July 15, 2022
The complete run of a pioneering zine spotlighting Afro-punk and Black alternative culture. Launched in 2006, Shotgun Seamstress echoed the brash voice, handmade look, and no-nonsense attitude of punk-rock zines like Maximumrocknroll. But Atoe was determined to elevate Black artists that the broader, mostly White punk culture tended to unjustly ignore. (As one contributor wrote, punk is "just black music played fast"). The author was inspired in part by the 2003 documentary Afro-Punk (she interviewed its director, James Spooner), and she spotlights a host of Black alternative pioneers: avant-garde jazz artist Sun Ra, rasta-punks Bad Brains, X-Ray Spex singer Poly Styrene, performance artist Vaginal Davis, art-punk band ESG, and more. As the zine took on a stronger political tone through its final issue in 2015, Atoe increasingly emphasized current artists and the need to create spaces for them to flourish. She describes how in Portland, Oregon, and New Orleans she booked concerts featuring LGBTQ+, female, and Black artists and organized workshops to teach those communities about art-making and the music business--and weathered accusations of being exclusionary for those efforts. In the later issues, Atoe expanded her lens further, writing about punk and punk-adjacent culture in her family's native Nigeria and the nascent Black Lives Matter movement. As in other punk zines, Atoe honored the idea that punk was as much a community as a brand of music, and she's infectiously enthusiastic about her favorite artists. The zine was just as fierce about calling out bigotry and ignorance in a scene in which Black fans and musicians often felt isolated and dismissed. "Punk is nothing without politics," wrote Atoe, and the discussions of race, art, and inclusion that she stoked have moved into the mainstream. A welcome reprint of an influential, perceptive, still-relevant zine.
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October 1, 2022
From 2006 to 2015, Atoe published Shotgun Seamstress, a DIY fanzine about punk rock that brought Black and queer voices within the subculture into the forefront. All eight and a half issues are reprinted in this anthology. Interviews from various musical acts and performing and visual artists entwine with articles from contributors about their experience as fans in the United States, Brazil, and Nigeria. This book is at its best when it showcases think pieces on racism, feminism, and classism. Their rawness makes these essays just as relevant today as they were during their original publication. Additionally, Atoe uses photographs and artwork that project the eclectic vibe of the punk scene. While some of the page layouts and small fonts may make it difficult for readers with vision impairments to read, they don't take away from the highly charged energy of the anthology. VERDICT A celebration of Black expressions and queer identities that are seen rarely, if at all, in mainstream media. Recommended for libraries with zine collections, as well as music enthusiasts and budding activists.--Anjelica Rufus-Barnes
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from November 1, 2022
The Afro-Punk scene of the late aughts was adapting to a new creative world, marked by warp-speed technological innovation, a false sense of progressiveness, and lingering confusion over the genre itself. Documenting this scene, the zine Shotgun Seamstress was published from 2007 to 2015, by, for, and about Black queers, feminists, and radicals. Author/publisher Atoe transports readers to the not-so-distant past with this compilation of every issue, plus a series of annotated punk-show flyers. Atoe's friends and creative collaborators come to life in vivid detail through their comic strips, essays, interviews, meditations on topics like punk's influence, record and zine reviews, and much more. The clash between the high technology of the era and the zine's analog nature gives the book profound gravitas--Atoe cuts right through the noise of digital media. The book will leave readers furiously immersing themselves in the music and art of Shotgun Seamstress' subjects and contributors, which is where the real magic of this book lies. Zines circulate information freely and creatively, without the limitations of corporate backing. Bringing Shotgun Seamstress to new audiences, this book rightly honors that freedom and Atoe's and her fellow contributors' raw, impassioned zeal for art.
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