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Reading the Migration Library News

A wall with brightly coloured printed posters taped onto it.

Zine Swap

June 22, 2025

Publications from all three phases of the Reading the Migration Library were popular at last week’s Zine Swap, hosted by the students of the summer course, “Independent Publishing and the Democratic Multiple” (instructed by Jean Chisholm with the expert print and design support of Kathlene Jacques at Emily Carr University). Since it was their final…

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Liza Leyla's book is lying on top of the postage stamped envelope that is was sent in. The cover has a simple drawing of a woman in a strapless gown reaching out to a tall flowering plant.

Publications from Belgium

June 21, 2025

It is always delightful to receive publications by the poet-nymph Liza Leyla (Eliza Muylaert). As I wrote in a previous post, Liza Leyla’s mailed publications are keeping the project Renegade Library and the memory of Guido Vermeulen alive. In the latest offering, Journal d’Amapola / Pleine Lune, poetry is mixed with short prose sections organized…

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Six art cards are lying on a wooden table. They feature drawings of ordinary objects on blank backgrounds. Some include thread and ribbons and layered papers.

Exchanging Prompts

June 16, 2025

Let’s say that 2025 is the year of creative prompts, over here at RML HQ. It is now six months into Everyday Things, a year-long series of creative provocations in mail art by Cyndy Chwelos. Just before the start of the year, Chwelos invited a small group of friends and colleagues to join in a…

Read More Exchanging Prompts

Eight colourful, collaged zines made at the zine-making event are arranged on a table.

Social Justice Zine-Making Celebration

April 21, 2025

Reading the Migration Library (RML) publications were exchanged –and even created—at an end-of-semester zine party put on by the Social Justice Community of Practice (SJ CoP) at Emily Carr University.  The SJ CoP is facilitated by ECU faculty members Banafsheh Mohammadi and Hyein Lee. The event was a fun making-time that resulted in the publication of…

Read More Social Justice Zine-Making Celebration

From the publication, a large drawing of the Chnese character 米 mǐ (uncooked rice or grains) is seen.

Three Generations Happy Family

April 21, 2025

The publication Three Generations Happy Family by Jenie Gao takes the form of a three-section menu to mimic those found in Chinese food restaurants operated by immigrant families like Gao’s. The contents of this one recount in a timeline the family’s origins in Taiwan during rice rationing, and their lives as family restaurant owners in…

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Six photos are spread on a table with an open mailing envelope behind them.

Brandon Leung’s Houseboy Series

April 21, 2025

The photographer and archivist Brandon Leung got to know RML well through the community folding/binding events that took place at the Emily Carr Library in 2024. Since then, he has generously mailed to RML headquarters a set of photos from his ongoing photo project, Houseboy. The two sets of photos (three in colour and three…

Read More Brandon Leung’s Houseboy Series

Four handmade artistamps each have a slogan made from cut up text and collage: "collage expressing your inate creativity", "handmade is heart made", "mail art happens here", and "explore the unexpected".

Gingersnaps Mail Art

April 21, 2025

Although the mail art of RML contributor Ginger Mason (also known in mail art as Ateliergingembre and Gingersnaps) has been documented in this Exchange Gallery already (here and here), it keeps arriving and it keeps inspiring! In 2025 it has included the collaged artistamps and colour flutter books pictured below, among other joyful items. The…

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A small room containing two armchairs with cushions infront of floor to ceiling bookshelves, over-stuffed with books. Infront of the chairs is a display table with the publications from the third RML series.

Geraniums, a Blue Glass Cat, and Weather Exchanged in the Frontyard

March 14, 2025

On February 24 2025, Frontyard Projects, an artist-led centre in the Marrickville neighbourhood of Sydney, was the site of a single-table “Mini Zine Social” presented by the makers (and swimmers) behind “Small Press Swim Club”. They also hosted a presentation by me about mail art and exchange economies in the projects Renegade Library, bosque brotante…

Read More Geraniums, a Blue Glass Cat, and Weather Exchanged in the Frontyard

Migration Storytelling (Research and Art)

March 14, 2025

L to R – Christina Clark-Kazak, Lois Klassen, Soodi Joolaee, Anniya Asrani, Erin Goheen Glanville, Francisco Fernando Granados Reading the Migration Library is a project that takes an unbounded approach to migration as well as creative methods. Aside from the method of making a book-like publication that is constrained to the size of a quarter-letter…

Read More Migration Storytelling (Research and Art)

Three small folded paper books are standing in a line.

Keep this: making mail art

March 9, 2025

Five years ago we were trying to get our heads around the horrors of a pandemic that was overwhelming cities’ capacities to bury victims, caused health officers to weep in press conferences, and saw hospitals expanding emergency departments into tent-covered parking lots. We wondered how long seniors and teens could endure “social distancing.” What would…

Read More Keep this: making mail art

Two pages of Brenna Maag's An Invitation TO Notice" desk calendar are spread out on a table. They each show blurred images of trees and foliage from a pin hole camera exposure. One is a winter scene and one is of green leaves in summer.

Alternate Exposures

December 9, 2024

“A calendar you are not allowed to keep” seems the perfect exchange for Reading the Migration Library publications, which you are not allowed to buy. The calendar, An Invitation to Notice, is an innovative desk calendar that artist Brenna Maag has just produced and released in an edition of 400. That is a big number…

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SAFE zine cover fills the frame. It features a black and white photo produced by a pin hole camera. The photo shows a fuzzy silhouette of a single human figure framed by trees.

Zine Exchange at SAFE

October 14, 2024

During our artists-in-residence at the McLoughlin Gardens cottage in the Comox Valley, we (Deanne Achong and Lois Klassen) had a chance to attend the “Art Opening + Artist Talks” for the exhibition SAFE at the Comox Valley Art gallery (CVAG). The title for the exhibition and its accompanying zine includes this byline, Holding space for…

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A small wooden shelf holds about 20 poetry chapbooks and memoirs.

Books Exchanged for Reading at McLoughlin Gardens

October 11, 2024

Deanne Achong and Lois Klassen were hosted as artists-in-residence at the McLoughlin Gardens cottage for a wonderful week at the beginning of October (September 29 to October 6). The week involved luxurious cabin time filled with long-gazing at the north Salish Sea, long-wandering on fern-lined forest trails and empty dirt roads, folding accordion pages and…

Read More Books Exchanged for Reading at McLoughlin Gardens

Graphic RML3 Undercurrents and Folds text against a dark blue watery image.

RML3: Undercurrents and Folds Events

September 28, 2024

Reading the Migration Library, a long-running artist project that has produced events and publications in the theme of migration and displacement, has just released its third and final series called RML3: Undercurrents and Folds. 

Read More RML3: Undercurrents and Folds Events

Five books are spread on a table with a pottery mug in the top right corner.

Words exchanged at Word Vancouver

September 28, 2024

The official launch of the series RML3: Undercurrents and Folds took place at Word Vancouver Festival on September 28 at UBC Robson Square in downtown Vancouver. WV has been around for years as a free destination for those with book and comic passions, including writers and publishers who can find each other there to talk…

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Accordianb boos on a table

Artist Book Reading and Talk at CVAG

September 28, 2024

The Comox Valley Art Gallery  will be hosting a reading on Thursday, October 3rd, with artists Lois Klassen and Deanne Achong. The artists are conducting creative research and development during an artist-in-residency at the McLoughin Gardens. Lois and Deanne will be at CVAG at 6:30pm on Thursday, October 3, to read from RML3: Undercurrents and…

Read More Artist Book Reading and Talk at CVAG

Announcing, RML3: Undercurrents and Folds

September 2, 2024

We are excited to announce the upcoming release of RML3: Undercurrents and Folds. Lois Klassen and Deanne Achong are excited to announce that they have begun work on phase three of Reading the Migration Library, or RML3: Undercurrents and Folds. This phase will result in publications produced collaboratively together with six artists.

Read More Announcing, RML3: Undercurrents and Folds

The exhibition catalogue, in the form of a stapled brochure, is seen open to its first page. The artists' names (Fawn Daphne Plessner and Susanna Kamon) are printed on the right side along with the title, "Near Dwellers as Legal Beings". On the right the inside cover features an image of a coyote at the edge of a forest-lined body of water.

Mail Art Report: 3 books

March 5, 2024

So far in 2024 three publications have landed in my hands. Fawn Daphne Plessner recently left a copy of the exhibition brochure Near Dwellers as Legal Beings in my work mail box. It is from a 2023 exhibition at The Tree Museum & Street Road Artists Space (Cochranville, PA) that is part of a year-long…

Read More Mail Art Report: 3 books

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