At this year's IMC Membership Meeting on November 11th, we opened with an Interactive Museum designed by our programming intern, Isabel Ryan. Attendees were invited to write down sensory responses to our Good Vibes Mural by Langston Allston. They also browsed the zine library and collectively curated zines. Read the poem and check out the zine index!

Mural Poem: "Kickback with Langston"

I hear the music of a Beat-Maker in the zone → 

bouncing and driving with spontaneous energy 

Feeling the love of friendship, warm weather, 

and freedom. I hear Destiny’s Child

blasting, voices laughing, it’s hot

So hot sweat dripping 

The summer laughter is louder than the beats from the passing car…

After the chatter stops, the sounds from the boombox hops. 

I sense a goodness, eyes closed for some, is that a leer in her eye? 

The music is jumbled. A mix of poetic rhythm + blues –

Interrupted by the bass of a passing car. 

But it’s music nonetheless +

It’s upbeat and present. 3 voices, harmonizing smooth as silk. 

Loud, loving greetings

Closed eyes

Dance like no one is watching, 

cause everyone loves your moves.

Fall-moving into winter, but a last gasp of colorful beauty

BBQ party in the park. 

Summertime growing up with the music, cars, and enjoying 

a nice game of basketball. I feel the intoxication of sound waves bouncing around 

a reverberating space, calling me to close my eyes and move my body. 

Schools out for summer. 

Does it smell like there is food cooking outside on the grill? 

Summertime, defiance, determination, the vibe of cool, the people speak. 

I see a playground in the back. I see other people talking and kids playing. 

I hear birds chirping. 

It’s fall. I can smell the leaves mix with car exhaust. Music fills the air and children

Laugh and talk around me. 

I hear Zen by Grandson and taste Jones Soda, strawberry kiwi, like when I was 15. 

Zen and kiwi and the reminder that the world is greater than 800 people 

Telling me art isn't a career. 

I feel the quiet, relaxing joy of 

being surrounded by people you love and feeling safe with them. 

Spring! Smells like cherry blossoms. Prince 

on the boombox. 

I see the smiles of little sisters and brothers. 

Life flow. No worries.

Zine Index

 (7) Place a zine or book that made you smile or laugh: 

1. HERESIES A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics: Women Working Together (v. 2  No.3) 
2. Nature Friend Magazine (October 1995) 
3. Two-Fisted Library Stories #7: Spicy Library Stories (2017) 
4. Extended Foreplay (2008) 
5. How to Not Kill Yourself: A Survival Guide for Imaginative Pessimists (Set Sytes) ++
6. Nothing at all will be left unsaid: A publication of Urbana-Champaign Books to Prisoners (Vol. 4, Fall 2008)
7. I LOVE SODA Issue #2 (2012)

(4) Place a zine or book that has you feeling comfort or open-hearted: 

1. Sleepless Sights by Dane Georges 
2. Sci Fi Spring: A collection of science fiction titles for you to explore by a UIUC Library Student(s)
3. Slingshot Issue 134 (Dan Gorostiaga, 2021 )
4. It is what it is Vol 2 

(5) What reminds you of freedom and feeling free? 

1. Whatever you Do, Don’t Talk to the Police
2. The Marxist Theory of the State by Ernest Mandel
3. A Survey of Unconventional Women in pop culture A-Z (Womenhouse Press) 
4. Inhabit: Instructions For Autonomy (2023) 
5. Capitalism and Class Struggle: The ABC’s of capitalism by Vivek Chibber 

(10) Place a zine that has you feeling curious?

1. A User’s Guide to Capitalism and Schizophrenia by Brian Massumi 
2. A Zine About Graveyard Shift 11p-7a by Dave (Grilled Tuna Zines) 
3. Slingshot Issue #114 (2023) 
4. We’ll Be D.U.S.T (Destroyed under the system of today) ([email protected])
5. Sassyfrass Circus: the sophomore issue 
6. Reparations: two views, Dedicated to the struggle of liberation and freedom by Ali Khalid Abdullah and Jahaun McKinley (Political Prisoners of War Coalition Publishing) 
7. The Black Peoples’ Prison Survival Guide: How to survive mentally, physically, and spiritually while incarcerated by Abdullah (Austin Anarchist Black Cross, Firestarter Press) 
8. Inside the Nicaraguan revolution as told by Margaret Randall by Doris Tijerino 
9. Cointelpro: The danger we face (1998) (Unidentified Anarchist Publishing; Loin Cloth Press) 
10. Richmond Journal: Thirty Years in Black & White by Edward H. Peeples