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NEW WEBSITE COMING 29th NOVEMBER

The Food Issue is FINALLY here!

In Issue 6 we push food beyond our plates as we discover artists, chefs and writers doing more than just eating. An essential component for remaining alive and a favourite of pastimes, we explore food as art, enemy, friend and refuge. Forever food.

Featuring: Jamaica Dyer, Neila Czermak, Adriana Monsalve, Reena Makwana, Lemara Lindsay-Prince, Saffa Khan, Gitanjali Iyer, Mahjabeen Miah, Ruby Tandoh, Sana Badri, Sofya Mitchell, Annie Atkins, Zaiba Khan, Filmfront (Chicago), Madam Gandhi, Asiyla Radwan, Pelin Keskin, Hudda Khaireh, Sana Moazzam, Momtaza Mehri, Olivia Twist and Sulafa Hijazi.

Join us for launch at Somerset House Studios. The event is RSVP only so be sure to book a ticket, spaces are limited and all tickets include refreshments and a copy of OOMK 6.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/oomk-6-launch-the-food-issue…

Rabbits Road Press is coming to the end of its six month pilot project and to celebrate the project we'll be playing host to Neighbourhood, an exhibition of some of the work produced in the space including 6 new Neighbourhood themed publications that were commissioned and produced at Rabbits Road press earlier this year. The evening will also play host to Making Art Spaces Work, a panel talk exploring the role of alternative art spaces. Saturday 19th August --- 6.30-10pm --- Rabbits Road Institute, 835 Romford Road, E12 5JY The event is free but spaces are limited, please RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/neighbourhood-making-art-spaces-work-tickets-36314343178 7pm: Making Arts Spaces Work What is the role of alternative art education spaces and how can they contribute to building creative communities? Join us for a series of presentations and a panel discussion exploring the conditions for a successful art education space. Share your own perspectives as the discussion opens up to a public Q&A and help shape Rabbits Road Press as we work towards developing and nurturing a meaningful community art space at Rabbits Road Institute. Susan Mackie and Anne Robinson (See Red Women’s Workshop, 1974-1990) See Red Women’s Workshop was a womens silkscreen printing collective that produced posters, illustrations and calendars, and did service printing for the women’s movement and community groups. The group aimed to promote women’s empowerment and challenge the negative stereotypes of women. Working collectively was central to the ethos of See Red, as were sharing skills and knowledge with other women. The posters produced explored the personal experiences of many women; from housework, childcare and sexuality, to sexism and racism, as well as wider international struggles for change. OOMK (Rabbits Road Press) Rabbits Road Press is a community risograph print studio and publishing press run by OOMK (Sofia Niazi, Rose Nordin and Heiba Lamara). The project is based at Rabbits Road Institute, within Old Manor Park Library. The small-scale publishing press provides printing and book binding services for artists and community groups in Newham and beyond. The project builds on Rabbits Road Institute’s initiative to establish an accessible and diverse community art space to support the development of new skills, knowledge sharing and social exchange for people living in Newham. Harun Morrison (They Are Here) They Are Here is a collaborative practice steered by Helen Walker & Harun Morrison. Often extending their collaboration to include those from all walks of life, They Are Here work across media and types of site particularly civic spaces. Institutions they have developed or presented work include: Rabbits Road Institute, Camden Arts Centre, CCA Glasgow, Furtherfield, Grand Union, Konsthall C (Stockholm), National Theatre Studio, South London Gallery and STUK (Leuven, Belgium). Ben Messih (South London Gallery) Ben Messih is a London-based curator working with communities. Currently managing South London Gallery's Heritage Education Programme, Ben is interested in decolonial approaches to gallery education and the role of institutions as sites for solidarity with local struggles. He has previously held positions at the Serpentine Galleries and the Biennale of Sydney.

Rabbits Road Press is closed over the summer (from June 13th- September). Open Access Tuesday will resume in September, date tbc.

Open Call: Artist Commission

!! DEADLINE EXTENDED: Sunday 21st May !!

Rabbits Road Press are seeking proposals for Risograph printed publications responding to the theme NEIGHBOURHOOD.

There are 3 awards of £200. The publications will be launched at the Rabbits Road Press exhibition on 19th August 2017.

LOTS MORE INFORMATION HERE

Get applying!

INTERNATIONAL GUIDE TO DIY CULTURES

If you’ve been following OOMK this year you might have noticed our travels beyond zone 6.

We've been really keen to build global connections with artists and groups who are interested in DIY practices and/or exploring intersections of publishing and activism to learn more about the opportunities and challenges facing their practices today.

With only a few days till DIY Cultures kicks off, we break down our year-long journey as festival co-curators to collect original work from international zine makers and a guide to finding them on the day!

America

DIY Culture’s inaugural “Twin City” for 2017 is Chicago. The connection was forged as a result of a recent fellowship we undertook in Chicago in conjunction with illustrator and author Leila Abdelrazaq exploring the relationship between self-publishing and activism. Throughout our stay we collected zines from attendees of a zine meet & greet at CHIRPC (Chicago Publishers Resource Center), Quimby's (legendary zine shop) and from artists and groups who were involved in the Self-publishing for Activism panel discussion we hosted at the Logan Center.

@ DIY Cultures check out the display dedicated to zines from Chicago (by Chicagoans!) which are also available for purchase in the Main Space. The four-week “DIY Knowledge” exhibition in the gallery also features the work of Chicago-based Palestinian graphic novelist Leila Abdelrazaq and over 20 publications from Temporary Services catalogue, a Chicago based group that has been printing unique work since 1998.

Malaysia

We first met KL based magazine Odd One Out in London in 2014 when the editor, Hamizah Adenan, was planning the launch of their first issue (festival regulars will remember Odd One Out as they subsequently tabled at DIY Cultures twice in the following years). In between, we successfully visited their HQ in Malaysia and undertook research into self-publishing practices in Kuala Lumpur and other key cities. Our publication, “A Study of Publishing Practices in Malaysia: KL, Penang & Ipoh” documents some of the experiences of Malaysian print-practitioners, designers, and distributors and was launched earlier this year. We ended up collecting such a large library of Malaysian zines that they had to be couriered back to the UK!

@ DIY Cultures visit the “Zines from Malaysia” exhibition on the mezzanine (1st floor) which displays a selection of the zines collected, ranging vastly in topic, style, language and production from political essays, illustration, music to perzines, that together speak to an exciting culture of self-publishing in South East Asia. The exhibition will sit alongside the publication which resulted from the trip, 'Self Publishing Practices in Malaysia: KL, Ipoh and Penang” available to buy from the OOMK stall. Together the range of perspectives and collected materials reveal insights as to what motivates people to self-publish, the community surrounding the practice and some of the key challenges facing artists and writers ranging from the politics of language to the difficulty in sourcing eco-friendly inks.

Tanzania & Uganda

In addition to Chicago and Malaysia, this year we're delighted to be exhibiting work from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Kampala, Uganda. In collaboration with Sarita Lydia Mamseri, founder of Dar es Salaam’s first specialist visual art library, Bookstop Sanaa (BSS) the “DIY Knowledge” exhibition will feature a collection of zines created as part ZineFutures East Africa, a partnership project between BSS Art Library, Tanzania; 32º East Ugandan Arts Trust, Uganda and Institute of International Visual Arts, UK. The project saw a new generation of artists and creatives reflecting on the ideals and realities of over 54 years of Tanzanian and Ugandan independence and producing their own zines in response.

@ DIY Cultures visit the “DIY Knowledge” exhibition to explore the ZineFutures East Africa collection and find out more about Bookstop Sana, open till 2 June.

Come and say hello at the OOMK table where we we’ll be selling limited editions of our Malaysia research publication, The Library Was and a selection of riso printed zines and other OOMK goodies.

DIY Knowledge Exhibition

We’ve co-curated the official DIY Cultures exhibition featuring 9 brilliant artist/groups. The multimedia group exhibition explores DIY Cultures’ ongoing concerns with self-education, news beneath the mainstream and imparting knowledge from margins. The exhibition features short film, comics, infographics, digital art and zine archival collections. DIY Knowledge is now open at Rich Mix Cafe Gallery till 2nd June, the gallery is open daily from 10am-11pm.

Featuring: Leila Abdelrazaq Gemma Anderson Sang Mun Keep It Complex - make it Clear Antiuniversity ZineFutures East Africa Temporary Services Turn Your PHD into a zine (Performed by Nina Power) Other Asias

Archive collection: Liverpool & Hillsborough Solidarity zine collection (1981-2017) (Zines: What’s the Score?/ The End/ Red All Over the Land/ When Saturday Comes/ When Sunday Comes/ Through the Wind and Rain / Boss with help from Kevin Sampson & Sheila Coleman) New Film Commission: Hillsborough & the Zines Directed by Ali Russell & Hamja Ahsan Edited and shot by Ali Russell Information about the Artists & Collectives: Liverpool & Hillsborough Solidarity zine collection (1981-2017) is an ongoing project looking at zines under Thatcher’s Britain. How Zines showed the truth about Hillsborough decades before the MSM and law courts. How Zine helped foster solidarity. Zine humour helped survive the trauma and subverted demonisation of Liverpool city. Zine as working-class Scouse identity. Ali Russell is a filmmaker and activist based in UK of Iranian & Scottish heritage, directed in collaboration with Hamja Ahsan. - Leila is a Chicago-born, Palestinian author and artist. Her debut graphic novel, Baddawi (Just World Books 2015) was shortlisted for the 2015 Palestine Book Awards. Her creative work primarily explores issues related to diaspora, refugees, history, memory, and borders. Leila has been involved in organizing around the Palestinian cause and the city of Chicago since 2011. She is currently a core member of For The People Artist’s Collective. She is also the founder of Bigmouth Press & Comix. - Gemma Anderson studied Fine Art Printmaking at the Royal College of Art and Falmouth University. She has collaborated on a number of innovative art/science projects including the ‘Cornwall Morphology and Drawing Centre’. She completed a practice based PhD in 2015 and is currently a research fellow at the University of Exeter and associate Lecturer in Drawing at Falmouth University. Her new book Drawing as a Way of Knowing in Art and Science will be launched September 2017. http://www.gemma-anderson.co.uk/ - Sang Mun was a former contractor with the US National Security Agency (NSA) for whom domestic surveillance issues hit especially close to home. He gathered SIGINT (Signal Intelligence) for national security defence purposes, but never for surveillance of American citizens. After leaving his contract things changed. As a designer Sang became dedicated to researching ways to “articulate our unfreedom” evolving his thoughts about censorship, surveillance, and a free society. http://www.sang-mun.com/ - Keep It Complex - Make It Clear is a loose group of women artists, designers and art administrators. It formed out of the Britain Is Not An Island campaign during the EU referendum. Our aim is to bring together cultural workers who take a stand against white dick politics, from Brexit to Bannon. In January, Keep It Complex organised an activation weekend and for July we are planning a summer school about political education. Follow us @GBisNoIsland http://makeitclear.eu/ - Bookstop Sanaa Art Library & Creative Learning Space (BSS) is an independently run organisation based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The space was founded in 2013 to activate greater curiosity in the theory and practice of the visual arts. To this effect, BSS regularly programmes reading groups, forums, exhibitions and workshops around a variety of themes with particular emphasis on Africa and the Black Diaspora - Temporary Services is Brett Bloom and Marc Fischer. We started working together in Chicago in 1998 as a larger group. In 2008, we started Half Letter Press, a publishing imprint and online store. We are currently based in Chicago and Auburn (IN). We produce exhibitions, events, projects, and publications. The distinction between art practice and other creative human endeavors is irrelevant to us. - Nina Power is a philosopher and activist associated with Defend the Right to Protest. Author of One Dimensional Woman. Turn Your PHD collective was conceived by Hamja Ahsan in a facebook status. - Other Asias is an open collective, initally based in Lahore, Pakistan, Dhaka, Bangladesh and London, UK. operating somewhere between a production company, art movement and creative think-tank. A full list of critical lexicon neologism can be found here: http://otherasias.webnode.com/toy-box/ For further information & media interviews - email: [email protected] Twitter: @diycultures Exhibition supported by Arts Council England and Tower Hamlets Council.

WOMAD: A Muslim-Friendly Festival?

Fatuma Khaireh and Halima Khanom

As festival season inches closer, you may, like us, find yourself asking ‘are music festivals for me?’

We enjoy live music, we like our colourful mocktails, we enjoy our halal food options and we want to be able to pray. Unfortunately, all of this might not be possible in your typical Glastonbury experience.

Enter WOMAD Festival. The World of Music, Arts and Dance festival takes place annually in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, and has been for over 30 years. Its main aim is to bring together people from all different cultures, through various art forms. Love it.

We attended WOMAD last year and with festival season fast approaching it seems like a good time to reflect on our experience and share some ‘Muslim at the festival’ insights.

Here are 7 reasons why WOMAD is a Muslim-friendly festival experience:

1. Inclusivity

Its global focus means that the atmosphere and energy is inclusive and celebrates people of all backgrounds. We were able to sample music from the beautiful Concha Buika from to Routes Manuva.

2. Family Friendly

We loved that kids were welcome at WOMAD. We were amazing by their awesome festival friendly buggies, decked out in flowers, and incredible colours. It’s never to early too have your first festival experience in our opinion! Baby festival experience!

3. Art experience? Check.

Far from your usual pretentious art experience WOMAD offered some real gems. We loved TRACK by Graeme Miller. Miller invites the festival-goer to take in nature in a completely different way. Coming from fast paced London, we enjoyed being gently pushed around a track, listening to the natural sounds of our environment, watching the light stream through the gaps between the trees. Take it in below.

4. Food, Glorious Food!

For some of us eating out can be a bit of a cultural land mine having to balance the wish to keep it halal and experimenting with different food from other cultures. WOMAD had plenty of vegetarian and halal options from Madras Café to Goan Fish Curry and many more food offerings from around the world. In fact, while were dining at Madras Café, an announcement was made declaring that it had been awarded best food at WOMAD by the Hairy Bikers and got a shout out from BBC radio’s Cerys Matthews.

We are big chai fans, and there was an almost infinite supply of incredible chai, churros and fresh lemonades, which we enjoyed greatly. Hmmm, thinking of chai now.

5. Tents up!

WOMAD probably has the kindest and cleanest festival goers you’ll find. As festival newbies we were helped with daunting task of the putting our tent up by a lovely group folk. We’ve heard horror stories about festival accommodation being surrounded by drunken revelers aimlessly stumbling into your tent (Think Bridget Jones’s Baby).

6. That Spiritual Vibe

For any Muslim festival go-er, we know that prayer still goes on as usual. Now, where to find an ablution facility, and a quiet prayer space? We were grateful for the accessible showers, and the beautiful stretch of green in Malmesbury, that was our temporary prayer mat. Alhamdulillah.

Despite being festival newbies we’re pretty sure WOMAD has the cleanest toilets on offer at any camp site. We’d heard plenty of festival toilet horror stories and were bracing ourselves for some sort of cesspool, but much to our relief the facilities were in fact, totally fine. Even our 2am bathroom run got top marks. Toilet paper, check. Clean seat (a great concern for us ladies) check. Winning.

7. Relaxation

We had infinite chill opportunities at WOMAD. Who said festivals have to wear you out? WOMAD is decked out with its own spa! We didn’t go though, we decided to laugh instead. Now, laughing yoga might sound like the latest hipster craze you want to avoid, but really, we were pleasantly surprised. Originating from the laughing revolution of India, various actions and incorporated with laughter. At first, you feel like you are going crazy. But then, you feel a sense of calm, and fall into a meditative state. The laughter you hear around you is infectious. There’s nothing to laugh at, and yet you can’t help but giggle your stresses away. LOL indeed.

WOMAD 2017 tickets are available now, see you there!

OOMK is going to America! This spring we’re travelling to Chicago to learn more about self-publishing and it’s role within activism as part of an Arts and Social Practice Fellowship hosted by the University of Chicago Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts and supported by the British Council.

We’ll be teaming up with Leila Abdul Razzaq, Chicago based Palestinian artist and author, to host some events and connect with other artists, publishers and projects.

On 9th April Leila and Sheika Lugtu, Chicago-based cartoonist and researcher, will host a Zinester Meet up. Come along!

Sunday, April 9 at 6:30 PM - 9:30 PM Chicago Publishers Resource Center (CHIPRC) 858 N Ashland Ave, Chicago, Illinois 60620

On 13th April we’ll be hosting a panel discussion with the Uni of Chicago at the Gray Center. Self-Publishing for Activism will explore how self-publishing can be used as a tool to address, challenge and fight against social injustice. The event will feature a brief presentation about OOMK, Rabbits Road Press and DIY Cultures and will be followed by a panel talk with Leila Abdul Razzaq, Sheika Lugtu, Marc Fischer (Temporary Services) and OOMK, it will be chaired by Tempestt Hazel (curator, writer, and director of Sixty Inches From Center).

Thursday 13 April 6pm Gray Center Listing: https://arts.uchicago.edu/logan-center/logan-center-exhibitions/upcoming/arts-social-practice-fellowship-oomk Facebook event

CHICAGO: DIY Cultures Twin City

The first ever DIY Cultures Twin City will be Chicago! We’ll be collecting zines throughout our trip for a dedicated zine stall at the fair and will be featuring Chicago based artists in the four-week DIY Knowledge exhibition. If you’re a zine maker in Chicago we’ll be collecting zines at both of the events listed above so please bring them down!

We’ll be blogging on instagram during our trip- @oomkzine

– Supported by the University of Chicago Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts and the British Council.

diycultures

DIY Cultures returns to Rich Mix (London) on Sunday 14 May 2017!

CALL FOR ZINES, ARTISTS’ BOOKS, ILLUSTRATION, COMICS AND DISTROS.

Stall Application Form- http://diycultures.tumblr.com/apply

The zine fair at DIY Cultures is spread across four venues in the Rich Mix and hosts over 90 exhibitors ranging from artists, illustrators, comic book makers, activists and small-press publishers.

Table space is £11 for half a 6ft trestle table. There will be a FREE communal table for people with one-off zines to sell. No need to apply for table space, just bring your zines to the DIY desk on the day! We also welcome applications from people based outside of London and internationally.

Deadline: Friday 24th February 2017

fb event- https://www.facebook.com/events/259081314527166/

Last summer we teamed up with Kuala Lumpur based Odd One Out Magazine to research independent publishing practices in Malaysia. We met many artists, magazine makers and galleries at the forefront of self publishing in KL, Ipoh and Penang to get a better understanding of self publishing practices outside of London. We've spent the last few months transcribing the interviews, scanning the publications we collected and putting together a petty unique publication about our research.

Next Thursday 2nd Feb we'll be launching A Study of Publishing Practices in Malaysia: KL, Penang and Ipoh at the MagCulture shop and discussing the research project.

Details and booking here: http://magculture.com/magculture-meets-oomk/

A limited number of copies will be available for sale (for UK and international delivery) in our online shop after the launch http://oomkzine.bigcartel.com/…/a-study-of-publishing-pract….

Rabbits Road Press: Launch Event

14 January, 6pm, Rabbits Road Institute, Old Manor Park Library. All Welcome. Click here to RSVP.

Rabbits Road Press is a community risograph print studio and publishing press run by OOMK in Old Manor Park Library. The small-scale publishing press provides printing and book binding services for artists and local community groups in Newham.

A responsive programme of workshops, drop-ins and events over the next six months will explore a contemporary model for community publishing, bringing together artists, designers, writers and local people. The project builds on Rabbits Road Institute’s initiative to establish an accessible and diverse community art space to support the development of new skills, knowledge sharing and social exchange for people living in Newham.

Rabbits Road Press is an OOMK project in collaboration with Create London, supported by Arts Council England.

📢 Call for Submissions: OOMK Issue 6 📢 Theme: Food Deadline 18 Nov 2016

The theme for OOMK 6 is Food. We are looking for original articles, essays, creative non-fiction, reviews, lists, art, illustration and photography relating to food. Please email submissions or pitch ideas to [email protected]. All images should be hi-res (300 dpi, pref. JPG, CMYK).

As always there will be an OOMK think-in for issue 6. It will be on Saturday October 15th 1-3pm, If you’d like to come and brainstorm the next issue with us please do :D just RSVP here and we’ll send you more details. Open to all women.

(If you haven’t read OOMK you can check out preview copies here before submitting work- http://oomk.net/zinepreviews)

OOMK manifesto on ASOS https://likes.asos.com/52431/asos-zine/

OOMK ƒree Zine to GIF workshop, ON A BOAT, sign up here http://floatingcinema.info/events/2016/zines-to-gifs

oomkinmalaysia-blog

We had talked about going to Malaysia for a while and, coconuts on the beach and chilling with tropical animals aside, exploring the emerging self-publishing scene of a multi-ethnic country with such a large Muslim population was something that had interested us for a while. We were curious about zine-culture beyond London, Portland or Berlin, about what our own creative practice and life might look like abroad, and the circumstances under which other artists operated- and so a research trip was born.

In partnership with our good friends Hamizah Adenan and Mas Shaari, editors of the fantastic Kuala Lumpur based magazine, Odd One Out, we set up meetings with a diverse range of artist, publishers and studios and began learning about the independent publishing scene in and around Kuala Lumpur. After two weeks of travelling around Malaysia collecting zines and interviews our research culminated in Zine Canteen, a one-day self publishing event in Petaling Jaya, co-organised by Odd One Out Magazine and Awesome Canteen.

Zine Canteen brought people together in discussion of Perspectives in Self Publishing UK/KL, a food themed zine-making workshop and exhibition of the zines and publications we had collected from Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh and Penang. For the panel talk Rose Nordin from OOMK was joined by Nizang (Mosh Zine/KL Zine Fest) and Hamizah Adenan (Odd One Out Magazine) to discuss similarities and differences in the UK/KL self-publishing scene and to share their own publications. There was an amazing atmosphere and over 100 people attended throughout the day, includind many of the people who we had interviewed.

We want to thank all the wonderful people we met for their time and support. Hamizah and Mas (and Dora and team!) you were fantastic and we’re going to miss you loads.

We’ll be spending the next few weeks editing our research and compiling more detailed documentation of the trip -details of the launch will be announced as soon as it’s printed!

Supported by Arts Council England

oomkinmalaysia-blog

Biawok Gemok

Zine-maker Nine introduced us to the collective behind the KL- based Biawok Gemok Distro which includes co-founder Liyana, Syar, and Deborah. Their name came about when Nine tried to find the Malay equivalent of Komodo Dragon- Biawok Gemok or “fat lizard” had to suffice.

Together they source and sell intersectional and inclusive Malaysian zines, donating almost all their profits to charities they work in solidarity with. Their catalogue of zines, which they shared with us, centre voices that are typically silenced or marginalised, or as they put it “lives affected by -isms and -phobias”. We spoke about language, creative writing, cat-sitting and the politics of developing a reading culture.

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