All the feels

This evening I attended a webinar Precarity, memory and history in UK DIY music spaces given by Kirsty Fife and organised by the Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past. Kirsty is someone who has popped on and off my radar for a few years now (I knew them via Fatty Unbound and Twitter). I knew they made zines but I hadn’t purchased any… but I’ll be buying some tomorrow.

I noticed their contribution to Punk & Post Punk back in 2019 when I was considering doing a MRes elsewhere, and looking up anyone in academia who writes about zines. I was hoping to get funding from my workplace so I expanded my research from zines to wider reflective writing. Which actually ended up suiting me better because my writing had changed.

I saw this event being advertised on social media so I booked myself on. It was great hearing Kirsty talk about their research, and their experience of DIY. I’ll need to watch the recording of the webinar again because at one point it felt so relevant to me that I started sobbing (following the mention of Cowley Club which will forever hold a place in my heart♥). I just couldn’t help but think of all the DIY culture I took part in, and continue to take part in, that may or may not be archived. I mean, this doesn’t take away from it’s value but I guess I hadn’t realised how much I appeciate seeing myself in the records until that point.

And maybe that’s something I need to think of in my own practice. Is my attempt at a blogging/journal club some sort of legacy?

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