Molly and Royal are offering a kids zine workshop again at the Milwaukee Zine Fest, Saturday, November 9, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. at the Center Street Free Space, 703 Center St. 

The 6th Milwaukee Zine Fest is held at the Polish Falcon Nest, 801 E. Clarke St. 

We are tabling kids’ zines (as well as our own) again this year. Royal’s Writing Studio students at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design are also tabling with zines they designed in class.

This is our fifth zine workshop: we’ve held two at our home, one at the studio of the Pfister artist-in-residence, Stephanie Barenz, and once before at Zine Fest. 

The Fest runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Stop in and see us, have a drink at the bar and food at Tess’ Vegan Cafe, talk zines and share in a vibrant DIY publishing culture. 


Visit the Milwaukee Zine Fest Facebook page for more information. 

Our zine-making workshop at the Pfister was a lot of educational fun. Mr. Zach Wiegman, a teacher at St. Marcus School in Milwaukee, has been designing extra-curricular projects in writing and arts with his partner, Stephanie Barenz, the current Pfister artist-in-residence. 

Molly and I were given the opportunity to inaugurate a new project in zine making with seven St. Marcus students, three of whom typically work with Stephanie on visual art interests while the others tend toward writing projects with Zach.

The zine workshop was a good way to bring those interests together.

From a tap-dacning  rooster who doesn't dance (at least until the sequel) and "Destiny," the story of two super heroes who (or course!) are about to save the world to typed poetry and a stick-figure Superman, these kids had great ideas. 

Thanks Zach and Stephanie: we had a great time spreading the word of and love for zines. 

Here's a slideshow of the students at work: 

News Release:

THE PFISTER® HOTEL’S ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE STEPHANIE BARENZ CREATES MENTORING PROGRAM FOR LOCAL CHILDREN

Milwaukee, Wis., July 30, 2013 – Stephanie Barenz, Artist in Residence at The Pfister® Hotel, which is owned and operated by Marcus Hotels & Resorts, along with her husband Zachary Weigman, has started a mentoring program called “Our Story Arts.” The program seeks to give a group of Milwaukee children a voice through self-expression in the visual arts and creative writing.

Currently participating in the program are seven 5th to 7th graders from St. Marcus Lutheran School in Milwaukee, where Weigmen is a full-time writing teacher. The students visit and attend classes with Barenz and Weigman in the Stephanie Barenz Gallery at The Pfister on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. They are divided into two groups–Junior Artists-in-Residence and Junior Narrators, modeled after The Pfister’s two arts programs. 

“The mission of ‘Our Story Arts’ is to focus on the needs of the individual, to start a junior art community in Milwaukee, and to tell the story of our city’s children through creative self-expression,” said Barenz.

“My husband envisioned the program as another way to encourage his students to express their goals and dreams. Meanwhile, I had already been teaching art a few hours per month at the school, and saw the program as an opportunity to bring a new dynamic and purpose to my residency,” she added.

Over the past couple months, the students have been working on the theme of identity, and are producing work based on this concept. They have begun to develop their voice through creative writing assignments, video interviews, poetry, brush and ink calligraphy, portraiture, and gesture drawing. Some of their artwork is on display in The Pfister’s gallery. In the future, they will be working to develop their own “zines,” collections of their self-published work, with Pfister Narrator, Molly Snyder, and her husband, Royal Bravväxling, who is a writing instructor at MIAD.

For more information on the latest news and updates from Marcus Hotels & Resorts, please visit:http://media.marcushotels.com.

NOLA Love 2, our second in a series of zines which are essentially love letters to the city of New Orleans, is complete. NOLA Love 2 contains images and pöems by Royal and Molly. The pöems are alternating line collaborations written in two New Orleans neighborhoods on Dec. 25 & 26, 2012.