BROKEN PENCIL #90, Winter 2020, $7.95, color copied, 8” x 11½ ”, 66 pgs.

May 25, 2021

I’m shamefully new to this publication and was very impressed with it. Maybe because it’s Canadian and on the other side of the country from me, or maybe I’ve lost a real connection with DIY zine culture? I don’t know, but either way, I’m happy to know it now. There’s some quality writing in this and extremely thoughtful zine reviews. This is their ninetieth issue and it covers the winners of their Broken Pencil Zine Awards for 2020—all of which sound incredible, and only one made the list that I had already read (so maybe I really am a bit out of touch with indie press). The other features in this issue cover the history of code encryption and how people can use it for political change, anarchist ham radios, a recap of their first virtual Canada Zine Fest (CanZine), and a cootie catcher that you can cut out and fold up which has eight different scorching rebuttals to colonization of indigenous people and cultural appropriation. There’s lots of important information in this zine that takes radicalization to actionable steps. Bravo. –Kayla Greet (PO Box 203, Station P, Toronto, Ontario M5S 2S7, Canada)

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