REBELLE ZINE
ISSUE 03: ILLUMINATE
WINTER 2022
When I got to see my coworkers in-person after working remotely for 2 years!
When a stranger paid me a compliment
They gave me seven nuggets instead of six :)
WE ASKED YOU:
WHAT WAS A MOMENT SOMEONE BRIGHTENED YOUR DAY?
When someone really nice paid for my coffee !
I finally got to see my long distance bf
A line up of 7 cars paid for each other’s orders when I was working drive thru yesterday
When someone told me to keep going no matter what
✦ DEANNA ARMENTI: CREATOR OF THE SAPPHIC PRINTING PRESS
The early 2020 lockdown gave many of us time to slow down and introspect. For Deanna Armenti, this time was spent experimenting with printmaking and zinemaking. It was also when she fully embraced her lesbian identity. “I realized that all of my prints were literally women and the female form, and I was like, ‘What is this saying, Deanna?’”
Soon after, she founded The Sapphic Printing Press. Started as an artistic outlet and a platform to uplift other sapphic writers, The Sapphic Printing Press is where Deanna sells zines, artwork, and wearable creations. One of the series she publishes is SAPPHIC, a zine that pairs an editorial photo shoot with an assortment of poetry and essays submitted by sapphic writers around the world. She describes it as “Queer Vogue”.
Written by Maeve Devries
Photography by Sarah McIntyre and Joe Mastromatteo
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In Deanna’s opinion, everyone should make a zine. “Everyone has something to say. We all have lived experiences that are different from each other, but there will be similar themes throughout… Where you can find those similarities, it can bridge differences.”
Deanna has explored many forms of media in her journey to becoming the artist she is today. She completed an undergraduate degree in film studies, but after two years of working in the film industry post-graduation, she realized that it was not the environment for her. “It was a really educational experience. I definitely learned a lot, but I just kind of realized that being on set was not my passion.” Looking back, design and textile creation is what she had always wanted to do. She did costume design for theatre productions as a teenager, and was always very involved in the costuming of her films during her undergrad.
She applied to the Fashion master’s program at X University to “reset [her] path in life”, but still uses her film knowledge to her advantage throughout her work. “It's really funny how life is like, you have to do these detours to kind of get back to where you originally started and what you originally wanted to do, but… having some experience in directing and cinematography through film school, I think all of that informs my work… I don't think I would be as holistic of an artist now if I didn't go through all those experiences.”
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“I wonder if my kink awakening kind of drove, or subconsciously also had something to do with, my queer awakening,” she questions as we dive into the connection between kink and queer identities. “[Just] because you're queer does not mean you're kinky, but I feel like in the queer community, it is really prevalent… A lot of the people that I've met in the kink community who are queer are just like, yeah, that's a part of my queerness.” For some, the two identities are so interwoven that they combine them into a singular label. Deanna points out “leather dykes” as a prime example of this. “It's inherently like, just being able to relish in your queerness.”
Deanna ties together her interests of zinemaking, fashion, and kink culture in Lost Carnation: The Significance of the Collar. In this object analysis which she completed for her fashion history course, she explores the history and meaning of collars in power dynamics, as well as her connection to a specific collar. At the start of the semester, she chose to analyze the collar that her partner had collared her with, but the direction of the project changed after her relationship ended. “I kind of started thinking about this whole thing of like, who owns the collar, though? Because it's like, the Dom(me) has given it to their sub as this physical embodiment of the power that their sub has given to them… It's a gift… but the Dom(me) bought it.”
She came to a simple but profound conclusion: No one owns the collar. “It is this neutral physicality… that only works when both people in the dynamic are participating in an interaction with it. If not, it's just nothingness. There's no point to it, and it doesn't have a meaning. And no one should keep it in the end.” She paired her written analysis with a digital poetry zine comprised of Polaroids that her ex-Dom(me) took of her wearing the collar collaged with images of carnations, flowers that have historically been seen as a queer symbol. You can view the zine below and read her full analysis here.
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We sat down with Deanna for an exclusive interview!
Follow @deanna.armenti and @thesapphicprintingpress on Instagram to stay updated about when Deanna releases upcoming issues of SAPPHIC, as well as more of her own poetry zines, art, and textile work.
✺
REFRACTION AND GROWING UP
By Urooj Shah | IG@urooooooj
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This excitement of existing,
I was
Moon child staring up at the stars,
I wasn’t afraid of looking straight at the sun
I sift through old pictures of myself
younger me has shining eyes,
A glittering gaze staring at me from the frame,
Unabashed, healthy, and happy
I smile back at her in the present,
A bittersweet smile
I feel like I am mourning the death of my own child
These days, I look at the world through dimmed eyes
2 cups of coffee, 1 cup of chai
Through the day, but even that doesn’t ease the feeling of
Heavy eyelids and aching joints
I make the mistake of trying to reason with myself
That I don’t fight with my parents as much anymore
I leave the house quietly, wander the city,
I am no longer an extension of them
Which sucks because I feel like I no longer fit in my mother’s embrace
That the one place I fit perfectly
I have outgrown
The only way I can describe it is in hues now
When I was younger, the world had this brightness to it
Dripping in saturation, All the colours in full volume
Every wavelength felt like it was defying physics,
Speeding through the space-time highway just to get to me
It felt like they travelled faster than light
That I saw colours before I saw things and
It somehow made the world feel like something worth going out to see
Because now, everything feels baritone
As if the years have rubbed off the shininess
That I have aged, and something has happened to my eyes
That I know the doctor will never be able to fix
There is no diagnosis for growing up
I lose my childhood
piece by piece
my friends grow up, my mother gives our old toys for donation, and the memories fade
I’m walking when I stop at a house bedazzled in Christmas memorabilia
I blink, trying everything I can
For this light up reindeer in front of me to come to life,
but something entirely else happens:
she glows
The sky darkens, and I smile
Because I see it, just then
Something I would have missed if I wasn’t paying attention.
Its in the backdrop of:
I am here and alive
I feel the cold on my cheeks, the scent of snow, and this house that someone put so much effort into animating
I flip through the past years, and I see it
Uncontrollable laughter, shaky fingers at poetry shows, staring into the eyes of someone i love,
Every single moment the universe flickered into existence because I made it matter
I realize
We get used to all the colours
We take them for granted
We let the lights dim because we don’t believe we need to see things anymore
I tell myself
That it still matters
That it’s my turn
To race to the colours
My turn to defy the space time continuum
Because I get it now
The world never lost its light
We simply forgot how to look
✺ CANDLESTICK
By Xanthe Kittson
I am a portrait photographer based in Vancouver BC. For the most part, my photography expresses an alternate world, a place to escape from the happenings of the everyday. This alternate world is filled with beauty, and surrealism. When I create work, the themes I represent are inspired by fairytales, witchcraft, and mythology.
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Dandelion Green is an upcoming short film about two queer teens in the foster care system who cross paths and change each other’s lives. It stars Liz Ariho as Kay, a nonbinary 17-year-old who is guarded and pessimistic, and Cian Boyd as Olivia, an introverted 16-year-old with a passion for visual art. The two bond over their shared experiences while Kay deals with anxiety about the future and Olivia handles a tough relationship with her mother. With Maria as writer and Kathleen as director, they set out to explore themes of love, belonging, and hope through the eyes of Kay and Olivia.
This is a queer story, but it’s far from the “coming out” narrative we’ve all seen. It’s also not another story centered around queer pain. While Kay and Olivia go through trauma and hardship, they find beauty and kinship in the unique ways that they relate to each other. “From the beginning, that was something we really wanted to focus on,” says Kathleen. “We wanted to make [their queerness] a point of euphoria and happiness shared between the two characters.”
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Olivia’s artwork, drawn by Toronto artist Billie Wilner @sandboytats, captures her highs and lows. “The way that a lot of people would do diary entries, she draws pictures of what happens in her day-to-day life and then she will decorate her room with them,” Maria explains. “It’s the way she copes with her problems and the way that she understands her life.” During a special moment shared between Kay and Olivia, the film transforms into a sketchbook-style 2D animated sequence. “It’s kind of supposed to be like [Olivia’s] drawings come to life in this moment,” Maria says. In a world where queer expression has historically been erased from art, this visual embodiment of joy dares to exist. In Kathleen’s words, “It’s almost like one of those inception moments where we’re trying to show that our art is valid and it’s worthy of drawing and portraying.”
Kathleen was coming to terms with their own queer identity during the creation of the film. “It was really honestly a therapeutic process… and I’m just so grateful for our friendship and all of the people that have come onto the project throughout.” Dandelion Green’s core theme of belonging was mirrored in their own life: “Your community’s out there and you’re going to find people who understand you and accept you and you can feel authentic with, because that was a really big part of this whole process for me… I just really hope that other queer people see the little nuances and everything that we put into [the film] and just really feel seen.”
Dandelion Green is currently in post-production and is set to be released in Spring 2022. Stay tuned to @dandeliongreenfilm on Instagram for info about when and where the film will premiere in-person and online!
✺ CHANGING LEAVES
By Sarah Al Hemyari
I make crocheted items! I love the way the yarn feels in my hands, I get to create something beautiful that can be worn out and used. It’s important to me because it means I get to be a apart of making something for other people to fall in love with!
✺bRIGHT WORLD
Salem Paige | @corpseofapoet
to shine, to build
the world i wish to live in,
unburdened by the cost of
a life, the waste of an hour.
time sleeps in wide fields,
held in the sun’s open mouth,
freed from the burden
of faces and hands.
i will grow my own home
from a single seed, trees will
sprout from the cavity of my
broken chest, roots wrapped around
my ribs. i will hold myself together
with the lowest of the clouds and
bathe myself in morning dew
and i will no longer be shackled
to the production of others’ commodities
and i will be free to dance
to whatever song i please.
MUSIC HOROSCOPES
Aries
Libra
Taurus
Scorpio
Gemini
Saggitarius
Cancer
Capricorn
Leo
Aquarius
Virgo
Pisces
THE REBELLE TEAM’S MANTRAS FOR A YEAR OF GOOD ENERGY
MIKU: Actually put my plans for 2022 into action (even if I need to push myself outside of my comfort zone
SARAH: Take myself on more solo dates
SERINA: Work out more and make more art
JENNY: Do something once a day that’s out of your comfort zone
LEILA: Prioritize myself more and practice different forms of self-care <3
MAEVE: Spend more time with the people in my life & create new connections
SUPPORT LOCAL BIZZ
BAKING YOU HAPPY I IG: @bakingyouhappyco TIKTOK: @bakingyouhappy
“I bake and decorate custom cakes for humans, as well as pets (dogs, cats, bunnies). It’s really fun bringing the cake art world into the pet parent world and my favourite is when I get to make name-matching cakes (i.e. a nike shoe cake for a pup named Nike for example).” - Sara Ghods
HIBISCUS POETRY BOOK | IG @iamkishawna
“I’m a published poet of a book called Hibiscus! I write about love, mental health and navigating a career as a Black woman in STEM. I sell my books and wall decor at Kishawna.com” - Kishawna
CRYSTALS BY MYRANDA | IG: @crystalsbymyranda
“I make wire wrapped crystal jewelry. Everything is made by me and it is important because I truly believe in the power of crystals and I use my jewelry as a way to educate people on the healing abilities of crystals and jewelry is a great place to start with crystals I also try to make my pieces in a large price range to make it as accessible to people as possible because I do find crystals can often been very expensive making it harder for people with lower incomes to access them so I try to make my jewelry accessible to everyone.” - Myranda Wilson
COLLECTIBLE CONTENT
Click to download!
ILLUMINATE LOCKSCREEN 1
ILLUMINATE LOCKSCREEN 2
ISSUE 03: ILLUMINATE PDF
CREDITS
PRODUCTION
CREATIVE DIRECTOR / PHOTOGRAPHER
Sarah McIntyre
WEB DESIGNER
Jenny Balite
PRODUCER / WRITER
Maeve Devries
COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
Leila Poupada
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Serina Knight
VIDEOGRAPHER
Miku Sakamoto
ZINE CONTRIBUTORS
Deanna Armenti
Joe Mastromatteo
Maria Barr
Kathleen Burgess
Urooj Shah (Refraction and Growing Up)
Xanthe Kittson (Candlestick)
Sarah Al Hemyari (Changing Leaves)
Salem Paige (Bright World)
Sara Ghods (Baking You Happy)
Kishawna (Hibiscus Poetry Book)
Myranda Wilson (Crystals by Myranda)
SOCIAL MEDIA CONTRIBUTORS
Brooklyn Doran (Fuck that Guy)
Jessie Kingsley (Open Up Your Eyes)
Nikki Pangbourne (Energy, Butterfly and 1111)
Maria-Therese (For The Soul)
Rebecca Payne (Journey to the Centre of the Store)
Iris Quinn (Divine Energy)