I'm a woman and I'm a backbone (Everybody needs one).
– Rufus feat. Chaka Khan
BCKBONE is a zine for Black women and femmes that uses poetry, art, and storytelling to serve up tips, tools, and tonics that empower and affirm. Using both personal and professional lessons, learned and unlearned, about identity, success, power, rage, healing, and love, BCKBONE, which launched in February 2024, serves as a reminder to Black women that we are our own best things.
More than a zine, BCKBONE is a social experiment in radical Black feminism that uses love, determination and a DIY approach to resist marginalization, hate, and playing small. BCKBONE, with its themes of resiliency, joy, and freedom, is a boost. Its affirmative messaging is a balm to Black women who are experiencing historic high rates of burnout, unemployment, and depression as a result of living, loving, and working (often on the frontlines) in racist and misogynist workplaces and homes. It’s a love note, healing overworked sisters who not only give their very best, but are the indispensable forces in spaces where we are often undervalued, tokenized, underappreciated, and undermined.
If you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.
Hundreds of issues of BCKBONE have been distributed for free in NYC, Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit, and Montgomery at women’s conferences, art openings, hair salons, coffee shops, churches, and zine fairs. In the radical tradition of zinemaking, readers can reproduce issues for friends and loved ones, giving them agency to create their own network of joy, appreciation, and camaraderie.
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– Toni Morrison
GET THE LATEST ISSUE!
In this issue– A Black Grrrls Guide to Protecting Our Peace– we are re-imagining our lives through prisms of peace, joy and healing.
You will find a personal story by author, activist and Crunk Feminist Collective co-founder Brittney Cooper on how she navigates grief and rage through crochet and weaving. We drop a provocative excerpt from “Sunlight Through Bullet Holes” by poet and Apollo legend jessica Care moore, while herbalist Kristen Fayne-Mulroy shares how she uses hawthorn to give her courage to do hard things.
Featuring beautiful artwork by Jewel Ham and Kerrita Mayfield, this second issue of BCKBONE inspires and reminds us of the strength we gain when we tap in on a spiritual level. And BONUS: The stunning centerfold is an original collage that you will want to frame!
NOTE: Right now, we can only ship to folks within the United States. Also, no refunds.