| Clit
Rocket: Queer revolution!
An interview with
Veruska
Outlaw
from Rome, Italy
by Elke Zobl
November 2002 |
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A queer
zine in English and Italian, CLIT ROCKET talks about GB JONES AND THE BITH OF
QUEERCORE, S/HE of Minnie Bruce Pratt, DERREK JARMAN Biography, harum scarum ,
world pride in roma & tribe 8, haggard raunchy reckless and the amazons, sublime
mutations & del la grace volcano, me & kathy acker of the sublime mutations,
diamanda galas, p.p. pasolini, stone butch blues of leslie feinberg, joan nestle,
lesbian bithces, michelle tea and much more! Check it out! Veruska is sending
these beautiful envelopes with her zine which will truly amaze your postmaster...
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| Can
you tell me first of all a little bit about yourself? How old are you, where are
you originally from and where do you reside now?
I’m from roma
– Italia – where I was born 22 years ago under the sign of saggitarius.
I love tea, cats, photography, spring, bikes & stars! What
do you do besides your zine?
Ocassionally I write another little
lesbian zine filled with song lyrics, quotes, random words and romance. Also,
I’ve recorded a spoken word demotape called “die bitch” to document
the different ways misogyny & sexual abuse effect women’s lives and
the relation of their own body and each other.
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| For
3 years I am running now an anarcha feminist radioshow called “queenbee”
in a local pirate radio every tuesday afternoon. This is my way to give visibility
to feminist & queer history and to let people know out there what’s
happening and changing in these terms…
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For
how long have you been running your zine now? How many issues did you put out
until now? Are you the only editor or is there a team? What made you decide to
start this project? How did you come up with the idea and the name?
3 years have passed by since I started “clit rocket” and I’ve
put out just two issues. The first was written with Federica (the firl who co-hosted
the radioshow with me) and issue two was all done by myself. The way “clit
rocket” came up was magic and funny at the same time! It was late night
of August 1999 and me & Federica were listening music in my room, searching
to write a decent column about our radioshow for this English zine… We spent
hours before to start to write something which made sense and once the inspiration
hit, we couldn’t stop to write about our radio experience, our feminism
points of view, sexuality, punk… what we wrote was too long for being a
simple column, so we came up with the idea to give it a name and start our feminist
zine and so it was… the idea of the name came up by a funny thing a friend
once wrote to me, I love how these two words sounds and look together!
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| | What
topics are most often discussed in your zine?
Homo art, punk, veganism,
gender fuck, lesbian poetry & literature. What
do you hope to accomplish by establishing your zine?
I want my voice
across the wires and be heard. And I want definitely put a break at the racist-patriarchal-homophobic
rules which regulate our cultures and lives cuz that suffocates me! |
What
does zine making (and reading) mean to you? What do you love about zine making?
What’s the most challenging aspect of making zines?
Zine making
means people who take their own space to spread self expression and build new
bonds of communication. Reading zines means: get inspired, educated, motivated…
I love the sensation across my stomach when I sit to write a zine and I love to
feel impatient making it and to know there are people from different parts of
the world waiting to read my zine. I love to get in tough with new people, share
information, stories, stuff, ideas and interview bands & artists I admire
so much! The most radical aspect is the great underground artistic, political,
literature, musical revolution we are building. What
was your first exposure to zines? How did you find out about them? What have they
come to mean to you?
The first zine I’ve read was a local anarchopunk
zine a fiend gave my at a show in town. I liked it a lot but it’s nothing
compared to the first time I had a feminist zine in my hands! The fanzine was
called “Santa riot” and was an Italian riot grrrl zine and it pushed
me to search even more about grrrl zines.
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| Do
you consider grrrl zines as an important part of a movement of sorts? Do you think
zines can effect meaningful social and political change?
Fanzine
to me means: put yourself in discussion, inspiration, creativity, passion &
activism… Yes, definitely! What
does the zine community mean to you?
A community where people support
each other, get inspired, collaborate together.
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What
advice would you give others who want to start a zine?
Make it! What
are some of the zines you admire?
A lot.. JD’S, HOLY TITCLAMPS,
NOT YOUR BITCH, THE VOLCANO, ASSWHINE, RING ON FIRE, CUTLASS, MOHAWK BEAVER, INDULGENCE,
NITE LITE, UNDO, WAY DONW LOW, and I ‘ve recently discovered THREE A.M.
& BRAINSCAN ZINE.
Some great Italian grrrl zines:
WHOOYEAH!
*feminist italian zine with interview, comix, personal stuff...
SECRET GIRL *lil' pesonal zine written
in english ever from the same editor of "whooyeah!", devol_maid@yahoo.it
LE STREGHE *punk feminist italian
zine with inteviews, comix, reviews and much more... lestreghe_zine@yahoo.it
PUNTO
G
* italian feminist zine with interviews about feminist & punk scene in italia
plus, reviews about the #1GRRL FESTIVAL .. madonnina@yahoo.it
BITCH WITCH & HOLY * italian
feminist zine about women in afghanistan, grrls sk8, grrls in snowboard, poems
and interviews..FAGGIO SUNSHINEm FOSDINOVO (MS)
ITALIA.
and also, is not
a grrl zine i want tell you about the most beautiful italian queer zine
SPEED
DEMON: http://www.speeddemon.net
Could
you please describe a little bit the grrrl zine community in your country?
Unfortunatedly, in Italy I don’t know if I can talk of a “community”
cuz there are so few girls who write zines.. anyway, also if there aren’t
lots of girls I find all of them really passionate and most of the time their
stuff is very brilliant! |
| | Do
you define yourself as a feminist? What are the most pressing issues you are confronted
with in daily life (as a woman/feminist)?
Yes, sure! – I’m
a girl of color so it’s racism followed by sexism & homophobia.
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Are
you active in the feminist movement? How?
I consider myself active
in my everyday life! – I believe it’s the way we look at the world
outside and it’s the way we talk & act and how we connect with people
out there. What
do you think about feminism today? Do you see yourself as part of “Third
Wave Feminism” and what does it mean to you?
I dunno if I’m
part of the “third wave feminism” cuz in Italy there’s nothing
about that… but, I’ve read theries and saw stuff and I found that
great!
Which role plays the Internet for you? Does it change your ideas of making
zines and doing/reading zines?
Internet in my life doesn’t
play a big part and it never changed my ideas to make/read zines. Clit Rocket
is and will be ever the same cut’n’paste zine made at home!
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