James Coughlin, Justin Hoock bring new approaches to the genre

By Lee Ames

When people think of zines, they don’t tend to think of historical scholarship or master’s thesis work. But then there’s James Coughlin. 

Coughlin has focus his work to spotlight the civil rights movement, African Amercian history, the “student movement,” and housing segregation in Buffalo. This research is reflected in his zine, “City of Distant Neighbors,” which he’ll be talking about at the inaugural Zine Fest at SUNY Fredonia on Saturday (March 7). 

The event will run from noon to 4 p.m. at the Williams Center Multi-Purpose room. There will be sellers selling their work, students spotlighting their zines and talks from makers, including Coughlin and Justin Hoock, creator of the Fredonia music zine “Rock a Little.” 

Coughlin graduated in 2016 from SUNY Fredonia with a social studies education degree. He used the knowledge he gained to help local Democratic politicians and Senator Bernie Sanders during his first presidential campaign. While doing this, he got to know the Buffalo area and the people within it, which is what drove him to return to school and attend Buffalo State University for his master’s degree. 

With his focus on the Civil Right movement and African American history, Coughlin wanted a way to share his studies with the general public. It was during this time, he discovered zines and the power they play through working at Burning Books on Buffalo’s West Side, where they make zines in-house. After completing his master’s degree in 2023, he now had the access to make and publish his research into a zine entitled “City of Distant Neighbors,” which can be purchased in person or ordered online for pickup at Burning Books. 

Coughlin and Dr. Tiano U. Wilson also co-edited a zine, “The 2025 Freedom School Community Partner Interviews,” based on a project they coordinated last summer.

He said he “felt there was a responsibility as a graduate student to tell my community what that history was and how we can use that history to foster and create positive change and change that was genuinely rooted in justice.”

Zines and other forms of physical art are tools that build community, raise knowledge and attention, and create a contemporary archive for people to come back to and study with. 

This is exactly why he created his zine in the first place. So that members of his community could go and learn about his research that might be otherwise hard to find or digest. 

Coughlin has taken the approach that it’s more important than ever now not become dejected when things get bleak, and people should never be afraid to share what they’ve written. He hopes that others can learn from his talks about the power that zines can hold and the community that they can build. 

When asked what he would like people to take from his talk and from reading his zine, he said, “I think that’s just to encourage folks to make their own zines. Or if they have something that you want to share, or teach others, or information you want to put down in print, make your own zines if you can.

“Find others that are like-minded in that way and work together … Zines are meant to be like grassroots and sort of democratized publishing, and also just ensuring that there’s that intentionality of having information accessible to folks in your community, to build community.”

That is similar to what Justin Hoock, a English adolescent education major at Fredonia, has done with his very own zine, “Rock a Little.” He started it last August, leaving it set out on tables around the college campus. This little zine (it’s about 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches after being folded and cut to make several page) spotlights artists and the people behind the curtain of the Fredonia music scene to highlight those who aren’t always highlighted otherwise. 

Hoock always wanted to be a writer, and after taking literary publishing with professor Michael Sheehan in the spring of 2025, he realized he could do it himself. He felt that there was a major lack of community journalism at Fredonia, and wanted to take it into his own hands (literally). 

Now the zine is six months old and has only gotten more refined with time, bringing light to those who deserve it.

He said, “When you see something on a table where you walk every single day, to class, to work, to home, and you can pick it up and physically hold it without any sort of ads, blockers, stuff like that, I think it’s a lot different of an emotion.”

Hoock will be speaking from 1:00 to 1:20 p.m. to talk about the community of zines on campus.

Coughlin is going to be tabling with Burning Books at Fredonia’s Zine Fest and will also be there to give a twenty-minute presentation for those interested. However, he stated that he wants to be there not just as a seller, but as a resource to talk about the history and political education of zines as a whole. 

The festival is an opportunity to listen to some interesting people, grab a sticker or simply purchase your very own zine. 

This is what the power of zines can do. They bring people together.

Lee Ames is a senior at SUNY Fredonia and an intern with The Buffalo Hive.