

PM: We also hosted an online panel discussion with Camilo Godoy, Brandon Dean and Golden Collier, on the topic of zines right now. And we have a couple other events in the works.

KK: We have learned that we really like having an in-person zine fair. It is nice to connect with zine makers face to face, chat, flirt, etc.

I know BIPOC is a focus for you this year; can you tell us more about that process, the outcomes, and how it has helped the NYQZF?

PM: BIPOC representation has always been very important to us. NYQZF has always wanted to reflect all of queer culture inclusive of race, gender, age, ability, etc. We can never really accomplish this because our participants also have to be folx who make zines who are in New York this one Saturday in October.

KK: We wanted to spotlight and elevate the voices of some queer zinesters of color. We started an ever-growing list on NYQZF.com/zoc where we have been compiling queer zinesters of color. If any of your readers know someone who should be added to the list, please let us know.

PM: When we put together the panel about zines right now we felt it was important that the panelists be all zinsters of color, especially because at this moment in our country being a person of color is an increasing liability, in terms of employment, wealth accumulation, likelihood of contracting Covid-19, being the victim of police brutality… and I am in fact, a person of color, and more than I have felt in a long time, I think being a person of color makes me feel less safe. 

Paul, I know you have chosen not to vend in the past in order to keep tables open for others. To me, the NYQZF is a love letter to independent artists in the queer community. How do you feel curating this event? How does it help you? And Kel, tell me more about your process and investment — these fairs are not easy to put on!

PM: It is true I don’t always vend, that is largely to put the focus on other zine artists’ work, but also, my zine work is very limited, and I really don’t sell my zines very much. They are almost like a vanity project, compiling very personal stories, that I usually only want to share with friends. That said, NYQZF was a child of KNOWSGAY, which was always available, though any money we made from KNOWSGAY was really ultimately put back into the fair. In terms of curating, initially, we let everyone in, but as applications increased, we had to start making choices. 

KK: So, like last year, we basically had two applicants per available space. Selecting who gets in is a difficult calculus. We look at who is being represented.

It would be so easy to make a fair of cis white dudes who make dick mags. But that clearly is not the whole queer story.

Paul Moreno

KK: So, the first step is creating a diverse group of vendors. Then we have to look at the work and some practical questions come up, like does this person even make zines? Really. This comes up. Then how many titles have they made and do they have new work?

PM: Then there is the thing of how many zines do we need that are this type of zine… so, if we have four artists who are all making zines about sad dragons, we have to ask, which is the best sad dragon to have in the fair? I have learned a lot about looking at work critically which has also helped me in a way in my own zine making. Part of why I finish so few zines is that I agonize over proofreading and little design decisions.

KK: It is a labor of love.

I know it is going to be hard to pick, but what are a few not-to-miss selections from the directory this year?

PM: I got the premier zine by Tyler Hampton which is great. I, of course, love Sissy Boy and Anthony Malone. They are very good friends as well. Domain is a great project. Also, Teke Cossina has made stuff I love. Also, everyone should check out the work of OMG, who designed our fabulous logo this year. Also, they should buy a t-shirt on Bonfire with said logo on it.

KK: You must get Plants from Home; I love Vanessa Adams’s work and I am excited for this new collab. I really like Brandon Dean’s stuff. Also, I want to give a shout out to Izzy Boyce-Blanchard who makes Bert and Ernie Are in Love and, who like us, has an affinity for gay rats. 

What events, related or not related, do y’all have planned?

KK: We have a reading planned for late November, date TBD. We are also curating a NYQZF collection for Library of Congress and may have some events related to that project.

PM: We are keeping our fingers crossed that we can have an in person fair next year. I also, as you may know, had a show of my paintings opening in March, which has yet to open. I hope that happens sometime in the new year. 

KK: Paul and I are collaborating on our first zine together. About TV’s first gay rat. 

How can we find out about the first gay rat, get to the fair directory, and follow the NYQZF?

KK: Well, go to NYQZF.com or NYQZF on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, but Facebook is sort of our ignored child right now.