Commissioned by British Library, Simone delivered 4 weeks of workshops at a college in Leeds, working with young people to explore their thoughts and beliefs about football, to complement the British Library’s ongoing project and upcoming exhibition on football fanzines. Simone introduced the young people to zine content and zine making in a variety of creative forms (including creative writing, non-fiction writing, collage and image making, and page design), and gave them creative autonomy to shape the direction of the zine, titled Football. Feminism. Fans. Conversations and explorations ranged from fan culture to a culture of racism, sexism and homophobia, to community and connection, and ugly football kits!
As part of the zine project, Simone also invited creative contributions to be featured in the zine from local Leeds-based poets including Natalie Anastasia Davies, Lence, Louis Glazzard, Kirsty Taylor and Matt Abbott, with footballer Anna Soulsby also sharing reflections.
Football. Feminism. Fans. launched at an event at Hyde Park Book Club hosted by Simone as part of Leeds Literature Festival 2024 and young people took to the stage to share their writing along with the featured poets. Working with local illustrator Megan Dobbyn, young people designed stamps for ink printing and created at DIY station at the event, allowing people to create the own zine covers. The young people also designed badges inspired by lines in the contributed poems to distribute at the event.
Look out for the upcoming British Library exhibition: Football fanzines from print to the digital age.
The Football. Feminism. Fans. zine is the result of a partnership project between Elliott Hudson College and the British Library, and will launch as part of Leeds Literature Festival and feature in an upcoming exhibition by the British Library. This project was funded by the British Library.