Every year I neglect to get my holiday shopping done early. Before I knew it, I was on the verge of collapse at the Bryant Park Holiday Market, waiting in a sea of tourists for overpriced scarves and day-old apple cider donuts. This is a Christmas tradition.
But last weekend, I found a cure for my gift-related procrastination at Brooklyn’s cavernous Pioneer Works: Press Game Expo, a two-day gathering for independent publishers. Now in its fifth year, the event brings a wealth of remedies to the mind-numbing business holiday season in the form of zines, books and stickers — thoughts, ideas and ideas you can touch and hold. desire.
“‘Press Play’ is more than just a brilliant play on words,” commented Chance Lockard of Passenger Pigeon Press. “They’re things that really go hand in hand. It’s cool to see so many well-dressed people coming to such a cool event.” (Lockard, for his part, wore a smart knit hat with earflaps to cover up the book fair crowded hustle and bustle).
Publishers named their magazines and magazines after extinct species to provide a compass. Martha’s Quarterly Edition, a tribute to the last known passenger pigeon. The medium, founded by Tammy Nguyen, is dedicated to “spreading ideas through unconventional routes that are more tangible and disconnected from technology,” explained project manager Holly Greene.
Press Play itself is a physical showcase of the unconventional paths forged by a global network of publishers, artists, writers, labels and editors, with free admission and several artist-led workshops inviting visitors Get involved. Veteran media and participating organizations (Nightboat, Secret Riso Club, and Wendy’s Subway, to name a few) tend to frequent events like the New York Art Book Fair and the East Village Zine Fair, creating a warm sense of togetherness. When I visited during the last hours of the show on Sunday, December 8th, new connections and collaborations were already beginning to unfold.
“That’s the magic of small press conferences like this,” said Christina Lee, an illustrator, cartoonist and risotto artist whose booth Lockard and Green recommended.
“It’s a really good community, but I think everyone is very alone right now. Sharing your work and selling it to make a living is one component, but there’s also a component of seeing your friends and making new ones, Like Kyle here,” Lee said, pointing to illustrator and comics artist Kyle Canyon, who was sitting in a chair. Same table. “I literally just met Kyle.”
Canyon also collaborated with Risograph and shared a common approach with Lee, which was a hallmark of the show’s thoughtful booth planning. Serendipity was a common theme throughout the exhibitors, a sentiment echoed by Esmé Naumes-Givens, who worked with Let me! Magazine’s Ann Lukyanova and David Gray.
“My mom’s name is Ann and my dad’s name is David, so it was like kismet,” Names-Givens said. The artist’s mission was to create a monthly zine leading up to his 30th birthday in April, “kind of demarcating a decade of my life.” What started as a way to raise money to attend a friend’s wedding quickly grew into A beautiful collection of psychedelic magazines, all hand-bound with copper or wax wire.
“I was like, ‘What if I make a magazine every month when I’m 29, and I end up with 12?'” For the 30-year-old, who plans to shave his head and keep writing, that’s not the same thing. The exhibition’s purpose is in keeping with the spirit, spanning autobiographical fiction, visual art and poetry.
“Ten per cent of visitors to the booth have a publishing connection to something we have,” explained Charlotte Anderson of Ellipsis Rare Books, whose exhibits include John Berger The first edition of John Berger’s 1972 essay collection and a mainstay in Art History 101. way of seeing.
“I was reading a book this morning when the weather was quieter, and it was an obscure collection of slipstream short stories from the ’90s. I had to look for this book to read it,” Ellipsis founder Andrew Lenoir ( Andrew Lenoir said. “So I’m sitting here reading it, and a woman comes up and says, ‘You know, my husband published this.'” I don’t believe her for a second. What are the chances that I am reading this letter and she happens to be walking by? “
Amid all these luck and signs from the universe of small-media power, perhaps the lesson of the carrier pigeon prevails: From Risso notecards to handwritten magazines, nothing compares to the weight of a piece of paper in your hand.
