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Local zine inspires young female artists

By EMILY BROWN | December 1, 2016

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COURTESY OF OLLIE The cover of the 10th issue of the Beast Grrl zine, titled “Cultivate.”

The female-led Baltimore art scene is thriving. The most recent issue of Beast Grrl zine (#10) reflects this community-driven scene, with special thanks given to BALTI GURLS, Monument Quilt Project, La Liga zine, Youth as Resources (which funds the project) and Red Emma’s.

The Beast Grrl collective was founded by three Baltimore high school females in the summer of 2014, and its mission is to “promote youth empowerment, feminist education, and art activism.”

In addition to focusing special attention on publishing the work of teenage girls, the collective also collaborates with many local nonprofit organizations and arts projects. Its mission statement specifies that it is an all-inclusive zine, for females of any age, sexual orientation, gender, weight, race, ethnicity, etc.

The zine recalls riot grrrl, a feminist subculture of the 1990s focused on female empowerment by the spread of zines and spaces for girls within punk. The movement re-appropriated girlhood, traditionally not taken seriously, as an aesthetic from which to draw power. Beast Grrl continues that.

The three editors are now all seniors at Baltimore School for the Arts. They are using a zine, one of the primary distribution tools for the riot grrrl movement, to allow young female-identifying girls a space for self-empowerment and self-actualization. Each of the zines is crafted with care and love, and is also aesthetically pleasing.

The art and poetry in Beast Grrl #10, called “Cultivate,” is focused around themes of growth. Contributors examine how they themselves have grown with themselves and within their communities. In “Concussed,” the poet, Helen Laser, grapples with her role in a relationship. More broadly she discusses her eye-opening discovery about the role of women in the male-female sexual universe.

A project called “Hello Stone” explores the power of objects to connect with and channel us. Through a physical process of hand-picking and painting, the stones are cultivated by the individuals involved in the project.

Much of the art in the zine brings the individual growth of its artists into the female collective experience. “The Hysterical Woman” combines images of women’s legs and pubis with traditional expectations of women, questioning and subverting the expectations and roles of women in society. And “maybe” represents a transformation from uncertainty to empowerment.

That many of these are created by developing artists is all the more important. The zine allows a space for teenagers to explore their voice and style, and it encourages them at a stage where they are sure to experience a lot of discouragement. Issue #10’s opening poem, “Aubade” (meaning a poem or a piece of music appropriate to the dawn or the early morning) essentially revolves around the stumbling, often circular path of discovering oneself. The poem’s jarring line breaks and short, sometimes uncertain phrases highlight this well.

Cultivation is itself a never-ending process, and what better space than a zine devoted to youth empowerment to encourage this. I remember my early teens, fraught with insecurity and uncertainty about my place in the world, just as I was truly understanding the ways in which my voice was not valid simply because of my age.

Beast grrl zine gives girls like this a platform, and creates for them a community. The artist Snyder’s drawing in “Cultivate” sums it up perfectly: “I do not care for your rules and regulations, and I don’t know why they exist. Without us, you are fruitless.”

Beast Grrl is more than just a zine. It is a community outlet with a core mission to cultivate the creative expression of young girls. The Beast grrl collective works closely with Baltimore’s chapter of the Monument Quilt project, which serves as a safe space for victims of rape and abuse.

The Beast Grll collective is also hosting an after-school program this fall. The mentor-oriented program aims to work with students in grades seven to 11, educating them on the history of feminism in the art world and helping students to then create their own art.

 

Correction: In the second paragraph of this article, the Beast Grrl Collective was mistakenly called the Balti Grrl Collective. It stated that Beast Grrl Collective was begun by 2 students when it was founded and is currently run by 3 students.

The News-Letter regret these errors.


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