Discover the annual Hamilton Zineposium

Artists and enthusiasts gathered at the Hamilton Public Library to showcase their creativity and sell their work

The Hamilton Zineposium is a zine fair organized by a small volunteer collective of local artists. The event took place on Nov. 2, 2024 from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the central branch of the Hamilton Public Library as part of the Hamilton Day celebrations.

This year, the Zineposium had 40 vendors who are all Hamilton-based. The Zineposium provides a platform for local zine makers to showcase, display and sell their artwork in the form of zines.

Zines are usually a self-published work, with similar formatting to a magazine, that highlight a topic the creator cares about. Zine makers also had the opportunity to sell other items such as stickers, buttons and bookmarks.

This annual Hamilton fair initially began on June 27, 2015 and was founded by artists and educators Sally McKay, Taien Ng-Chan, Donna Akrey, Carmela Laganase, Leah Klein and Brittany Sostar. 

Sonali Menezes, a co-organizer of Zineposium, is one of three artists who inherited the Zineposium organization. “Three years ago, the organizers asked if we wanted to take over organizing the event. They wanted to pass on the torch to younger artists in the city and so we took it over in 2022,” said Menezes.

The three new organizers, Sonali Menezes, Sahra Soudi and Mariel Rutherford, were originally vendors for the event. “It’s interesting that we started as tablers at the zine fair. Now we organize it and we’re fostering that community for other zinesters,” said Menezes.

Sahra Soudi, another co-organizer of the Zineposium, discussed the seamless transition of taking on the organization with their peers. “They [former founders] passed the administrative torch in some ways . . . luckily all of us are administrators in our own working lives and already have that experience,” said Soudi.

Menezes further explained the convenience of the working relationship with her peers throughout the transition. “Sahra, Mariel and I used to work together . . . at an artist-run centre. We already had a working relationship with each other and were already friends before we took this on,” said Menezes.

As a collective, the three have been facilitating the Zineposium since 2022 and are currently collaborating with the Hamilton Public Library to host the event. “There are lots of wonderful staff at the library who support the Zineposium every year,” said Menezes.

Soudi described the involvement required to organize this event. “How this thing [Zineposium] keeps running is our relationship with the library, also volunteers and the zine community,” said Soudi.

For those new to the zine fair, Menezes suggested bringing cash to purchase the available works. “Price points tend to be lower so bring things like loonies and toonies and 5 dollar bills. If you make zines a lot of zinesters are open to trades,” said Menezes. “Trading is a really big part of zine culture . . . that’s how I put together my own personal zine library.”

Menezes also hopes that more students will turn out to the next event. “What I would encourage is for Mac students to exit the university bubble and come into the community and meet people,” said Menezes.

Soudi mentioned that the Zineposium continues to grow in popularity. “We had around 500 people come through the library. So it’s usually pretty well attended and people look forward to it every year,” said Soudi.

If you missed this year's Zineposium, you can attend next year or get involved through updates on their Instagram.