The early view from our table

Another great Expozine weekend is in the books, and as tiring, stressful and hectic as it was, I’m pretty sad it’s over and we’re going to have to wait a whole year for the next opportunity to see so many amazing independent creators and creations.

As a member of the illustrious board, headed by the indefatiguable Louis Rastelli (with big shoutouts to Billy Mavreas, Genevieve Boyer, Pascal-Angelo Fioramore, Michelle Lacombe and Graham Hall) I spent Friday setting up hundreds of tables and chairs while hoping that issue XI of Four Minutes to Midnight would be printed and bound in time by my printers Kata Soho (kids, remember, don’t leave printing to the last minute!). Everything worked out in the end, and I was able to enjoy the opening event at Sala with some good friends and great performances by Sherwin Tija (reading from his collection of Pseudo-Haikus and new zine, “The Little Cancer that could”) and Super Fossil Power. There was a nice turnout, but unfortunately, as was to be expected, a lot of zinesters I was hoping to meet were MIA as they frantically finished their wares.

Our table (sneak peak of issue XI!)

Saturday was a great day for us, as we shared a table with good friend Colin White, up from Ottawa, finding a nice wall-space between the dynamic duo of brilliant and lovely print artists JP King and Kirsten McCrea, and Ralph from Bongo Beat records (replaced by the Quebec Rhino Party on Sunday!). Across the ‘alley’, Articule was set up with some beautiful artist books and catalogues.

It was a very busy day, with thousands of people passing by, and pretty much non-stop action. Exhausted and exhilarated, I took the night easy, hanging out with friends and sharing some much deserved drinks (the rum-spiked horchata was a brilliant idea!).

Colin‘s table

Me freaking out and a sneak peak of the Capitalism Kills Love series behind me

Sunday was a little quieter, or maybe I was just more relaxed after the adrenaline leading up to the event wore off. It was nice to chat a bit more with the crowd and other presenters, amongst them Jennifer Hamilton, Marc Beauchamp, and Danielle St-Amour. I managed to take in a bit of Danielle’s presentation about Palimpsest, who are building an amazing archive of Art zines. During the day we officially sold out of issue 8, an equally sad and proud moment, we’ll miss seeing that penguin.

Unfortunately by 5:30, exhaustion seemed to kick in for many people, and many presenters closed up shop before I had a chance to do a final walk around. It all ended so quickly, and I was disappointed to not have gotten a chance to pick up the many things that caught my interest.

The nice weather we missed outside

After dinner with the Artivistic crew, I popped in for a quick drink at Sparrow, where Coach House and Snare were doing a joint launch, and met the wonderful Melissa Bull, who kindly helped to lug my boxes back home…

All in all, it was a great weekend (better than Christmas for sure!). People seemed really excited about the new issue and print series (more details soon), and we got to meet so many great people and see old (and always very supportive) friends.

Sincere, heart-felt thanks to everyone who stopped to chat, flip through our wares, or bought some work. Your interest and support really keep us going.

Reading through this post, it might seem like there’s a lot of name dropping/linking going on. But in my defense, this is one of the best things about Expozine. Not the name dropping, but the showcase of how much amazing independent cultural production is going on out there. When you put it all under one roof, it’s really quite unbelievable. It’s proof that despite everything that is thrown in its way (a post for another time), this culture, whatever you may want to call it, is not only surviving, but thriving. The spirit of it is palpable at events like these, and it’s clear that the creators here are not driven by dreams of financial gain or fame, but by the desire to simply make and to share, to exchange ideas and sustain a community, built around doing it yourself.

PS. For those that have found this site from meeting us at expozine, please leave a comment and let us know what you thought, and/or join our facebook group. There’s much exciting stuff to come!

PPS. A new and important initiative this year by the ARCmtl board is to build a membership network, check out the information in the programme, and be a part of next year’s anniversary events!

PPPS. For a couple more/better pictures, check on Flickr, I’m sure there’ll be more up soon!