Reimagining mental health: learning from what zines do – by Jill Anderson
This is the second of two blog posts reflecting on the ‘Re-Imagining Mental Health’ event, held at the Gregson Centre, Lancaster on 22 October 2022. It speaks to Anna Stenning’s account of the day.

Peter identified five: care, collaboration, radicality, access and the sharing of knowledge. Zine-ic research embodies the ethos of zine practices whether or not it uses zines directly (for example, as objects of study, or as a means for communicating research findings). Such research, and the researchers who conduct it, learn from what zines do.

We were, at the time, in the early stages of planning the Reimagining mental health event, and had been thinking about how our event would feature zines as content (in the form of a Madzines workshop and a quiet Madzine reading space). Inspired by Peter, I began to think about how, in the ways in which our event was planned and organised, we too might learn from what zines do.




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‘According to Lao Tsu the truest hospitality is when the host is like a guest, and the guest like a host’. Ben Okri in ‘A Time for New Dreams’.
Our day was summed up by one participant as a ‘really warm and gracious event where everyone seemed to relax’. That was helped by the presence of some expert facilitators – of conversations, experiences and activities. Some are described in Anna’s blog, but there were others too, such as the mindfulness and observation based activity run by Rachel Deadman, from Ludus Dance, in the Gregson cafe bar.
There were of course some limitations too – things that we might have chosen to do differently. Could the event have been made more accessible? Almost certainly so. There were people, and therefore perspectives, missing from our conversations and debate. There were tensions too around the zines themselves – how to make our lovingly collated MadZine library available to read, without them getting lost!
We have been particularly struck, in this project, by the ‘feel’ of zines; how you can hold one, and it can act as a counterpoint to social media. Zines are small and they are mobile. They move around, and easily escape the places that seek to contain them. In this event, a string of zines migrated from the main hall to the Gregson café bar, where they have stayed.

One person who attended wrote in our visitors book:

“Apart from the learning & knowledge of madness and mental health through sharing understandings, I had a chance to observe how an impactful event can be designed. I wish I could design an event like this. Maybe one day. I hope to do so. Thank you for being a great role-model for this’.
We were pleased to get the feedback, but our zine-ic approach to event organisation requires that we see it as directed, not primarily to those humans involved in organising, but to the zines themselves!

We are grateful to the Eric Wright Charitable Trust for funding the Reimagining Mental Health event, to the Gregson Centre for their graceful and generous hosting of it, to Lancaster District CVS for their support in the run-up and on the day, and to the many other people who gave up their time to help with the planning, the event itself and the clearing up! Many thanks too to Tania at Love Lily Floral Designs in Ullswater Road Lancaster for the beautiful flowers which due to an oversight on our part failed to make it to the venue but were much appreciated by Gregson centre punters in the days that followed.
To get more of a sense of the day itself, read Anna Stenning’s related blog post.
Comments
An interesting concept. I was not invited to Coventry and no funding for an event myself at BCU. Probably needs to be seen to be properly understood.