ZINE Review - WT Chronicles

Written by men and women on or below the poverty line, WT Chronicles gives a voice to people usually voiceless by exploring issues of class, gender, self-esteem, and life.

WT “White Trash” Chronicles was established by Jen and Sonia; both single mothers who balance work and community action. Jen works full time at a homeless shelter and Sonia volunteered to help rebuild Katrina-Country last spring. Jen is currently enrolled in the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern and Sonia is a recent college graduate. Their mission statement describes WT Chronicles as “a publication celebrating working class writing and art” in an attempt to “fully explore the conditions of poverty that many Americans live under”.

I first met Jen and Sonia at a poetry reading held at Acoustic Coffee every Tuesday (located at 32 Danforth St.), and quickly noticed the effectiveness of the zine, then going into its 11th issue and 11th month. Inside of issue 11 the prose ranged from mamaspitfire’s essay on Class, Masculinity, and the Capitalist Blues, which used real life stories to show how the social construct of male-as-breadwinner has been used to exploit working class men, to The Boss, a work of fiction written by WonderBred about… you guessed it. WT Chronicles also crams in poetry, cartoons, revolutionary lyrics, black and white illustrations, and samples of essays written by recognized writers responding to the politics of class. Not an inch of space is wasted because of the number submissions that Jen and Sonya receive each month.

Besides revealing the local talent, Jen and Sonya have used WT Chronicles as the focus of an educational lecture at the University of Southern Maine and held a benefit with the Portland Victory Gardens Project to benefit Maine Books for Prisoners. This latter feat was achieved by presenting a night of poetry, much of which was previously published in the zine. The turnout filled every seat in the room and left many standing. Since my initial encounter, WT Chronicles has reached its 14th issue and put up a website. If you aren’t in Portland the same week that Kinko’s gets ripped off and miss the printed version, visit wtchronicles.org to find selections from past and present issues’. Another way to get your hands on future WT Chronicles is to write Jen and Sonia at wtchronicles@hotmail.com. WT Chronicles will release a new issue next month (5/1/06).