Shotgun Seamstress

In 2006, musician, historian, and writer Osa Atoe started Shotgun Seamstress, which run for 8 full issues and several mini-zines until 2015. The zine’s website is full of images from the printed issues, extracts, and a whole range of posting around the topics the zine reflects upon, which is described by the author

a zine by and for black punks, queers, feminists, activists, artists & musicians. Each issue features interviews, articles and a few personal writings that promoted free expression and anti-consumerist/DIY ethics for everyone but especially for black youth. Every single page of every single issue was laid out by hand.

The first six issues of the zine were published as a book in 2012 (the Main collection at LCC Library holds a copy), and the relevance and uniqueness of Shotgun Seamstress is underlined in two interviews with Osa from 2015: The Forgotten Women of Punk: Shotgun Seamstress’ Osa Atoe on the “Super Tiny” World of Black Punk and No More Fiction: An Interview with Shotgun Seamstress.

Our collection holds issue no. 8 of Shotgun Seamstress in Folder 62: Library Catalogue.

Selected issues of the zine are fully available in Shotgun Seamstress zine issue page [accessed 12/2/2021].

A bit more of information can be gathered from two reviews in Tank Magazine and Over Here Zine Fest.