In celebration of Lower East Side History Month, Printed Matter / St Marks asked the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) to organize a window installation of zines and ephemera from the MoRUS archives. Self-published zines are a cultural mainstay of the Lower East Side, allowing diverse subcultures to document their scenes, as well as to share new music and writing, and distribute political literature and propaganda.

These documents capture, take ownership of, and elevate community history; they cover unique facets of neighborhood history such as squatting, community gardening, punk music & aesthetics and anarchism. Through zines, journals, and newspapers, these informal historians, inspired artists, and indignant journalists actively reclaim space within the rapidly corporatizing media sphere.

You can find copies of displayed zines inside Printed Matter / St. Marks or in MoRUS’s virtual zine library.