In our age of consumerism with fast-past and disposable attitudes permeating mainstream culture, we often have to remind ourselves to put a sense of self care back in to our daily practices.
This is the aim of One of My Kind (OOMK) zine, a biannual publication that provides a safe space for women to explore how their art practice can be shaped by art activism and faith.
OOMK is a collaborative publishing practice led by Heiba Lamara, Sofia Niazi and Rose Nordin. The word ‘collaborative’ is key the biggest key to the magazine’s ethos – beyond inhabiting physical spaces, the presence of the text itself is drawn from decolonial, feminist, religious and punk movements which inspire imaginative methods of self-organisation.
Each issue of the zine orbits content that explores ideas of faith, activism and identity, positioning itself in a tradition of independent publishing by taking a more design and craft approach to print, using art as a tool to communicate and create communities.
OOMK was established in 2014 by Rabbits Road Press, a community and education focused risograph printing press in London. A collaborative and making-focused approach is encouraged whilst practicing in this space as a means to dismantle racial and gender hierarchies within the creative industries, with the aim of correcting imbalances and erasures created by mainstream art and education institutions.
Beyond interaction with regular attendees, OOMK usually work with schools and organisations via workshops to encourage young women to explore their art and faith. With such a collaborative method of self-organisational art practice and enormous amounts of care practiced over long periods of craft making, OOMK is a true example of how to craft an alternative art space for women in the creative industry.
