How to Merge Your Creative Passions With Causes You Care About
A newsletter about writing, art and living more creatively
I'm super happy to share a quick Q&A with a super creative, smart, and accomplished person I know! Hope to do more of these in the future.
I first worked with Sarah Mirk when Sarah was an editor at Bitch. Now, you can find Sarah being a general badass as both a writer and artist. I still remember one particular project from 2017 to raise funds for the Ojai fire and every since, Sarah has created lots of zines focused on raising funds or just awareness. I wanted to ask more about merging your creative passion with causes you care about and here's what Sarah had to say:
Can you tell us more about your Year of Zines project?
In 2019, I’m making a zine every day for a year. I decided to take on this challenge because I think I can do it—I have a million ideas and nowhere to put them. Plus, I wanted a reason to draw for at least an hour each day and it’s fun to have something to share with the world. But the other goals for the project are bigger: I want to inspire people to make their own media and to get over their anxiety about writing and drawing. I’ve had several people show me zines they made after seeing mine, which is exactly what I hoped would happen. My zines aren’t perfect by a long shot. The drawings could be better, the text could use some editing, and sometimes I smudge pages even as I’m making them. But I want to show that art and writing can resonate even when it’s simple. This is a practice in getting over my perfectionism and inspiring others to do the same.
You’ve made zines to raise funds for causes. What’s your advice for people who want to do the same?
The zines I’ve made to support causes are inspired 100% by rage. So many days, I read the news and feel hopeless, overwhelmed, and angry. Pouring those feelings into a zine is a good way to process them, then when I share the zine, it helps build community and connection around an issue.
On a more concrete level, zines can be great fundraisers. Last month, I made a zine called “Bail Them Out” explaining how I decided to donate $50 to a fund that pays bail for immigrants in detention. My post about the zine went rather viral and dozens of people have told me they donated because of what I made! That’s amazing. I also offer many of my more political zines as free PDFs to anyone who wants to print them out and use them to raise money for a good cause. I’ve sent the Bail Them Out zine to about 30 people around the country and have been receiving photos of the zine on display in Boston, Wisconsin, California, Texas… everywhere!
My only advice for writing a zine along these lines is to frame the conversation around your personal experience—I was able to donate $50, but not everyone has $50 to spare. I try not to tell people “you should do exactly what I did!” but instead to present an option “If you have money, here’s where I donated. If you don’t have money, you can always share this info with others or find a non-financial way to pitch in.”
Sarah's Zine on getting families out of detention
What are you working on now? Where can we find your zines?
This zine project is just my side-side project! My actual job is working as an editor at comics journalism publication The Nib. My second job is writing an oral history of Guantanamo Bay prison, told through comics. I just finished the first draft of that book. Having these fun zines to work on every day definitely helped keep me sane as I slogged through hours of interview transcripts and super-depressing government reports.
The best place to find my zines is on Instagram, where I’m @sarahmirk. I also snail-mail zines to my Patreon backers every month. And if you’d like a copy of a zine or a PDF, just ask!
Thanks for your time, Sarah!
How do you hope to merge your creative passions with causes you care about?
Hit that reply button.
xoxo,
Your favorite small but feisty writer
Eva
PS If you missed the downloadable wallpapers available so far, click here.
Banner design by Ludi Leiva ✨
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What I'm Reading
Articles:
Must-Read Short Story Collections by People of Color by Dianca London Potts // via Read it Forward
Amy Sherald, Michelle Obama's Portraitist, Readies her New York Debut by Dodie Kazanjian // via Vogue
Books:
Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles by David Ulin (non-fiction) // I got to meet David at the Idyllwild Writers Week and he signed my copy of this musing on Los Angeles, history, walking, and the city as myth
Quote of the Week
"“Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark. That’s where the most important things come from..."
— Rebecca Solnit
