Me and Zines (3)

On December 13th 2018 Hadass wrote; One fateful night in 2007, I was sitting in my little downtown apartment, reading a book called “A Girl's Guide to Taking over the World.” As I too was planning to use my pen to take over the world, I said that I too should start writing zines.

Hadass published the first issue of Fallopian Falafel in June 2007.

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Etsy Shop description;

The very first issue of Fallopian Falafel - a feminist zine made in Jerusalem.


This issue is a rare gem, my baby, made with a lot of love, excitement and enthusiasm for the cause of bringing riot grrrl culture to the holy land.


It includes an article about a Palestinian woman teaching English in Haifa, and also teaches and preaches peace. It includes some pretty and powerful pencil drawings, a piece on the word "feminism" and how much more empowering it is in relation to "equalism", how relationships are affected when the woman is a strong aggressive female, an article about stereotypes, the Riot Grrrl Corner featuring Le Tigre, and more awesome stuff! 

In Spring 2010 she published Issue 1 of her perzine Purple Myrtle Squeegy.

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Etsy Shop description;

This is the very first issue of my perzine called Purple Myrtle Squeegy - A PMS Perzine. This was my first attempt at a DIY, scissors and glue layout as opposed to the other zines I made which were all computerized, which explains why it's only 12 pages long. 

This issue includes stories about my ability to scratch my Eustachian tubes, my love of DIY, why I find skeletons appealing, and more.

In January 2019 Purple Myrtle Squeegy became Purple Moon Spawn.

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I read my first PMS zine at The Sarah Doyle Center for Women and Gender.  It was the summer of 2017 and I was in full zine quest mode. This was the first zine I chose to read from the pile I had gathered from the shelves. The cover had a cute grrl zombie and it was about Stephen King. And I love Stephen King. It was so good I read it twice. 


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What I didn't know that day was that 16 months later Hadass and I would be writing each other on the regular. How did it happen? We're both members of We Make Zines an online group for zinesters. In Fall 2018 I got an email from one of the group leaders asking if I would like to correspond with a zinester. Would I? Yes. I wrote a bit about myself so they could match me up with someone. The next thing I know I'm matched with Ms. Purple Myrtle Squeegy herself. I write to her, she writes to me - we click! 

We sent each other packages. Mine had my little photo zine Bump, cards, and photos. Here's what Hadass sent me:

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I couldn't pick a favorite zine in this package - it's all wonderful.  But my favorite item is The PMS Mess! Catalog which includes cover scans and descriptions of all her zines, her Alternative Jerusalem postcard collection, and a cool comic by Hadass herself.

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Being pen/zine pals with Hadass has inspired me to work daily on a new photo/collage zine.  As soon as the first copy is done it's off to Jerusalem. 

Here's Hadass with her beloved typewriter Rose Madder.

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