An ongoing series of zines that house LGBTQ+ histories in an interlocking format, to be continued by anyone. They examining how queer histories are distributed and communicated and how to work around barriers of location and cost through dual digital and physical means.

         I love being queer. Every day I learn something new about our history, flip a rock, find a crevice to explore, a floorboard to crack. Because for a long, long time, that's the only place we could survive.  

         I have a hard time reading dense academic writing, honestly I think it could do with a bit more levity and a few more exclamation points. A bit more pizazz! I hope that in these zines you find a connection, an interest. I'm an illustrator and honestly the starchier readings put it better, but my hope is that this approach makes them more accessible.

         So with these first entries I have gone in with a focus on the overlooked identities within the already overlooked queer community. Lesbians are a stuck-on-the-end single page/paragraph if lucky, trans and gender non-conforming identities are maybe an index mention and bi/pan/fluid sexualities are re-written or ignored. If I had a penny for every time I read that two people who shared their homes, bed and hearts with each other for decades were ‘really good friends’ I could probably pay off my student debt.

         The aim of this is not to dictate/prescribe/pin down/determine that certain figures are of certain identities. Instead I want to offer a kaleidoscope of sorts. Some thing a little messier, a little more fluid. Something you might see yourself in.

         Through a small half slice in the front and back page, I found a way to interlock the zines, so that they can come together into one long thread. My project might be made of parts, of individual stories, but they intertwine with each other. And can do in any order, in any direction, up to the audience. This did pose a question as to what to do with those connecting pages. I wanted to design them so that they flowed into one another. I illustrated all the covers in vertical halves with the title Always Here Always Queer on either side. When the zine are interlocked they still read Always Here Always Queer, no matter what order they are placed in. On the flip side, quotes from queer authors that both stood alone and reflected the contents.