262: A Home for Zines: The Toronto Zine Library & Archive
- Diana Varma
- Jun 27
- 2 min read
A home for zines!
From makers near and far, with small and large publications, you’ll hear about the exciting medium of zines where anything can happen at the intersection of art and independent publishing. This is the 4th and final episode in the series, featuring the Toronto Zine Library.
The Toronto Zine Library & Archive (TZL) is a physical library space run by a collective of zine readers, zine makers and librarians who strive to make zines accessible for the Toronto community. They believe that zines are an important medium of communication, and that they should be cherished, protected, and promoted. Through conducting workshops at their library and abroad and hosting events that promote zines as a method of open communication and free expression, as well as the library space itself, they aim to make this belief a reality.
In this conversation, you’ll hear from Toronto Zine Library volunteers, Silvia and Miles. You’ll hear how the library got started and its goals as a volunteer-run space. You’ll also hear how Sylvia and Miles define ‘zines’ and why zines can be both a stepping stone, as well as an independently-published art form in their own right.
Let’s listen in… Take it away, Miles!
About Our Guests:
Sylvia Nowak is a multidisciplinary artist and scholar based in Toronto, working primarily in documentary-based media. Her research and practice center around archives, media criticism, and radical histories of resistance. As a maker, she enjoys working in experimental forms that rely on collage, found-footage, and the act of recycling/upcycling materials, but also enjoys documenting moments in life. Sylvia is a volunteer with the Toronto Zine Library, and an active zinester - now with her own zine distro, Radish Zines. You can also often find her behind the counter at Bay Street Video. Physical Media Forever. <3
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Music:
A Kwela Fella - John Bartmann licensed under a CC0 1.0 Universal License
Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle
