Connecting through creativity—the lockdown zine

Lockdown was a creative time for many us. Student and Residential Assistant (RA) Natalie McDonald explains how a collective desire to create led to a flood of artistic output from students at 222 Willis Hall of residence.

During lockdown, they needed a project. It had to be something that would let them connect and express their collective creativity. Choosing a zine project was something that we could all contribute to together, while still maintaining our distance during the lockdown.

The great thing about it is that the students involved were able to use their time to work on their individual pieces, knowing it would be one part of a bigger project. Putting it all together into a zine meant that we had this document where it could all be kept as an artistic record of our lockdown.

We had a wide range of submissions reflecting the diversity of skills in our hall. Everything was represented, from writing, photography, and painting, to recipes, dance, textile work, and non-fiction pieces on a range of topics. At 81 pages long with over 36 contributors, it was a great group effort to get it made. All of our contributors demonstrated huge levels of talent and hard work.

The creation of our zine was a real labour of love that generated a sense of pride and community amongst us even when we couldn’t be together in person. Sending it out to the residents was very rewarding, and we are proud of what we have achieved together. Feel free to check out what we created here.

Natalie McDonald is a third-year student and Residential Assistant doing an LLB/BA in Criminology and Spanish.

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