Our New Collective Musings Zine

OMG!! Have you heard the news? We’ve finally launched our brand new bilingual zine COLLECTIVE MUSINGS! We’ve been working on this exciting project for months, and it’s about time we show you the end result of this collaborative creative process.

What’s a zine, you ask? It’s a self-published booklet containing various works of art such as writing and illustrations (and other forms of art too). It’s an awesome way to express ourselves and share our art with the world in a unique and visually-interesting way. Our mission for COLLECTIVE MUSINGS was to give members of La Pimbêche’s community the opportunity to express themselves. We wanted them to SHINE, so we sent out a call for submissions for written pieces on the theme of identity and self-empowerment. Nothing could have prepared us for what came next…

We were gobsmacked. The pieces were SO GOOD we fell off our chairs. Literally!

We couldn’t believe how lucky we were to receive such beautiful, vulnerable pieces. We were grateful for our community’s trust and to the 10 writers who chose to publish a piece with us. Over the course of several months, La Pimbêche considered each piece carefully and created personalized illustrations to include in the zine. The end result is a colourful, art-packed zine filled with thought-provoking and inspiring writing.

Several topics are explored in the zine: mental health, sexuality, the body, self-awareness, social media, inner strength… There are pieces in French and in English. In her poem Nature morte, Gabrielle Riendeau chose to explore the theme of identity and self-empowerment by sharing her experience with depression: “I was inspired by my own life experience, and I used nature-related metaphors to convey the feeling of renewal, i.e. the seasons, to show that even though leaves can fall off trees, warmth and life always returns.”

Gabrielle C. explored the theme of identity in her poem Qui suis-je sans toi? after a discussion with her therapist. “My poem refers to a ‘you’ that can be interpreted many ways, depending on the reader’s perspective,” she says. “To me, its meaning is very personal and I’ve been thinking about it for a long time. I finally managed to put into words the thoughts and feelings I had about identity after discussing it with my therapist, and it seemed like a good fit for Collective Musings.”

In addition to being a safe space for self-expression, COLLECTIVE MUSINGS also offered some writers the opportunity to be published for the first time. It was the case for Laurianne, who wrote À: toi.

She shared with us that she’s been writing for years: “My dream is to publish a book, but I’ve never said it out loud. Writing a piece for Collective Musings is a first step towards achieving that goal, a goal I’ve been dreaming of since childhood. Thank you to La Pimbêche for including us in this project, and including my words with those of others, who I am certain have so much to say too!” We believe in you Laurianne :)

We’d like to thank Gabrielle Riendeau, Emilie Sauriol, Em, LaWaïtz, Élodie L.S., Zelda, Catherine Bellefleur, Laurianne, Gabrielle C. and Michelle Béland for being part of this issue :)

This zine is fresh. It’s new. It’s exciting. We hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we had fun making it. A lot of love went into this project! If you haven’t had the chance to grab a copy yet, we hope that you do so soon because quantities are extremely limited. Use promo code ZINE22 until April 22nd for free shipping on your zine order!

xx The badass team at La Pimbêche