Photo courtesy of The Print Shop LA

Archiving the NOW — A Queer RISO Night

Workshop
The Print Shop LA

5768 W Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90019

Make history as we craft Risograph zines of OUR Queer LA experiences, NOW with Print Shop LA!

Zines are community-driven publications focused on a topic. They have been a critical tool in Queer culture as an easily produced, low-cost, eco-friendly publication for art and conversations about identity, social and political survival, pleasure, and play. 

“Archiving the NOW — A Queer RISO Night” introduces attendees to Riso techniques in a Queer-centric, Queer-owned space for OUR self-expression, as we connect through a collective experience of art-making and sharing. The workshop invites hands-on experimentation, unexpected exchange, and the generation of new content that creates an archive of our NOW. 

The workshop will kick off with a chat about the history of Queer self-publishing as we look at historical printed artifacts from ONE Archives at the USC Libraries! A demonstration of Risograph printing will be led by Mich Miller, co-founder of Print Shop LA, followed by open studio time to play with and be inspired by reprints from the archive to copy, collage, reinvent, and remix with your own art and writing. EVERYBODY, regardless of art-making experience, will be able to create a zine. 

The workshop will take place at Print Shop LA on Saturday, October 19, 2024, from 7-9 p.m.

This program may not be suitable for all ages.


Participants


Xtina Webb is a Queer Intersectional Feminist who operates a design practice focused on cultural, non-profit clients in Los Angeles, California. This aligns with her teaching practice at Otis College of Art and Design and other SoCal universities. Xtina’s design research investigates complicated socio-political conditions in virtual and public spaces, looking at the language and visual devices that form them. This includes “Queering” space and place-making along with exploring participation and collaboration.

Xtina’s local community building includes the co-creation of the Queer/ QBIPOC Foreground Collective and The 5th Pocket, a dinner/entertainment soireé focused on connecting creative entrepreneurs in playful engaging ways; Director of the AIGA-LA DEI Committee and related events; creating the Criticality of Queer Craft panel for the LA Design Festival; event organizing for RISD Alumni Club of Los Angeles; and currently serving on the Board of Feminist Center for Creative Work. More at christinawebb.org.


Yara Feghali is a designer working at the intersection of architecture pedagogy, transmedia, and immersive technologies. She is the creative director of Folly Feast Lab, co-founded with Viviane El Kmati based in Los Angeles, California. Through worldbuilding and storytelling they design immersive and interactive experiences, applications, software, design tools and games around queer identity, sustainability, and technology. Yara and Viviane are committed with Folly Feast Lab to designing fantastic experiences that are as aesthetically engaging as they are technologically performing. Their XR work has been exhibited internationally. Yara is also a design faculty at UCLA in the school of Arts and Architecture and since she moved to LA she has been invested in fostering and creating community. More at yarafeghali.com.


Mich Miller is a Los Angeles based painter, printmaker, muralist and installation artist. Mich’s practice is informed by a commitment to abstraction and investment in color theory, printmaking, painting, graphic design, queer histories, and queer theory. Mich earned their BFA from School of the Artist institute of Chicago in 2015 and received an MFA in Painting & Printmaking from Yale University in 2021. Mich’s works employ saturated color, gradients, shapes, symbols and text-referential scientific, environmental, and cultural metaphors relevant to their trans identity. In 2018, they co-founded The Print Shop LA—a collaborative printmaking studio in Los Angeles, which offers internship opportunities, collaborative studio access and artists-in-residence programs. More at theprintshopla.com and michmiller.com.


This program is organized by Xtina Webb and Yara Feghali as part of Circa: Queer Histories Festival 2024, presented by One Institute.

  • The Print Shop LA, founded by trans artist Mich Miller, is an accessible printmaking studio offering public and private workshops, open studio hours, internships, exhibitions, and residency programs. Committed to community engagement, PSLA provides resources and events to support and inspire creativity in printmaking and the LGBTQ+ community.