a galaxy not so far away: THE BRAIN STEM ZINE

As a mental health advocate, my goal is always to encourage folks to think about their brains, in some way, in any way. I first put this mission to paper with The Brain Zine: How often do you think about your brain?.

For this sequel—a galaxy not so far away: the brain stem zine—I narrow the focus to encouraging you to think about your brainstem, in some way, in any way towards which the following images lead you. Better understanding the brainstem was a life-changing revelation for me, and I hope it will also be likewise for you!

Our brainstem is also known as the reptilian brain. We share this part of our body with almost all other vertebrates.

It is a gateway, the only gateway to our brain. The brainstem is the only way in and the only way out for everything we experience. It responds to all our joys, sorrows, and trauma triggers to ensure our survival.

When someone talks to us, they are first talking to our brainstem.

As you journey through your own galaxy not so far away, please think about this.

John

____________________

True to the grassroots nature and traditional intention of zines, a galaxy not so far away: THE BRAIN STEM ZINE is accessible to everyone through a 53-page e-zine edition PDF that can easily be downloaded for free here:

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FROM THE INTRODUCTION:

Generation Z—born between 1997 and 2012—is poised to become the most influential and impactful generation in history. Yet little is truly known about these extraordinary young people, who live in the dichotomy between unprecedented courage and openness unlike the world has ever seen versus the shadows of unyielding stress, pressures, and judgment.

In the iconic spirit of Warhol’s own enthusiasm for exploring popular culture and collecting, most notably his 610 Time Capsules, the ultimate goal of The Gen-Z Time Capsule has been to further answer one of the most pressing questions of right now: Who exactly is Generation Z?

The Gen-Z Time Capsule Zine—designed by Gen-Z Artist Mckay Rappleyea—is one more creative channel for this mission of discovery to reach audiences and ripple onward as a legacy. Like with The Gen-Z Time Capsule itself, you can start here at the beginning and proceed straight ahead or you can explore these pages at random, pausing when something catches your eye and sparks a moment of curiosity or introspection.

For the two of us as educators, advocates, and artists, our journey through conceptualizing and facilitating The Gen-Z Time Capsule has been both a creative passion project and a unique opportunity to learn. And while we have gotten a little closer to answering Who is Generation Z? it is especially satisfying to know that in the process we also got to turn Gen-Zers into a bona fide work of Pop Art!

Nicole Dezelon

Director of Learning & Public Engagement

The Andy Warhol Museum

John Schlimm

Artist, Educator, Advocate, and

Author of Who is Gen-Z?: Everything You Don’t Know About Gen-Z But Should

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Aside from the occasional headache, the likely honest answer is probably “very little.” And even if your mental well-being is front and center on your mind daily, John’s goal is to cut through the often overwhelming, mass-produced, confusing, stigmatized, and mountainous flow of content about mental health, and invite individuals to the very core of this topic—their own complex and beautiful brain—all as a new and more easily navigable starting point for this critical and timely discussion.

THE BRAIN ZINE: How often do you think about your brain? is a free, 79-page e-zine (download link is below) created by John and shared globally as a public art/advocacy project by Allmed Healthcare Management, whose team exemplifies the very mission of motivating and elevating a national and global audience to pursue and achieve their best lives.

In his introduction to THE SMILE ZINE, Dr. Micah T Hoffman, AllMed Behavioral Health Medical Director, writes: “Using only the image of the brain and the word ‘brain,’ The Brain Zine creates a fresh and simplified new pathway for you to think about the three-pound organ inside your head. It provides numerous entry points for you, and people of all ages, to contemplate and discuss the many different, fantastic, challenging, and often mysterious aspects of your brain.”

Inspired by John’s own mental health journey and his public advocacy, THE BRAIN ZINE uses the simple language of one word and one symbol—“BRAIN” and the image of the brain—to invite the reader and viewer of any age and walk of life to engage and begin a renewed, mindful, and life-changing conversation with themselves and others.

In the tradition of other artists who have created zines—such as Keith Haring, the riot grrrl movement, and more recently Austin Kleon, Ben Watts, and even The Jonas Brothers, as well as outsider creatives active in the 70’s and 80’s punk and activist scenes in LA and NYC—each 8 1/2” x 11” page of THE BRAIN ZINE visually explores the brain through contemporary and colorful mixed-media collages and montages of words, images, drawings, and more, which John created old-school style—using pen, paper, scissors, glue, tape, and photocopier.

THE BRAIN ZINE: How often do you think about your brain?

True to its grassroots nature and intention, THE BRAIN ZINE is accessible to everyone through a 79-page e-zine edition PDF that can easily be downloaded for free here:

THE BRAIN ZINE DISCUSSION & ACTIVITY GUIDE

Also, in order to further the impact and reach of this project, John additionally created THE BRAIN ZINE DISCUSSION & ACTIVITY GUIDE as a free 19-page PDF download below. It can be used with students and other folks of any age, as well as community, nonprofit, corporate, and any other groups.

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In order to share THE SMILE ZINE with as many folks as possible–in both a limited-edition print run of 1,000 free copies and an e-zine edition (which is available for free via the download link below), John collaborated with the following organizations:

*Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator Program grant via:

Pennsylvania Council on the Arts 

Elk County Council on the Arts

*Community Education Center of Elk and Cameron Counties

*Ridgway Borough Charitable Fund held at the Elk County Community Foundation

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Welcome to the The Imagination Generation Activity Zine! You can download the zine for free via the button below.

Kids today, born after 2012, are officially labeled “Generation Alpha.” But I like to also celebrate them as The Imagination Generation.

Every human being is born with a limitless imagination. However, today’s kids — newborn to age nine — have more tools and pathways for exploring, cultivating, and wholly realizing their imaginational potential — inside their still-developing brains — than any other generation before them. This moment in time is their jackpot-winning lottery ticket.

The twelve activity pages inside The Imagination Generation Activity Zine are fun, creative, and inspiring tools that you can use with the child or children in your life — at home, in the classroom or library, for programs throughout the community, and more. These activities are meant to help spark, explore, process, and develop the imagination, creativity, curiosity, feelings, connection, participation, and what makes each of us unique and different. They can be used solo, collectively, and/or as supplemental materials.

I believe it’s always important for us adults to remember: We are the superheroes today that The Imagination Generation is relying on to help raise them into the superheroes who will create tomorrow!

And, most importantly, have fun right alongside them!                

John

P.S. The Imagination Generation Activity Zine was created as a companion to my “Raising Up The Imagination Generation” essay, which you can read by clicking HERE.

Other Additional Free Downloads:

The Star Jumped Over the Moon Discussion & Activity Guide for Parents, Teachers, Librarians, & Others

The Star Jumped Over the Moon Activity Zine

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Welcome to The Star Jumped Over the Moon Activity Zine! You can download the zine for free via the button below.

“What is a zine?” You may wonder. Short for magazine or fanzine, a zine is a small circulation collection of images, text, and other artwork that traditionally is handmade and reproduced via photocopier by one person or group around one theme or cause, such as embracing what makes you different and unique, exploring creativity and self-expression, and discovering your potential to leap to great heights in this world!

The Star Jumped Over the Moon Activity Zine is geared toward children ages seven and younger, and can be used solo or as a companion activity guide to my picture book The Star Jumped Over the Moon. Likewise, the pages inside the zine can be completed individually—using crayons, colored pencils, collage, and any other tools, materials, and methods you wish—or as a group and then compiled in various ways to produce original zines for each creator.

The Star Jumped Over the Moon picture book, published by Familius, is a story about discovering and embracing what makes each of us unique individuals. It’s the story of friendship, self-exploration, living and letting go, transformation, and ultimately using our talents and everything else that make us different to navigate the joys and challenges of life, while propelling ourselves toward our dreams and best days ahead. Each reader soon discovers that, indeed, YOU are the star that jumped over the moon!

Have Fun Creating! +++++

John

Other Additional Free Downloads:

The Star Jumped Over the Moon Discussion & Activity Guide for Parents, Teachers, Librarians, & Others

The Imagination Generation Activity Zine

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The misunderstanding of a mental, physical, or other trait, issue, life choice, or way of living that is viewed and labeled in a negative, cruel, and destructive way.

Hello, You!

Welcome to the YOU SMASH STIGMAS! zine, which also includes a Discussion & Activity Guide. You can download the zine for free via the button below.

A big part of our mental health initiative and overall mission at The Kindness Rocks & Smiles Community Project is to break down stigmas of all kinds. We do this by encouraging people of all ages—starting with YOU—to love their brains, to embrace the traits and gifts that make them unique individuals, and to better understand their own extraordinary life journeys—the joys and the challenges—and those of others.

On your own or within a group, we invite you to use the YOU SMASH STIGMAS! zine—both the images throughout this zine and the discussion questions and activities at the end—to explore what stigmas mean to you and what role you can play in smashing through them, for yourself and others.

Together, we can make a positive impact in each of our own lives and the lives of others by recognizing stigmas, understanding how destructive they are, and then putting them where they belong

ENJOY YOUR JOURNEY!

~ Megan + John

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Welcome to the FIND THE KIND! Zine. You can download this zine for free via the button below.

Created as part of the My Kind Zine Series for The Kindness Rocks & Smiles Community Project, the images and activities throughout this zine will inspire you to look closer and more mindfully at all the places in your life and in the world around you where kindness exists, both in the happiest of times and in the more challenging moments.

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Welcome to The Creative Kindness Zine! You can download the zine for free via the button below.

At The Kindness Rocks & Smiles Community Project, we see kindness, smiles, and life itself in infinitely different, brilliant shapes and colors of all kinds and comprised of many different elements, all beginning with each one of us.

And, we believe that kindness is, indeed, a participatory and interactive art form for which each one of us is an unique artist and participant.

Because of the multimedia approach we have taken with everything we are doing at The Kindness Rocks & Smiles Community Project, we are so excited to share our My Kind Zine Series and The Creative Kindness Zine with you.

Most importantly, as you journey through these pages, we hope that you will be inspired to embrace your own self-expression, reflection, and creativity, and have fun!

And please be sure to check-out our Creative Kindness Zine Workbook.

ENJOY!

Megan + John

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Welcome to The Plant KINDNESS Zine! You can download the zine for free via the button below.

At The Kindness Rocks & Smiles Community Project, we believe in the potential of every person to plant, cultivate, and spread kindness and smiles everywhere they go, starting with our own everyday lives. Kindness is, indeed, a multimedia, participatory and interactive art form for which each one of us is an unique artist and participant.

We created The Plant KINDNESS Zine as part of our My Kind Zine Series so that you can creatively and mindfully use the letters of “kindness” as a starting point for self-expression and for further thinking about what it means to plant kindness and the ripples of those words and actions.

On the zine’s pages, you will find two sets of “KINDNESS” letters that we each created just for you. Now, it is up to you to choose one or more of those letters, print them out, and then color, draw, collage, stencil, journal, and do anything else you want on those pages. Then, find a special place to plant your letter page, which can literally mean digging a hole and burying your seed of kindness in a special location or even in a potted plant, hanging it somewhere for others to see, or maybe hiding it somewhere so that others (or even you) may come upon it someday.

We would love it if you would then please share one or more of your completed Plant KINDNESS letter pages with us—especially photos of you actually planting the letters—on social media by tagging us on Instagram and Facebook with @KRScommunityproject.

Most importantly, have fun and never forget that even your smallest kind acts and words have the power to change the world, one person at a time, beginning with YOU!

Enjoy!

Megan + John

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