Interview with Common Threads Press

Interview with Common Threads Press for the Feminist Library Friends Scheme

We are very excited to have Common Threads Press participating in our Mini Zine Fair at the Library on 11th September 2021.

Established in 2019, Common Threads Press is an arts publishing project that aims to make art history more affordable, accessible and community oriented. They publish zines, deliver workshops and curate events that look at the intersection of art history and activism. Their zines are written collaboratively with early-career researchers, students and academics from all around the world.

They have also very kindly donated a zine to the Library, Many Hands Make a Quilt: Short Histories of Radical Quilting by  Jess Bailey, for us to give away as part of our Friends Scheme monthly rewards. Thanks!!!

We recently caught up with Laura from Common Threads to find out more about what they do:

How did you get into making zines?

My sister started making them when we were teenagers and I went with her to zine fairs until I eventually got into them myself! We were both hugely interested in feminism when we were teens and I was reading the Susie Orbach, bell hooks and Audre Lorde that she passed onto me. We then ran the Feminist Society at the University of York together where we delivered zine workshops and art fairs. After I finished university I knew I wanted to keep this practice going, and Common Threads Press was born!

Does feminism inform your work in any way?

Absolutely! At first all our zines were about women artists such as Emma Amos, Tarsila do Amara and Artemisia Gentileschi. I was hugely informed by reading Griselda Pollock and Alice Walker in my undergraduate degree. As my research went on and my politics developed I knew I wanted to incorporate more into the project, but feminism is always at the core.

What other zines would you recommend to our readers?

Wow, so many! Our friends at Louche Press wrote a wonderful zine about the artist Claude Cahun that includes a brilliant discussion on how we talk about gender in art history writing. Camp Books also created a brilliant research zine about anti-imperialist posters created by feminist groups titled ‘Women Against Imperialism: A Catalogue of 13 Posters Used in Protest’. Grrrl Zine, Shado Mag, Sweet Thang Zine, Ashamed Mag, Bad Form Review and Boshemia also deserve mentions in this category!

Is there anything you are currently working on that we should watch out for?

Our upcoming zine is called ‘Diasporic Threads: Black Women, Fibre & Textiles’ written with textile artist and arts educator Dr Sharbreon Plummer. We are really looking forward to creating this and sharing Sharbreon’s amazing research with you all!

You can find out more about Common Threads here:

Web: https://www.commonthreadspress.co.uk/

Instagram: @commonthreadspress