Media: Zine
Population: older adults with bipolar and related disorders
I don’t know that I can say too much yet about the zine creation process without the zine physically in my hands, but I look forward to what the class has created together. I did like the thought of making something that would become a part of something larger.
Older adults are often a misunderstood group, and those with bipolar and related disorders are even more misconstrued. I imagine that this is incredibly frustrating, especially for those who may not have the cognitive, social, and/or verbal capacity to express themselves in healthy ways. Marshall & Rogers (2010) hold that zines can be a way for people, especially marginalized and underserved populations, to share their lived experiences. A zine would give adolescents a way to offer their stories, messages, and counter-narratives in a safe and contained manner (Marshall & Rogers, 2010) that is pre-recorded in a sense. The zine could be an individual endeavor that tells a story or multiple narratives or a compilation of work from a therapy group. Houpt et al. (2016) found that group zine creation in a nursing home and the sharing of the zine both in and outside of the home led to participants building personal connections, chances to communicate, identity exploration, and a catalyst for personal growth, intellectual discussions, as well as self advocacy.
While zines can be associated with younger populations, older adults have a lot to gain by making zines in art therapy, and the audiences for these zines have much to learn from them.
References
Houpt, K., Balkin, L., Broom R.H., Roth, A.G. & Selma (2016) Anti-Memoir: Creating alternate nursing home narratives through zine making, Art Therapy, 33:3, 128-137, DOI: 10.1080/07421656.2016.1199243
Marshall, E., & Rogers, T. (2017). Youth, poetry, and zines: Rewriting the streets as home. Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature, 55(2), 28-36. doi:10.1353/bkb.2017.0021