Halifax zine library turns the page with 20th birthday

Issues at the Anchor Archive Zine Library are pictured. (Source: Anchor Archive Zine Library)

Twenty years ago, Sarah Evans and Son Edworthy transformed a living room in a small red house in the north end of Halifax into a library for their growing collection of zines. A group of friends and volunteers came onboard to help manage the stockpile, including Amanda Stevens.

“I moved to Halifax in 2006 and I started volunteering there in 2007,” Stevens said. “I had made zines as a teenager. I did a project where I created an online catalogue and circulation system for the zine library.”

That library, which has amassed a collection of roughly 8,000 zines, is celebrating its 20th birthday this month, celebrating the alternative art form that is still attracting dedicated followers in the internet age.

The collective, which came to be known as the Anchor Archive Zine Library, established a summer residency program in a nearby shed in 2006, according to their website.

“Zine makers would come from all over the U.S. and Canada,” Stevens said.

After Evans moved out of the house on Roberts Street in 2007, the Ink Storm Printing Collective set up a screen-printing studio in her room. Following Edworthy’s departure, the collective transformed the building into the Roberts Street Social Centre.

In 2012 the group was evicted from the building. Inkstorm joined forces with SadRad in 2014, eventually becoming RadStorm, a non-profit that purchased its building at 2177 Gottingen St. earlier this year.

The Anchor Archive operated out of Plan B, a co-operative on Gottingen Street, before joining RadStorm in 2016. They moved into their current home in 2018.

“There were some dicey periods of time when we were looking for spaces in an increasingly gentrified and expensive city,” Stevens said. “Since we’ve been in RadStorm, it’s felt more secure. I always thought the library would continue in some form. It will always have some sort of home.”

Stevens said zines, which are typically small-circulation publications that focus on specific subjects, can offer a unique form of expression for people.

“They’re very accessible and anyone can make them,” she said. “Before the internet, it was the only way you could publish your own art or opinions without going through mainstream outlets.

“People make the weirdest, most interesting things. I like how personal zines can be. They’re a window into someone’s thoughts.”

The Anchor Archive aims to facilitate those windows to people’s thoughts, providing the tools and guidance for budding creatives to make their zine dreams come true. It’s also open on Sunday afternoons for people who want to check out the space.

“The idea is to support zine making,” Stevens said.

Stevens herself continues to make zines annually. She has published issues on topics ranging from hitchhiking to online dating to instructionals on how to make friends.

Despite the omnipresence of the internet, making it easier than ever to get ideas to the public, Stevens has seen a resurgence in zines as some people gravitate to physical media.

“They’re becoming popular again,” she said. “They’re a smaller scale way of expressing yourself. It is a unique artistic medium.

“There’s a lot of censorship on the internet. People are turning to zines as an alternative as a rejection of the bad parts of the internet.”

To mark the 20th birthday of the Anchor Archive, the collective is hosting a party at 2177 Gottingen St. from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Oct. 26. Admittance is free and the event will feature zine trades, readings and performances.

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page