Microburst zine comes full circle

The zine that started as a conversation over beers in College Hill, Topeka in the fall of 2014 is now coming round to a temporary stopping point at another plein air venue in the fall of 2016.

Microburst, the brainchild of Leah Sewell, Ashley Laird, Dave Lowenstein, Justin Marable, Davis Hammet, Rich Kobs and lots of other B.A. artists and writers, has made its debut in Lawrence and Wichita. Now it will be distributed finally in Topeka at the NOTO Arts Space, an atypical venue that features community projects, political and grassroots art and protest signage along with our trusty Microburst zine box Friday October 7, 2016, 5:30 – 8 p.m.

microburst event

Our adventures in zine-making started with recruitment, grant writing, grant winning (thank you, Rocket Grants, et. al. for the project-altering boost!) and then some huddles wherein we:

  • brainstormed,
  • wrote,
  • made art,
  • urged each other into making more art and writing,
  • recruited more people,
  • got our boots muddy at protests, passing out flyers,
  • made size 180 type font errors that couldn’t be revised,
sam's policies

Oops, we meant August. Not February.

  • spent hours glued to computer screens doing website building, social media stuff and layout & design
  • spent hours gluing hand-made covers to interiors

covers printed

gluing cover
zine assembly

  • listened to Woodie Guthrie and Pete Seeger while doing so, totally cliche, yeah, we know.

When the zine was finally put together, we were all smiles:

done making zines

No, for real, we were all smiles:

first reader

davis

team

Not everyone was able to make it to assembly day. That’s why not all of us seem totally happy. But we were. It was a big accomplishment.

What’s next for Microburst? Dave is gearing up to apply for some more funds to take this thing further into the state, and to get more and more people involved in creating further “issues” of the zine. There’s still a lot more work to do. If you want to be involved, email Dave Loewenstein right now. Don’t hesitate. Just do it.

Black-and-white copies will be making their way into some surprising and not-so-surprising places you may or may not frequent in Northeast Kansas and elsewhere.

Stay up-to-date at our website, as soon as we get a fire under us to update it:

Microburst Kansas

Thanks everyone for the huge support and interest. Ciao for now.

-Leah

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