Bitter Pill Press, a small, Corvallis-based DIY zine press run by Oregon State University Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) alumnus and transmasculine, neuroqueer multimedia artist Lee Niemi, recently finished putting together a special queercentric project for Valentine’s Day.
Released on Wednesday, Feb. 15, Bittersweet is a queer romance-themed art and writing zine featuring works by 27 creators – some local, some abroad. The 36-page zine includes poems, short stories, photographs, collages, illustrations, and more. The collection spans a variety of content: special rituals of quietness between lovers; secret, closeted longings; the strange queerness of a sunny transmasc attracted to men; a femme saving herself for a future vampire girlfriend.
One entry, titled “Finally Free”, is a “futuristic self-portrait” where the artist visually depicts their arrival at learning to love themselves as a trans person, and anticipates a point in time where they can truly be themselves.
“I have just recently come to terms with the fact that I am trans, and it has led to some bittersweet thoughts and a roller coaster of emotions,” they write. “While I am still mostly closeted to most people in my life, I have finally made peace by accepting and coming out to myself.”
A PDF version of the zine can be downloaded for free from Bitter Pill Press’ shop; a physical copy can be purchased for $5.
Pride Center Book Display of Black, Queer Writers: In celebration of Black History Month, the Oregon State University Pride Center has a new temporary book display featuring essay anthologies, poetry collections, unconventional memoirs, scholarly critiques, and experimental texts by Black queer writers, educators, and activists. Anyone in the Corvallis community can come into the center during their business hours to browse, read, and check out these selected works.
Some of the books on display include the following:
- M Archive, written by Black queer feminist Alexis Pauline Gumbs, is an experimental “series of poetic artifacts that speculatively documents the persistence of Black life following a worldwide cataclysm.” Conceiving Black bodies and consciousness as “critical sites of archival knowledge” at the end of the world, “M Archive is told from the perspective of a future researcher who uncovers evidence of the conditions of late capitalism, anti-Blackness, and environmental crisis while examining possibilities of being that exceed the human.”
- Don’t Call Us Dead, a collection of poems that “opens with a heartrending sequence that imagines an afterlife for Black men shot by police, a place where suspicion, violence, and grief are forgotten and replaced with the safety, love, and longevity they deserved here on earth.” Authored by award-winning poet and performing artist Danez Smith, whose works often revolve around the intersections of race, class, sexuality, and social justice, many poems are filled with sharp joy, fierce love, and rage and mourning for the “dangers experienced in skin and body and blood” of gay Black men and young Black boys.
- Coffee Will Make You Black, a coming-of-age novel following a Black, dark-skinned girl growing up in Chicago’s South Side during the Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the mid-to-late 1960s. Spanning narrator Jean “Stevie” Stevenson’s life from age 11 to 17, author April Sinclair powerfully depicts personal and political awakenings as Stevie confronts racism, colorism, texturism, and questions about her own sexuality.
- Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde, a self-described “Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet” whose life and creative and scholarly works have profoundly informed current understandings of the intersections between racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, and other forms of oppression. Zami started a new genre which Lorde coined “biomythography”, a combination of biography, myth, and history.
The Pride Center is temporarily housed in Room 112 of the Student Experience Center (SEC), located on 2251 SW Jefferson Way. It is open from 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays.
“That’s Fabulous” Call for Art: AThought Zine, a locally produced feminist zine series intended to serve as a safe, empowering platform for historically marginalized and excluded creators, is currently seeking submissions for Issue Six: That’s Fabulous – the series’ “gayest issue yet.” Set to be released in June 2023 as a celebratory issue for Pride Month, the theme for That’s Fabulous is queer celebration: artwork, poetry, essays, illustrations, etc., by queer artists and writers that celebrate LGBTQIA2S+ communities and/or spark conversations around queer joy, experiences, activisms, and more.
The series is edited and curated by two Corvallis-based artists: Serena Swanson, a femme of color who creates digital, print, and multimedia art, and Jayden Dukes, a photographer and activist whose work revolves around body liberation and how fatness intersects with queerness and sexuality, as well as race, class, age, etc. Dukes and Swanson’s zine has always been focused on the expression of identities, and, given that both are queer creators themselves, has also always been a queer zine.
“Most of the people that we have that submit to have their work in the zine are members of the LGBTQIA2S+ community, but for Issue Six: That’s Fabulous, we wanted to be more intentional about the content and the content’s creator,” said Dukes and Swanson in an email. “We found that a lot of the conversations that we were having as we started that zine were mostly surrounding grief, rage, and generally struggling as young queer individuals with varying identities. For issue six, we wanted to focus on something more positive.”
After the success and popularity of their preceding issue, Full Square, which explored heavy themes of returning and revisiting previous places and ideas, they found as the creators that they wanted to visit some more celebratory projects.
“In our time living in Corvallis, we found that we often surround ourselves with other queer artists that specifically make work about how queerness has affected them,” they said. “Actively building a community that is so openly queer has ultimately been one of the most affirming things for us, and it’s something that we continue to build as more queer folks interact with our zine. Issue six’s call for art is prompted by the phrase ‘That’s Fabulous’ for artists of the LGBTQIA2S+ community to submit work, but we encourage all artwork to be submitted even if it isn’t about queer celebration.”
Much like Bitter Pill Press, AThought is always hoping to find more of this kind of content in Corvallis and beyond.
“As creators of the zine and emerging artists, we also have to remind ourselves that not everything has to be that serious,” they said. “It is important to center play and celebrate even the small wins. The LGBTQIA2S+ community have so much to be angry about, but by publishing this issue of our zine to and for that community, we hope to release something that provides even a small amount of hope, joy, happiness, laughter, and celebration.”
The deadline for submissions is March 6, and must be uploaded to this application form. Creators whose work is accepted will receive a free physical copy of the issue when it’s released in June. Questions and/or requests for assistance can be emailed to athoughtzine@gmail.com.
Emerging Local Zine Series on Rural Queerness: Casper Oliver is a queer, disabled multimedia artist and activist based in Corvallis whose work centers themes of queerness, mental health, living with disabilities, and rural culture.
“All of my creative projects – podcasts, zines, livestreams – are made in order to do two things:
create art that makes people feel less alone, creating the kinds of representation I wanted to see growing up; [and] uplift marginalized creatives, whether we’re similarly marginalized or not,” said Oliver in an email.
Their most recent project, released in January, is Volume 1 of “For Folks Like Us”, a zine series intended to create and share content about the oft-forgotten existence, beauty, and innate courage of rural queerness – i.e., queer folks who make space and life for themselves and each other in rural areas.
“Queerness ain’t a ‘lifestyle choice’, but living a rural life is. And it’s a beautiful one,” said Oliver. “Living in a more rural area also tends to lend itself to a bit more privacy, which queer and otherwise marginalized folks don’t often have the privilege of having. All of these things will be different depending on the region of the world you live in, but as queer folks, community is everything; it’s how we survive. As queer folks, we should fully celebrate breaking outdated traditions, deviating from societal norms, and being our truest selves no matter what the world around us says we should be. When it comes to things like rural living, traditions and community are important, but I’m a firm believer that the added elements of self-exploration, identity-building, and community aid that comes from queer living makes rural living all the more enriching.”
While Corvallis carries some urban characteristics compared to the small Indiana farm town where Oliver grew up, they would still consider it a site of rural queerness – as well as an ostensibly higher level of acceptance of queer folks.
“The amount of pride flags, allyship signs, and openly queer/gender nonconforming folks that one sees out and about is incredibly reassuring and comforting,” he said. “Corvallis is by no means perfect, and there are many changes that are needed to make the town a safer and more welcoming place for all, but it’s definitely safer than many other places across the country.”
Oliver’s biggest goal for the “For Folks Like Us” zine series is to begin showcasing artwork made by queer folks living in rural areas from all across the world. They say they’re very open to having special themes for different zines, and are always open to suggestions or recommendations.
“I want ‘For Folks Like Us’ to be a community project,” he said. “I didn’t start this series for it to be a solo series. There’s far too many queer rural experiences outside of my own, I want for all of us to share our experiences with the world.”
Oliver will be hosting a booth and workshop at the Corvallis Community Center’s GameCon, a two-day event of live gameplay and panels starting tomorrow, Feb. 17. You can support and find more of Oliver’s work here. “For Folks Like Us” Vol. 1 can be downloaded for $5 here; it is published through Thesperience Productions, a group of queer creatives – including Oliver – who make online content and projects amplifying queer voices, stories, and experiences.
By Emilie Ratcliff
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