Once again on the 7th of September NMS students took part at the independent publishing festival “Cakes and Zines”.
Cakes and Zines festival is a celebration of independent publishing, zine culture, art, community, and diversity. This year’s festival took place on Saturday the 7th September on TU Berlin grounds and along many zines featured our students' work. Seventh grader Daniel represented the NMS zine club this time. He had an opportunity to not only share his and other students' work with the wider audience, but also connect with many independent artists, get inspired and trade zines with others.
Visitors of the festival truly enjoyed discovering zines made by NMS students and learning from their unique perspective. Many of them were in awe learning that our school has a zine library and that our students from a very young age were encouraged to share their voice with others in such unique and creative way.
This is what some of NMS students had to say about their zines:
“Nothing is boring if you know how to make zines” - Aarav (11)
“Zine Club - one of the best activities. I just love it so much. So interactive and fun! It never gets boring!” - Kourosh (11)
"I made my zines because kids don't always have a voice, but with zines other people can learn from kids too!" - Ani (9)
“I really like making zines because you can do anything you want you can even call your zine bobby the blobby.”-Samuel (11)
“Zine club is very fun and inclusive.”-Florian (11)
We want to thank Cakes and Zines organizers for having our students' zines and can't wait for more collaborations in the future.
Historically, zines are self-published booklets/books/magazines by marginalized groups whose voices have often been excluded from mainstream publishing opportunities. Zines provide NMS students with a creative and empowering platform to discover and publicize their unique voices. They are regularly on display in our primary "NMS Zine Library" and cover topics of LGBTQIA+, racism, anti-bullying and other themes the students feel compelled to write about. The authors are really proud to see their work displayed in the library and curious readers also have the opportunity to learn from the different perspectives found within their very own school community.
Lex Kartanė