Paper Cuts

Paper Cuts
  • 5.0 (5)
  • Arts
  • Updated Semimonthly

Paper Cuts is an exploration of the contemporary world of zines and DIY publishing. Through a series of Podcasts and live events, Paper Cuts features writers, performers, and artists who have shared their work in print, on paper, and in small editions. Zines are truly dynamic publications that have built and supported engaged communities around ideals, experiences, genres, music, politics, poetry…anything that can be printed, shared, and/or mailed. Listen to voices that would normally live in your hands and demand your eyeballs.

  1. 22h ago

    Raw Meat Collective

    Guest: Kyle Quinn Host:  Christopher Kardambikis Recorded on May 20, 2026 Raw Meat is an independent publishing house, art gallery, and bookstore based in Chinatown, New York. The project was founded in 2015 by artist Kyle Quinn, who continues to run the collective today. Raw Meat works with a wide range of established and emerging contemporary artists across mediums including photography, painting, sculpture, collage, and installation. While the press primarily publishes artist books, Raw Meat also produces photography editions, exhibition catalogues for independent artists and galleries, and a wide range of fine art ephemera ranging from print to sculpture. Their mission is to create space for and amplify the voices of LGBTQ+ and femme contemporary artists through the documentation and dissemination of their work. Raw Meat focuses on crafting visually compelling editions that explore—through a romantic and critical lens—themes of sorrow, identity politics, queer history, vulnerability, and subversion. Through exhibitions and publications, they aim to foster dialogue with audiences and encourage viewers to reconsider preconceived ideas surrounding happiness, community, identity, and sexuality. Raw Meat is dedicated to supporting projects that might otherwise go unpublished—work that many institutions shy away from due to its rawness, intimacy, or vulnerability. These are productions that deserve an audience willing to engage with their power and beauty. Raw Meat strives to create books and exhibitions that inspire the current queer generation—artists, students, educators, and audiences alike—to create new work boldly and without fear. Over the years, Raw Meat has collaborated with universities, museums, art book fairs, galleries, and curators around the world.

    Raw Meat Collective

  2. Aug 5

    BearBear

    Guests: Diana H. Chu and Benjamin Grzenia Host:  Christopher Kardambikis Recorded on May 4, 2026 Artists Diana H. Chu and Benjamin Grzenia launched BearBear as a self-publishing risograph studio in Milwaukee, WI. BearBear celebrates the intersection between what we put on our tables, where we call home, and who we gather with. Since 2019, BearBear has taught fellow artists about riso, hosted monthly risograph workshops to the public, co-organized events like zine fests or pop-up markets that allow other local artists to sell paper goods and art books, and offered accessible walk-up printing through a program called “Riso Open Studio”. Risography is a 1980s-era digital stencil duplication technology from Japan. It’s a fraction of the cost of screen printing or letterpress, making it a more economical choice for producing art publications. bearbear.co Episode theme music by The Early.

    BearBear

  3. Jul 22

    Sarula Bao

    Guest: Sarula Bao Host:  Christopher Kardambikis Recorded on March 6, 2026 Sarula Bao is an illustrator, zine maker, and community organizer. She directs a small press and programming initiative, Endless Editions, as well as the Brooklyn Art Book Fair (BKABF). Her primary goals and practice are community building by removing barriers of entry for artists, fostering connections and providing space, platforms, resources and labor. She is also a faculty member and the Lead Technician at the SVA RisoLAB. sarula-bao.com

    Sarula Bao

  4. Jul 8

    Calipso Press

    Guests: Eva Parra and Camilo Otero Host:  Christopher Kardambikis Recorded at the Center for Book Arts in New York City on February 20, 2026 Calipso Press is an independent publishing project founded by Eva Parra and Camilo Otero. What began as a small experiment between friends in Madrid found its shape in Cali, Colombia, where Calipso became a space for making books and building community. Today, based in New York, Calipso continues to operate between places, languages, and traditions of print culture. Their work moves between artists’ books, photography, riso printing, exhibitions, and collaborative publishing projects. At the center of it all is a belief that books are more than containers for content: they are social objects that create encounters, preserve relationships, and carry ideas across borders. Whether working with emerging artists, poets, photographers, or long-term research projects, Calipso approaches publishing as a form of conversation shaped as much by friendship and curiosity as by design and production. Eva Parra is an artist, publisher, and educator. Trained in philosophy, her early work focused on color, perception, and the ways we experience images. Over time, these interests expanded through photography, printmaking, and publishing into questions of how we learn, make, and spend time with others. Fermentation is a recurring thread in her practice, both as a material process and as a way of thinking about transformation, care, and the sharing of knowledge. Through books, workshops, and participatory projects, she cultivates spaces for making, conversation, and experimentation together. Camilo Otero is a publisher, curator, and writer working at the intersection of contemporary art, independent publishing, and cultural history. Originally trained as a journalist, he has spent much of his career thinking about how stories are organized, circulated, and preserved, whether through exhibitions, archives, or books. Drawn to artist-run initiatives and the social life of printed matter, he approaches publishing as a way of connecting people, ideas, and places through shared acts of research, exchange, and curiosity. Calipsopress.com

    Calipso Press

  5. Jun 24

    Paul John

    Guest: Paul John Host:  Christopher Kardambikis Recorded on December 11, 2023 and March 12, 2026 This episodes contains two conversations years apart. Paul John (he/him) is an artist, community organizer, photographer, and educator. His work is to connect people and create community via resource sharing, bookmaking, hosting events, and institution building. Paul cofounded Endless Editions and the Brooklyn Art Book Fair. Both organizations focus on creating free or low-risk opportunities in independent publishing and bookmaking. Paul John is currently the Head of Community at NEW INC. Prior to working at NEW INC, he developed the risograph printing program at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, was the coordinator of printing and publishing at the Jan van Eyck Academie, and taught risograph printing at the School of Visual Arts. Paul launched his latest publishing practice, Ijsmaaker, in 2024. Ijsmaaker is a collaborative ice cream making project operated under the guise of an artist residency titled the Breakfast Residency. Artists are invited to eat pancakes, have conversation, and create an ice cream flavor based on their work or their upcoming exhibition. His future ambitions are to continue to foster noncompetitive spaces for communities to flourish via ice cream making and hosting the Breakfast Residency.

    Paul John

  6. Jun 10

    Caroline Kern / Pegacorn Press

    Guest: Caroline Kern Host:  Christopher Kardambikis Recorded on March 2, 2026 Caroline Kern, formerly known as Caroline Paquita, is a visual artist living in New York City. Kern has been self-publishing since 1996 and formally started Pegacorn Press after purchasing her first Risograph stencil duplicator in 2009. Since then, she has released over forty artist books, zines, publications, and printed ephemera representing twenty-five other artists, as well as her own work. Titles are collected and held in personal and institutional collections worldwide and she has exhibited at over 50 art books, small press, and zine fairs since 2012. From 2023-2024, Kern helped create and develop the Pittsburgh Art Book Fair and served as a co-director for the first two years before resigning due to ongoing health issues from Long Covid.  Kern’s publishing practice and ethos are heavily informed by mid-1990s to early 2000s DIY punk culture, of which she was an active member through touring with her bands and zine making. Many of the artists she has worked with were met through her travels over the years and fostering those relationships— and the communities in which they flourished—is one of the driving forces behind Pegacorn Press. She views publishing as a vehicle for investigation, experimentation, connection, and an accessible means to reach audiences beyond traditional art spaces. https://www.carolinekern.org

    Caroline Kern / Pegacorn Press

  7. May 27

    #BLKGRLSWURLD Zine

    Guests: Christina and Courtney Long Host:  Christopher Kardambikis Recorded on March 11, 2024 and May 8, 2026 This episodes contains two conversations recorded two years apart. #Blkgrlswurld ZINE is an award-winning indie publishing house based in New York City. Led by Christina Long, MFA (Global Creative Director) and her younger sister Courtney Long (Senior Editor), since 2014. The press celebrates and documents Black Womxn & Womxn of Color who participate in heavy music genres like Metalcore, Hardcore, Punk and Black Metal. Interviewing bands, reviewing music and vending at zine fairs allow #Blkgrlswurld ZINE to introduce readers to new music and the diversity within music scenes. Zines and artists’ books published by #Blkgrlswurld Press can be found in libraries at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Schomburg Center for Research On Black Culture, The Barnard Zine Library, The NY Public Library and many more. In 2019 Christina Long was awarded a grant from the Sachs Program for Arts Innovation for her work in indie publishing. The grant led to #Blkgrlswurld launching their very first Punk Music Fest and Zine Fair at Philadelphia’s Institute of Contemporary Art in September of 2019. The press accepts open submissions from anyone who supports womxn identifying fans & musicians in the heavy music scene. #heavygirlsloveheavymusic blkgrlswurld.com “Paper Cuts Theme” by The Early @theearly_band // http://theearly.net

    #BLKGRLSWURLD Zine

  8. May 13

    Even the Score 3: Jalen Thomas and Chris Metzger

    Guests: Jalen Thomas and Chris Metzger Host:  Christopher Kardambikis Recorded on February 27, 2026 This is the third of three episodes focusing on the recent publication: Even the Score, guest edited by Lindsay Buchman and published by Homie House Press. Jalen Thomas is an interdisciplinary artist from Prince George’s County, MD. Her work combines photography, quilting, and design to examine Black girlhood and Black feminine domestic identity.  Operating in the intersections between creative play and domestic labor, Thomas’ work is inspired by her mother often creating in collaboration with and for her. Working primarily with textiles and archival family photos Thomas participates in liberatory Black homemaking practices and oral storytelling traditions that have been passed down through generations of Black mothers, sisters, and friends. Currently serving as an Americorp Artist in Residence at 901 Arts in Baltimore, MD, Thomas continues to pass along these traditions to youth by teaching with a commitment to care, joy, and radical imaginative creation. She holds a BS in Graphic design from Stevenson University and an MFA in Community Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Christopher Metzger is a socially engaged artist/educator living and working in Baltimore, MD. As Professor and Department Chair of Art and Graphic Design at Stevenson University, his creative practice often engages communities in collaborative-based projects that encourage an exploration of self within larger social frameworks. Centered on fostering community and the investigation of representational justice through a historical and contemporary lens, his work often critiques and challenges the status quo while developing critical perspectives and an urgency to bring about social change through acts of creative resistance. Working primarily within photographic media and design, Metzger’s personal work is deeply rooted in, and informed by, his relationship to his wife and kids, a Black woman and two biracial sons. Often dealing with themes related to race, class, and identity, they examine their lived experiences through their individual identities and memories, while navigating places and spaces collectively as a family in search of joy, love, and truth. As an artist/educator, Metzger has come to embrace the symbiotic nature of his creative practice. His art is his teaching, and his teaching is his art. For Metzger, these identities are one in the same. Guided by community, agency, justice, and care and informed by his research into decolonizing art and design education, Metzger’s work is committed to the process of un/learning and interrogating the narratives, structures, and systems that have historically been put in place to divide and exclude. Episode artwork by Homie House Press “Paper Cuts Theme” by The Early @theearly_band // http://theearly.net

    Even the Score 3: Jalen Thomas and Chris Metzger
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
5 Ratings

About

Paper Cuts is an exploration of the contemporary world of zines and DIY publishing. Through a series of Podcasts and live events, Paper Cuts features writers, performers, and artists who have shared their work in print, on paper, and in small editions. Zines are truly dynamic publications that have built and supported engaged communities around ideals, experiences, genres, music, politics, poetry…anything that can be printed, shared, and/or mailed. Listen to voices that would normally live in your hands and demand your eyeballs.

Information

  • Creator
    Paper Cuts
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    72
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Paper Cuts
  • Show Website
    Paper Cuts

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