joyful noise – Andro & Eve

Get Involved and Get Creative with Joyful Noise Zine!

10th August 202111th August 2021 by androandeve

Three felt portraits in bright colours show a mix of people with different skin tones. The portraits are placed on a white table.

Our new zine (yet to be created, submission wanted!) is all about JOY! The Zine will be in collaboration with artist Seleena Laverne Daye, featuring creative works from LGBTQ+ folk from across the North of England. Joyful Noise will be published in Autumn 2021.

We want to celebrate and share Northern Queer joy in all its glory. So, to help you get creative and to spark some joy, we’ve thought of three fun ways you can get involved

1. Creative Writing Workshop!

We are incredibly excited to announce that we will be hosting two creative writing workshops in September! The workshops will be led by poet and writer Ella Otomewo.

In the informal and relaxed sessions Ella will be sharing different writing exercises to help you find your voice and tell your story. Exploring both poetry and prose, the workshop is about cultivating joy and getting creative through words, alongside fellow LGBTQ+ folk.

The first workshop will be for older LGBTQ+ folk and will be held on Wednesday 8th September at 1.30pm at Theatre Deli. The second workshop will be open to all and will be held online, via Zoom on Wednesday 15^th September at 7.00pm.

Tickets are free thanks to funding from the National Lottery Communities Fund. Find out more information and book here.

2. Create a Felt Portrait.

As part of our Joyful Noise Zine project, artist Seleena Laverne Daye, delivered an online Felt Faces textiles workshop in July. Seleena created cute and fun craft packs, with all the materials to help you create your own felt portrait.

In case you missed out, we’re providing these FREE craft packs along with written instructions. So you can make your own felt portrait of yourself or someone you know and share in the queer joy!

A bundle of craft materials including felt and threads is placed on a turquoise background.

Each pack includes:

– Coloured felt including skin tones
– Threads
– Needle
– PDF worksheet with instructions
– Face templates for cutting around.

Head to our shop to grab your pack!

Once you have made your felt face, please take a picture and share it with us online or as a Zine submission!

3. Submit to our Zine project!

Already have a creative idea that is centred around joy? Then submit it! Words, artwork, feelings, lists, illustrations, recipes, collages, comics, letters and more.

If you want to share a picture of something you’ve created in one of Seleena’s workshops this July, you are very welcome to submit that.

Submissions: Black and white, 1-2 sides of A5, word count no more than 1000 words. As part of your submission we will ask for the first part of your postcode.

Submission deadline: Midday 24 September

To submit: complete this Google Form here.

Have fun and get creative! We can’t wait to see your submissions!

Get to Know Seleena Laverne Daye

4th August 20214th August 2021 by androandeve

A Black woman with mid length hair stands in front a painted pink brick wall. She is wearing a turquoise tee with black dungarees and pink cardigan accessorised with bright yellow beaded necklace. She has on glasses and is smiling with an open smile at the camera

Our new zine, JOYFUL NOISE, is being designed and curated by experienced zine artist, Seleena Laverne Daye. This July some of you may have met her through our zine making workshops. But many of you won’t have. So we thought we’d do a proper introduction, so you can find out more about her practice and what brings her joy!

Seleena Laverne Daye is a self-taught textile artist, workshop facilitator, retail worker and zine maker who creates bright and playful works using traditional sewing techniques. Her work is centred around race, class, gender and sexuality.

A diagram of how to make a mini zine is drawn in a cartoon style. It shows the 8 steps to make this from one piece of A4 paper. — *_{How to make a 1 page zine – Seleena Laverne Daye}*

She makes zines about the things she loves and her identity, such as Without You I’m Nothing, Happy Alone and the Brown Girl zine series. She also co-hosts Poor Lass, a podcast sharing working class stories and aims to make art, crafts and creativity as accessible as possible.

How long have you been making zines? What is it that you like about them?
I’ve been making zines around 21 years now. I really love the DIY aspect of them and they’re fun to make. There’s something about cutting things out and sticking them down that sparks joy! also really like that a zine can be about anything and everything, and each one is completely different. And that you get to hear from marginalised groups in zines, sharing their story in their own words.

A white cover of an A5 zine. Printed in black ink are two fists that have the words 'Brown Girls' written across each finger. The title Brown girls is is bold lettering above and below the fist illustration in slanted typeface.

Can you tell us about previous zines you’ve worked on or created?
Most of my zines are about race, class and identity, oh and fandom; I love making zines about the things I love. I’ve made a couple of long running zines with friends, One was called Sugar Paper which was a crafty how to zine and another called Poor Lass which was all about working class stories. I’ve also made zines for and with organisations and groups with subject matters ranging from safety for sex workers to community activists.

A felt portrait of Angela Davis. She is wearing a red polo neck and has a net afro hairstyle.

You make things with felt too, how did you get into craft?
I’ve been crafting since I was very small. Part of it is growing up with not much money, so having a DIY approach to most things in life has been passed on from my mum, and I just really enjoying making things. My mum taught me to sew when I was little and her dad, my grandad also made a lot of things. I did GCSE textiles at school but beyond that have had no formal training, more just a hobby that developed over time.

What’s it like being based in Manchester? Do you feel connected to other artists or creatives?

I really love living in a city, I think it’s influenced me a lot in what I make. My mum grew up in a village in South Yorkshire, so a lot of my family visits were there, but I think I was made for city life. I realise how lucky I am to have access to free art spaces and meet other creatives, which happens everywhere, but more so in a big city. And I’ve met a few artists in Manchester whose work inspires me and who I’ve collaborated with.

What other zines do you love?
One of my all time favourite zines is Shotgun Seamstress by Osa Atoe, which is a zine about Black Punks, with reviews, interviews and more. I also love zines by Holly Casio. I am biased as she is one of my best friends and the person who was instrumental in me getting into zines as much as I did, She makes zines and comics about fandom and sexuality and life.

What do you hope to achieve with Joyful Noise?
To spread some Joy!!! The past 18 months have not exactly been filled with joy and I think we all need to allow ourselves space and time to experience joy. And as with most things I create, I hope to encourage people who aren’t always able to take up space, to TAKE UP SPACE!

A cover from a zine by Seleena Laverne Daye. It is yellow and has the words 'Happy Alone' painted in blue writing with a heart and two 'x' in the middle

What do you do to cultivate joy?
Dance! I love dancing, it always makes me feel good. Create something, chat rubbish with friends and eat crisps. They’re the main ways I cultivate joy.

Finally, have you got any advice for someone wanting to make a zine?
Just do it! I know that’s easy to say, but don’t overthink it. Don’t feel like you aren’t ‘artistic’ enough or whatever. If you have something to say or share just note it down, put it in a zine. You don’t have to show anyone when it’s done. There’s no right or wrong way to make a zine.

Thanks to Seleena for being interviewed. We hope you feel inspired to have a go, either to make your own zine, or submit something for JOYFUL NOISE.

Find out more about submitting creative work on the theme to our new zine by clicking here. Deadline for submissions is 24 September!

Joyful Noise, Submissions Wanted!

24th August 202130th July 2021 by androandeve

We’re mega excited to announce that submissions are now open for Joyful Noise, our new zine in collaboration with artist Seleena Laverne Daye!

This zine has been made possible through funding from the National Lottery Community Fund. Our community has helped choose the theme for this zine, which is joy! Joyful Noise will be published in the Autumn.

As part of this project we’ve loved hosting zine making workshops this July with lots of different people and sharing in some queer joy. We’ve also got some creative writing workshops coming up this September, to help you get inspired. Read on to find out what we’re looking for for JOYFUL NOISE!

A brown skinned hand draws something on a tiny zine made from blue and pink paper. Craft equipment ad materials are on the table.

JOYFUL NOISE is a zine that celebrates Queer Joy in all its glory. From folk in the North of England.

The past 18 months has been hard on many of us, especially in the LGBTQ+ community, and it’s important to remind ourselves that it’s vital to rest and seek pleasure, to add joy to our narrative, to take up space and be joyful whilst we’re doing it.

We’re making a zine full of JOY. We want your joy. What makes you feel good? What do you do to feel joy? How do you rest and reset? How do you use joy as a form of resistance?

We want submissions for the JOYFUL NOISE zine. Words, artwork, feelings, lists, illustrations, recipes, collages, comics, letters and more.

If you want to share a picture of something you’ve created in one of Seleena’s workshops this July, you are very welcome to submit that.

Submissions:

Black and white, 1-2 sides of A5.
If you are submitting images, JPEGSs and PNGs are both fine.
There is a word limit of 1000 words for text-based work, please submit as a word document .
Please feel free to submit a scanned page of work / collages.

As part of your submission we will ask for the first part of your postcode.

Submission deadline: Midday 24 September

Want to submit? Complete this Google Form here.

If you have any questions drop us a line at hello@androandeve.com.

Get Involved and Get Creative with Joyful Noise Zine!

1. Creative Writing Workshop!

2. Create a Felt Portrait.

3. Submit to our Zine project!

Get to Know Seleena Laverne Daye

Joyful Noise, Submissions Wanted!

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