Friday: The Zine Project began on Friday night with all our participants gathered at Andrea Moore's residence in Denver, Colorado. Using the Beat Generation as a springboard for our content, we learned a bit about the Beats and their history in the Denver area. After a group reading of Ginsberg's 'Howl,' we headed downtown to eat dinner at My Brothers Bar, a local joint known for its history as a haunt to some of the most famous Beats of the 50s. After discussing the Beats, grabbing a bite, and filling out a brief worksheet, we took to the streets to interview locals about some of the questions we'd been reflecting on. We asked strangers to use 5 words to describe their generation, we inquired as to what made them "howl," and with our answers in hand, we left the chilly autumn streets to return to Andrea's house to begin the next phase.

Upon returning home, the participants wrote down some of the ideas from their interviews that had caught their attention. We also jotted down key phrases and words we overheard during our outing. Having placed these phrases and ideas into different hats, we began drawing them out at random, locking in some of the key concepts we'd be drawing from for the rest of the weekend. At this time we also drew names from the hats to create a total of three editing teams of five member each, working to create three sections of one larger zine. Shortly after that, we found our way towards sleep, with our thoughts and discoveries of the evening playing through our thoughts, developing slowly into ideas we'd use the following day.

Saturday: Saturday morning we arrived bright and early to the location that would be our headquarters for the remainder of the weekend. The generous people of The Genesis Group lent us their office space, where we were able to use their conference rooms, kitchen space, and printing facilities. The first thing on the agenda was for us to take our ideas from the night before and individually come up with the concepts we wanted to develop for the finished zine. Each artist was responsible for three pieces of work - one textual, one visual, and one up to the artist's discretion. Everyone wrote their ideas on separate Post-It notes, and we stuck these to the wall of the conference room. Then it was up to the editing teams to choose which pieces of content they wanted to go into their section of the zine. After a brief meeting to discuss themes and style, the three teams met in front of the wall of Post-It notes for the "draft pick." After the selection process, individual parts of the zine began to take shape. Participants took the afternoon to create the content from their Post-It notes with the editing teams' individual visions in mind. After a long day of work, the components of our work were really beginning to find their form. Although we broke early to return home and celebrate together, many worked late into the evening, finishing their art in time for the Sunday morning deadline.

Sunday: Sunday found us a bit bleary eyed as we reentered the space. With the content completed, editing teams began to lay out their sections page by page; they organized the art, chose the order and layout of the work, and added personal elements of style. Once each page was laid out, the editing team submitted a master copy of their section to be assembled with the other teams' sections. For the final phase, each member of the editing teams went on to one of five finishing teams: four for the four parts of the zine jacket (the front cover, the back cover, the table of contents, and the project credits), and one to oversee the collation and printing. As the photocopier began running off the first editions, most of the group headed to our closing location to set up our "coffee house." As a cap to our weekend, we hosted an event at the home of Roger and Becky Wehling to show our final work to some of the Denver community. With coffee and baked goods, participants took to our open mic and presented their work from the weekend, and audience members were encouraged to participate as well. After a few tense moments following printing malfunctions and paper jams, the last of our crew arrived with the finished product, which was greeted by cheers and eager hands. The coffee house closing was a success and the participants and our guests celebrated the completion of the new work together.

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