Do you identify as LGBTQ and live in/around New Orleans? Contact klie@imaginewaterworks.org to pick up a free copy from The Imagination Farm (located off Franklin Avenue).
Librarians! Teachers! Friends! The zine has an ISBN to help you navigate purchasing. Contact us directly if you would like help placing an order through your institution, or if you are a nonprofit or business who would like to place a bulk order.
In preparation for hurricane season, we wrote (and drew, painted, recorded, cooked, photographed) “love notes” to this place and to our LGBTQ community, incorporating storm prep tips throughout.
This zine is by us, for us. Every artist, healer, writer, educator, and creator who submitted a piece (1) identified as LGBTQ; (2) lived in Southeast Louisiana; and (3) had prepared for a local flood or storm in the past. This is our love note to you, our chosen family, through whatever storms may come our way.
PREVIEW THE ZINE
ABOUT THE STORM ZINE PROJECT
The Storm Zine Project is a series of zines that provide accurate, actionable, and grounding information to help specific communities prepare for storms and hurricanes. Each zine is made by and for a specific community — and incorporates local art, intergenerational knowledge, and disaster management expertise with a hopeful, joyful, healing vibe.
What is the Queer/Trans Guide to Storms?
This is the first zine in the series, building upon our original Queer/Trans Guide to Hurricane Season. In 2017 with a storm in the Gulf, we quickly threw together a Google doc called “The Queer Guide to Hurricane Season” specifically geared toward people who have moved to New Orleans and who may be experiencing their first storm.
In the years that followed, we expanded the guide to include specific information for transgender, nonbinary and two-spirit folks, renaming it the “Queer/Trans Hurricane Survival Guide”. We’ve continued to add content, making it more useful and relevant each year. In 2019 we began fundraising to convert the guide into a zine, and here we are.
Will there be other zines?
Yes! However, it’s important to us that artists be paid and that the zines be high quality so that they can be used over time. We do not have grant funding for this work and are currently seeking financial support for future iterations of the zine, which will be geared toward additional communities/populations.
If you are a philanthropic organization and would like to partner with us to help support this program, please email klie@imaginewaterworks.org.
Where can I learn more about the process?
More information about our open call for this project can be found here.
How can I support this project?
The Storm Zine Project is currently funded entirely by individual donors who know us and believe in our work. Donate here to help us pay artists and print copies for free distribution to queer and trans folks.
Did you know we’ve been supporting folks through storm season since 2012?
We have actively resourced our communities in coastal Louisiana through concurrent disasters for nearly a decade. Recently, we’ve worked to address the intersections of COVID-19, social injustice, and multiple historical hurricane seasons. Since you may just be finding us for the first time, check out these additional resources to learn more about what we do:
- New Orleans Community Power Map (Charging Stations)
- Queer/Trans Guide to Hurricane Season
- COVID-19 Guide to Hurricane Season
- 24/7 Storm Prep Anonymous Q&A (Instagram)
- New Orleans Community Resource Guide
- Mutual Aid Response Network – “Imagine Mutual Aid” Facebook group for the Greater New Orleans Area
Some of our other recent programs include the Trans Clippers Project, Public Health Workers’ Hurricane Ida Recovery Fund, Hurricane Ida Relief at Encore Academy, Arabi Tornado Relief, Shop Arabi: Sister Hearts Tornado Relief, and the Hurricane Laura Emergency Cash Program.