March 19, 2014
®’f* ¡Portiani» (Observer
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Diversity in Action
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Arts
Women of Color Zines
group fosters self-made
publications
VENEEtl
INIEUAINHENI
pages 8-13
C alendar
C lassifieds
F ood
pages 16
D onovan M. S mith /T he P ortland O bserver
Tonya L. Jones is encouraging diversity of thought in Portland’s literary scene with
Women of Color Zines, a group she formed to encourage the creation of self-made
publications by local minority women. Jones says she was compelled to create the
organization after attending the world’s biggest zine symposium in Portland some years
back and noticing a lack of diversity.
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page 14
D onovan M. S mith
T he P ortland O bserver
by
Art comes in all forms; the kinks that shapes a fro
or a single lock of hair, the rain that reflects upon
Portland streets, and sometimes it comes by way of
a group of multi-racial women making their own
mini-books in an artform called zines.
Right here in Portland, minority women in the
community are fielding their creativity as part of a
small group called Women of Color Zines. The
Portland Observer sat down with the founder, Tonya
L. Jones, to discuss what exactly “zining” is, and
why she thought it important to have a culturally-
specific organization around this ever-popular craft.
“Our focus is on women of color in Portland,”
Jones says, “so we talk about our experience as
women of color in Portland.”
Pointing to the neighborhood surrounding a hip
coffee shop where we met for an interview at North
Killingsworth Street and Albina Avenue as a point
of possible inspiration, she described how female
members of her group are tackling issues like
gentrification, art and beauty, and housing.
Zines are self-made booklets. The craft is an
artistic free for all, usually comprised of literary
expressions in which the creator is free to add
pictures, poems, stories, scribbles, and thoughts in
all forms.
Jones, 40, jokingly refers to herself as an
“oldhead” when it comes to the craft, but nonethe
less has become infatuated with it since her intro
duction to it some years back. So much so that in
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