Crafting Community

Presenter

Abigail Jo Brooks

Campus

UMass Amherst

Sponsor

Deborah Keisch, Department of Civic Engagement & Service-Learning, UMass Amherst

Schedule

Session 5, 3:30 PM - 4:15 PM [Schedule by Time][Poster Grid for Time/Location]

Location

Poster Board C7, Poster Showcase Room (163), Row 1 (C1-C10) [Poster Location Map]

Abstract

The pervasive form of capitalism under which we are currently suffering, neoliberalism, has effectively rendered us complacent consumers, stripped of any agency to act on our own lives. The ever-expanding tendrils of neoliberalism’s influence permeate our minds so deeply that we assume there is no alternative, or that visions of a better world are dangerously naive pipe dreams. My project argues that prefigurative politics will become the road and zines one of the escape vehicles that will drive us into a post-capitalist future. Due to their collaborative, hand-made, feminized constructions, zines have radical transformative potential and a unique ability to chip away at capitalism, vehemently fighting back while simultaneously building anew.

Along with the Mutual Aid Project, I created a zine series to practice the social relations we want to see in the future. In this presentation, I will reveal how our zine series resisted dominant capitalist rhetoric and established an arena for other like-minded people to connect and grow together. Then I’ll demonstrate that through doodles, collages, and comics we were able to illustrate that resistance movements are beautiful and should inspire joy. And finally, I’ll convey how it allowed us to move from the abstract and theoretical to the concrete and tangible. 

Keywords

Prefigurative Politics, Zines, Grassroots Resistance, Post-Capitalist, Neoliberalism

Research Area

Art and Aesthetics

SIMILAR ABSTRACTS (BY KEYWORD)