Nia King Zinester Ephemera Collection

Collection

Identifier: SC10-20

Staff View

Collection Scope and Content Summary

The Nia King Zinester Ephemera Collection documents King's longtime involvement in art activism and zine subcultures centering queer punks, artists and zine creators of color.

The collection contains other types of zine correspondence such as consignment receipts, forms and zine library ephemera, and original personal and comics zine flats (some laminated per page by King) as well as photocopied zine flats of: Art School is Hell, An Abridged History of: Why I Dropped Out of Art School, Afterschool Special, #ArtLife #1, Ungrateful Black-White Girl, Angry Black-Whtie Girl, MXD!: : True Stories By Mixed-Race Writers, The First 7-inch Was Better: How I Became an Ex-Punk, Borderlands #1 and #2, Queer Comics to Watch Out For and Bollywood Bromance.

Materials include her early publications in Boston-based punk zines and undergraduate thesis on QTPOC performance art and zine fest and academic conference ephemera such as name badges, shirts, a tote bag, flyers, and programs for events King participated in as a speaker or tabler. Items produced by the Allied Media Conference, the East Bay Alternative Book and Zine Fest, the LA Zine Fest, the Chicago Zine Fest, and from conferences hosted by Stanford University, UC Riverside, Columbia College Chicago, The Center for LGBT Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center, San Francisco State and others make up King's events-related ephemera.

Dates

Creation: 2003-2020, bulk 2007-2018

Access

This collection has no restrictions.

Publication Rights

Permission to publish material from the collection must be requested from the Barnard Archives and Special Collections. The Barnard Archives and Special Collections approves permission to publish that which it physically owns; the responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.

Reproduction Restrictions

Reproductions can be made for research purposes, with the exception of Ungrateful Black-White Girl, which the creator has requested not be digitized.

Biography

Nia King is a queer, mixed race Black, Hungarian and Lebanese multi-media journalist, zine creator, book author, cartoonist, podcast producer and public speaker. King hosts the We Want the Airwaves podcast, interviewing queer and trans artists of color about their lives and work since 2013 and has self-published three volumes of interview compilations in her books Queer and Trans Artists of Color: Stories of Some of Our Lives. Her personal zines, autobiographic comics and public speaking touch on queer and trans artists' of color art and punk identity politics, mixed race identity, queer relationships, political organizing, and activism. In a 2016 interview with the Barnard Center for Research on Women, King introduces herself "as an 'art activist' because I make art that is political, that deals with race, gender, queer and trans issues, class, disability, fatphobia and other forms of social oppression." King grew up in Boston, MA, is a 2011 Mills College graduate,and now lives in Philadelphia, PA.

Extent

2.17 Linear Feet (One document box, one oversize box)

Language

English

Additional Description

Abstract

The Nia King Zinester Ephemera Collection contains zine fest and conference ephemera, King's early publications and thesis, and original and photocopied zine flats and other ephemeral materials tied to King's decades-long involvement in zine subcultures centering queer artists of color.

Collection Arrangement

The collection is arranged by the same categories it was recieved in: early publications and thesis, speaking engagements, tabling events, miscellaneous, and original and photocopied zine flats. Folders two through four containing materials tied to public speaking engagements, conferences and tabling events are arranged chronologically by year.

Physical Location

This collection is located in the Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard Library. To use this collection, please contact the Barnard Archives and Special Collections at 212.854.4079 or archives@barnard.edu.

Acquisition Information

Purchased from Nia King, 2023.

Accruals

Accrurals are not expected.

Processing History

This collection was processed and the finding aid written by Claudia Acosta in June 2023. Descriptive Rules Used: Finding aid adheres to that prescribed by Describing Archives: A Content Standard. Finding aid written in English.