Zine Club Chicago is thrilled to present our programming for South Side Zine Fest + Carnival 2026!

Thank you to zinemaker Lucinda J. Williams (Bookshelf Voyeur) for her generous sponsorship of all our programming this year. Shoutout to the wonderful folks at Tangible Books, as well, for hosting our workshop and panel discussion. We appreciate all of the amazing artists who will be presenting programming – go visit their tables at the fest, too!

All programming takes place on Saturday, August 15 in Bridgeport, Chicago.

Throughout the day, Main Area of the Richard J. Daley branch of the Chicago Public Library
Typewriter Poetry with the Mysterious Liz Baudler

Local poet and raconteur Liz Baudler and their clacky companion Gertrude will be creating poems on the spot inspired by your prompts! Find their table in the Main Area of the library.

Liz Baudler typewritered poems on command for a year and half at Chicago’s wndr museum and in that time learned to crave richness of sudden inspiration. They are not cool enough for a manual typewriter, and appreciates getting to fix their mistakes, so electric it is, baby! Prefers cat poems to dog poems.

12 p.m., Tangible Books
The Process is the Point: A Neuro-Friendly Zine Workshop
Co-facilitated by Keidra Chaney and Miriam Bhimani

Zines don’t have to be polished and perfect or even linear. They can be educational, experimental, personal — anything you want them to be! That’s part of what makes them such a great way to explore topics like disability, mental health, neurodivergence (ADHD/Autism/PTSD), or just explaining how our brains work.

Keidra Chaney (Wild Ramp Publishing) and Miriam Bhimani (The FOIA Bakery) have a conversation about the creative processes behind their disability-focused zines. Keidra talks about how getting diagnosed with ADHD in adulthood informed her zine making and Miriam talks about the process of creating advocacy zine Be The Goose.

We’ll share our own zines and those from other zinesters we admire and we’ll invite people to think about their own process of making. We’ll end with an optional, low-pressure zine-making activity. Come make something, doodle, collage, or just hang out.

Miriam Bhimani (@foiabakery) asks a lot of questions. She listens to stories, reads books, and goes for walks when it becomes overwhelming. Making meaning and making art go hand in hand but Miriam also files Freedom of Information Act requests to help her understand the world in which she lives.

Miriam takes whimsy very seriously.

Miriam has taught in Detroit Public Schools, Chicago Public Schools and New York Public Schools. She currently works with schools and libraries in her day to day. 

Keidra Chaney runs Wild Ramp Publishing, a Chicago-based micro-press dedicated to zines and chapbooks about fandom, pop culture, disability, and identity. It serves as a home for projects that uplift marginalized voices and celebrate fan communities. Wild Ramp reinvests its sales into microgrants that support zinesters and DIY creators in Chicago and beyond.

1:30 p.m., Tangible Books
More Than a Youth Culture: Building a Sustainable Life in DIY
Moderated by Liz Mason
Panelists: Andrea Pearson, Jackie Wolk, Kurt

Zine-making and distribution is immensely rewarding, but balancing it with the responsibilities we encounter in our lives presents challenges in staying inspired over the long haul. Liz Mason talks with publishers Andrea Pearson (No Pants Revolution, Aquatic Panda Distro, Jackie Wolk (Language Is An Exchange), and Kurt (Room Tone) about building a sustainable experience in DIY publishing and distribution.

Liz Mason has been self-publishing zines since the 1990s with titles like Caboose and Cul-de-sac, co-runs Sugar Hijinx Perzine Distro, co-produces the podcast Rough Draft with Keidra and Liz, and DJs at CHIRP Radio. She left managing Chicago’s zine staple Quimby’s Bookstore to pursue a Masters degree at Chicago State University in Information Science with a specialization in Archives and Records Management.

Jackie Wolk is a garden-variety neurotic, frugalista, aging hipster, and navel-gazer. Quick to repudiate her East Coast upbringing, she has been waking up in the great city of Chicago to draw and write for over 35 years. She offers her mini comics as an affordable way to access little works of art and to connect in both linear and random ways.

Andrea Pearson runs Aquatic Panda Distro, a small press comic and art zine distributor started by Chicago cartoonist Andrea Pearson in 2023. Aquatic Panda’s mission is to highlight artists of color as well as bring artists of all kinds together through comic and art anthologies and meetups. We sell comics and zines on a range of topics and have a little something for everyone.

Kurt has been publishing Room Tone since 2024 but started doing zines in the ‘90s when his dad helped him use the photocopier at his work. Since 2005 he’s written reviews, interviewed folks, written articles, and created podcasts for Razorcake, a non-profit punk zine dedicated to DIY punk and independent culture.

3 p.m., around the fountain (outdoors) next to the Richard J. Daley branch of the Chicago Public Library
Running With Scissors Relay Races

Team up with a zine pal (or make a new one!) and horrify concerned adults everywhere by tag-team racing with our giant pair of scissors! (Just kidding, our oversized scissors are safe to trot.)

3:30 p.m., around the fountain (outdoors) next to the Richard J. Daley branch of the Chicago Public Library
Zinester Qigong
Led by Heather Andhercats Anacker

Protean artist and yogini Heather Andhercats Anacker will lead us in a sequence of gentle movements inspired by zine culture to close out our fest on an uplifting note. No previous qigong experience necessary!

Heather Andhercats Anacker is a zinester, artist, and sewing instructor. She has been making and selling zines for the past decade. Topics covered vary wildly, but usually have a strong DIY ethos. She has the accolade of being on the Antiquated Future zine bestseller list in 2024 and 2025, and is honored to have her zines in awesome independent bookstores across the country. Heather currently lives in Kansas City with her par’Mach’kai, two cats, and a lot of plants. She used to live in Chicago, and misses it dearly.

South Side Zine Fest + Carnival 2026 will be held at 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, August 15, 2026 at the Richard J. Daley branch of the Chicago Public Library, 3400 S. Halsted St. in Bridgeport. Free! All ages!