UAL Intercultural Zine Fair

UAL’s 3rd Intercultural Zine Fair at Peckham Levels, where showcases zines and publications made by students and staff at UAL and external publishers from South London. 

Stall holders include: PageMasters, Books Peckham, Mosaic Rooms, The Feminist Library, CSM Publications, Poetry Translation Centre, Assemblage Collective & more!

Free workshops and talks to join throughout the day.

The UAL Intercultural Zine Fair 3.0 has now wrapped up! Don’t miss this insightful story by Anita Strasser, UAL Visiting Practitioner, sharing her observations and reflections on the incredible day.

Over 500 people at the Intercultural Zine Fair

Friday 8 November saw the third Intercultural Zine and Publishing Fair at the Gig Space in Peckham Levels. And what a fair it was! Over 500 people attended!

Walking up the stairs, you were guided to the fair by posters made by students: the main poster was a collaborative design by students Tra Nhu (IC ambassador and Camberwell student) and Poan Pan (UAL alum); other posters were hand-drawn direction signs by Kesiah Ide (IC ambassador and Camberwell student).

When I arrived at the Gig Space just after 12, I was greeted by a buzzing atmosphere. Music was playing, the tables were lovingly decorated by the many stallholders, and people – professional publishers, established artists, UAL staff and students, and other people – were busy chatting, showing each other their own or others’ publications, buying and selling publications, networking and making. The zine drop-in workshop table was busy all day, with Tasch from Assemblage Collective showing people at one point a brand new technique of zine-making called the lotus fold. There was a constant coming and going and the atmosphere was one of a festival: full of excitement and joy. Everybody seemed to be buzzing and smiling and everyone I spoke to commented on this atmosphere. You couldn’t help noticing it.

Organisers Adam Ramejkis and Annie Loebig were also busy checking up on and chatting to stallholders and dealing with all sorts of organisational matters. Thankfully they were supported by a group of IC Ambassadors who minded the communal and ‘amaziners’ tables, as well as tables of stallholders who went off on a break. They also helped with setting up workshops, directing people to places and with whatever else needed doing. Catherine Li and Ana Teles (who manage the CCW studio and gallery spaces at Peckham Levels) also helped ensure the smooth running of the day, while I was busy documenting everything on camera.

Stallholders included the LCC Zine Collection, PRESS – A Rolling Drum, The Mosaic Rooms (with Chelsea MA Curating and Collection students), Assemblage Collective, The Feminist Library, Poetry Translation Centre, BOOKS Peckham, PageMasters, CSM Publications, Flipped Eye Publishing, Goldsmiths Liberate! Zines Collection, Camberwell Comic Club, Camberwell MA Illustration, Chelsea Cwiklik, POW!, Stroll Press, Naiyue Zhang, Aghh! Zine and Writing Our Legacy, as well as a communal table and a table of amaziners (from @ual.amazines). While the drop-in zine-making workshop table was also in the Gig Space, this time there was also a programme of events in the gallery space around the corner. Walking up the ramp to the gallery space, you could admire more posters, including a series of posters from Camberwell Comic Club. 

The workshop programme was not to be missed. In fact, each workshop was very well attended, with one attracting over 40 people! The first DIY zine ‘talkshop’ was run by UAL alum Lucie Russell (@drawing.people.together) and LCC student and IC ambassador Rosie Wellman (@r0siegd) and focused on experiences of neurodiversity. One attendee said she had travelled all the way from north-west London to attend this workshop and hear others’ stories of being neurodivergent. The second workshop was led by Mosaic Rooms and Chelsea MA Curating and Collection students, a collaboration titled Under the Dining Table. During the session, attendees learnt about the creative journey that inspired their publication Honey-Moon, which explores food as a site of cultural practice, of caring, crafting and sharing. After that, The Poetry Translation Centre conducted a cut-up poetry and zine-making workshop, using the centre’s anthology My Voice: a decade of poems from the Poetry Translation Centre as the source of materials for participants to make their own poems. The programme finished with four live poetry performances, featuring the curators of poetry platform POW! Play On Words Lee Campbell (Senior Lecturer in Academic Support at Wimbledon College of Arts) and Colin B Osborn, as well as Hannah Wallwork and Redeeming Features. These poetry performances were incredibly dynamic, powerful and thought-provoking, touching on themes like poverty, homelessness, stigmatisation, bullying and death. Everyone was glued to their seat, and nobody left disaffected by what they had heard. It was great to see UAL staff and students and outside audiences together in a room.

As we were tidying up the spaces at the end of the day, the same comments were made over and over by all kind of people: that this zine fair was the most diverse they had ever been to; that it had the nicest and most buzzing atmosphere, and the highest attendance of all three fairs. Above all, everyone was clear that these fairs bring together a wonderful community; it is a gathering of creative people with established publishers and artists and students dazzling with their designs and selling work in equal measures. This cannot end… so prepare yourself for a fourth intercultural zine fair in May 2025.

All photos by Anita Strasser, 2024

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For any questions, please contact

Adam Ramejkis at a.ramejkis@arts.ac.uk (Intercultural Communication at UAL and founder of ual.amazines)

Annie Loebig at a.loebig@arts.ac.uk (UAL Showcase)