in the fall of 2021, after so much separation from in-person community, a major family move, and an increased amount of time on the internet... this dream i had to connect the unschooling and self-directed learners of the world with a Community ZINE finally came out of my brain and onto an instagram story...
i put out a call for any and all submissions from young people + adults... poetry, essays, art etc, with the hopes of putting the community in the actual hands of us all.to weave us a little tighter together, to see ourselves and to BE seen-in print format in the mail, if people desire.
the submissions started rolling in and before i knew it, i had a patreon set up to run the subscriptions and allow people to pay as little as $1 a month (or more if they want) to receive a quarterly published zine either digitally or physically.
the very thought of young people around the world running to their mailboxes to see themselves and others all bound in a gritty, handmade zine – displaying their works and words gives me life. especially in a time when we have all lost so much time, connection and the ability to be seen.
i spend many hours each month putting together the zine, and i do not take a single dollar for myself. i recently have collaborated with a couple of very wonderful humans who also volunteer their time, money and supplies to make sure that the zine is printed, bound and packed for mail in the time we promise our patrons (and the one time orders via my website)
each issue is filled with love, community resources, families and art! it will even take you off the pages with QR codes to some rad playlists or directly to specialized membership based spaces for unschoolers and self-directed learners.
If you’d like to subscribe or sustain this project head over to patreon.com/theunschoolfiles for groups, SDE schools, ALC’s, and co-op’s there is a special subscription tier to have 2 copies mailed to your location each quarter and be shouted out in the zine!
to be featured in the zine, send all submissions to theunschoolfiles@gmail.com
Sample Pages From the First Two Issues
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