This fall, copies of the Inky Fingers show zine first began to appear in stores, cafes, art galleries, and other gathering points around Berkshire County.
“A zine is short for magazine, and the short part means that the only person who is responsible for the zine is the maker, and they're not really responsible to anyone else," Joey Chernila. “So, it means that it is a very direct way to express your opinions, and it comes from two very significantly marginalized communities in the early 20th century, the community of queer folks who needed to express their views in a way that was not constrained or censored in any way, and in the community of sci fi nerds who wanted to write about their favorite hardcore science fiction and wanted to do so in a way that was unconstrained. So, zines kind of come out of a dual world of fan fiction and need for clear, unfettered political expression.”
Chernila was inspired by the now defunct Chosen Family show zine that documented the goings-on of the nearby Hudson Valley.
“I actually made a show zine for the Berkshires that was entirely fictitious- Fictitious bands, fictitious locations, and basically made the show zine that was totally pretend," he told WAMC. "It was a really snarky process. I said things like, yes, this is this show is going to happen in the hidden underground bunker under the Great Barrington gazebo, and things like that. Or I said that the White Stripes were going to play at Denny's Garage on Route 41 in West Stockbridge. And yeah, I made that, I thought it was funny, I printed it out, I even put one up in town. And then by the end of the night, I didn't feel good about it, and I realized that I wanted to genuinely make something that people could use, and so I replaced every one of those fake and fictitious shows with something real that people could do in the Berkshires.”
Inky Fingers represents Chernila’s good faith effort to celebrate a county all too often defined by its tourist seasons.
“Really, it's about taking a look around the room and seeing who's still here," he explained. "I remember seeing a storefront window at the beginning of the summer. It said, ‘Welcome back to the Berkshires.’ And I felt really hurt by that. I thought, man, I've been here the whole time, and so have a lot of other people. Absolutely no hate on anyone who is coming to the Berkshires to have a good time, that brings a lot of great culture to the area, but there's also a lot of great things happening here while everyone else is away. And so, I thought, let's actually just take a moment in these quieter months to look around the room and see, who is going to go to the shows with us? Who's putting on the shows? Who are the venues that keep the lights on when everything else feels so quiet? Because there's a lot of people who think that we just kind of cease to exist after the high tourist season. It's not that I want to prove them wrong- I just want to make a space that feels like everyone who's here has something to do and that we can find each other.”
Chernila believes that there’s something about a zine that can help bring a community together.
“It's a nice thing for people to sort of hold the zine in their hands that they can really delve into, circle the events they want to go to, call somebody and say, oh, I didn't even know this venue was open in the winter, or, I didn't know these guys were coming through," he said. "There's a lot of stuff that, just in my own research, I'm surprised at how much is happening and how many options there are just in our county, without even having to go outside of it.”
Copies of Inky Fingers are available for free throughout the Berkshires.
“In North County, there's several spots- You can stop by Belltower Records in North Adams or Savvy Hive in North Adams," Chernila told WAMC. "In Pittsfield, you can stop by WANDER or Ayelada. You can stop by at Lenox Coffee, Stockbridge Coffee, or No. Six Depot, and in Great Barrington, you can stop at No Comply or One Mercantile or Bon Dimanche on Railroad Street.”
The November issue is titled “Handbook for the Recently Berkshired.”
