If you\u2019ve been downtown in the last few months, you might have noticed \u2014 amidst all the tourists \u2014 a new zine has hit the shelves.<\/p>\n
MYTH zine offers a new selection local art and poetry every month, all for $1. The black and white pages, folded and stapled together, hold a surprising variety of hidden gems but there\u2019s a catch: It\u2019s completely anonymous.<\/p>\n
The poets, artists and photographers could be anyone. They could be your neighbor. The writer of the poem that begins \u201cMy god comes dressed in black rot and wings dihedral\u201d could be serving you coffee. And you could be sitting in the cubicle next to the author of the verses,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIf everything follows everything else,<\/em><\/p>\n You could be the progenitor of yourself.<\/em><\/p>\n In the room the women came & went,<\/em><\/p>\n Talking about quantum entanglement.<\/em><\/p>\n The opposite of a great lie is also false.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n All you will know is their number (2 and 18 in this case), which stay consistent across issues, and their 140-character bios in the back, which are sometimes artworks in themselves. 20 \u201cis wondering about how the tallest trees pull water up from their roots\u201d and 17 \u201cis doing the art thing again, despite her [horribly misguided] opinion that worthwhile art cannot manifest from all her recent smiling.\u201d<\/p>\n To find out more about this anonymous manifestation of Juneau art, the Capital City Weekly sat down with MYTH zine\u2019s founder, known by his number 1, and his collaborator, 8.<\/p>\n 1 decided to start the zine after returning from Seattle, where he had felt disconnected from his surroundings. He knew he needed an outlet to connect him back to Juneau, and \u201cit ended up being this form.\u201d<\/p>\n 8 came to the project a little later but with great excitement. When 1 first floated the idea past him via text, he said, \u201cwhen I texted back I had like thirteen exclamation marks. I was like \u2018YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou didn\u2019t even have a name yet,\u201d he reminded 1.<\/p>\n The name, like much of the look and form, came organically.<\/p>\n \u201cDecisions just fell into place,\u201d said 1. \u201cLooking back, I could have named it anything. I\u2019m really glad I didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n The decision to have the whole zine be anonymous was more personal. 1 wanted to publish his own work but didn\u2019t want the zine \u201cto just be this huge ego thing. \u2026 I was like, I\u2019ll make it anonymous so it\u2019s not just about me.\u201d<\/p>\n Anonymity, they\u2019ve found, has its strengths and weaknesses. By de-emphasizing authorship, it puts the whole focus on the art.<\/p>\n People can get distracted judging art by its maker, said 8. A beautiful photo can become great in the eye of the beholder just by having a famous name attached but in MYTH zine, \u201cit\u2019s purely about content,\u201d he said. This gives new people a chance to be recognized by the strength of their own work and lets artists to take a risk with what they have to say.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause it\u2019s anonymous, there\u2019s a little more of a chance to say that ridiculous thing that you\u2019re super scared to say,\u201d 1 said, \u201cand there\u2019s a little more of a chance to read that ridiculous thing that you\u2019re super scared to feel.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a message in a bottle,\u201d he added. \u201cI can\u2019t even begin to imagine what important things could be said.\u201d<\/p>\n 1 and 8 have found, however, that anonymity limits their submission pool.<\/p>\n \u201cProfessionals generally don\u2019t want to be anonymous,\u201d 8 said. Well-known photographers like Mark Kelley or Ben Huff would be assigned a number just anybody else.<\/p>\n But for the amateur photographer or the poet who has never submitted their work anywhere before, MYTH zine offers an opportunity for \u201clow-risk expression.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSpeaking as an artist who had a really hard time exposing their work to the world and was really worried about what people would think about it, I can\u2019t honestly think of a good reason why a budding artist or someone who hasn\u2019t exposed their work yet shouldn\u2019t submit to MYTH,\u201d said 8. \u201cIt\u2019s an amazing opportunity to see your work in someone else\u2019s book.\u201d<\/p>\n Submitting to MYTH zine isn\u2019t entirely without the risk of rejection, though. 1 and 8 do curate their submissions, with 1 calling the final project \u201ca playlist\u201d and 8 comparing it to \u201ca bouquet of really beautiful flowers.\u201d<\/p>\n The quality of submissions has surprised them.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m always so impressed\u201d said 8. \u201cI\u2019ve been doing poetry in Juneau for five or six years now, so I mistakenly assumed that I know all the good poets.\u201d<\/p>\n The zine considers not only photos, art and poetry but anything that gets submitted. 1 and 8 said they would even print a QR code for a song or video online.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you have that excited energy about what you\u2019re doing, then that\u2019s the consideration,\u201d 1 said. However, he added that he wants to keep it mostly poetry, calling it \u201ca central part of the vision.\u201d<\/p>\n Submit your piece at myythzine@gmail.com. They take submissions from around Southeast.<\/p>\n Keep an eye out for copies at The Rookery, High Tide Tattoo, Rainy Retreat Books, Goldtown Nickelodeon, Kindred Post, Alaska Robotics, the JACC and soon, Pie in the Sky. Snag your copy soon. Once an issue disappears from the shelves, it\u2019s gone \u2014 and where else are you going to find lyrics that combine the j\u00f6kulhlaup with Rimbaud?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you\u2019ve been downtown in the last few months, you might have noticed \u2014 amidst all the tourists \u2014 a new zine has hit the shelves. MYTH zine offers a new selection local art and poetry every month, all for $1. The black and white pages, folded and stapled together, hold a surprising variety of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":33077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-33076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33076"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=33076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}