For just more than a month, The Browsing Room at Downtown Presbyterian Church will host ZINE-O-Types, an exhibition of zines and community collaborative print projects featuring artists of Nashville’s Contributor street paper.
The opening reception for ZINE-O-Types is Nov. 14 from 6-9 p.m. during the Second Saturday Art Crawl downtown. The reception will open with a performance from Nashville’s Voices of Resilience Homeless Choir.
The exhibition, which will run through Dec. 19, will feature the full library of the 25 issues published by Contributor vendors in 2026 as well as artworks by members of the Contributor community and unique collaborations by local artists Natalie Butler, Alex Lockwood, Omari Booker and Benji Anderson.
The UNZINE project started in 2024 and is an in-house publication of the Contributor started by local artist Paul Collins. Newspaper vendors produce works and explore their creative side, using their voice to tell their choice of story.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS, ACCORDING TO THE ARTISTS
Sage is a poet, artist, speaker, teacher, actor, director, and filmmaker. Formerly homeless. Addiction/incest survivor.
Fre F. Textiles, collage, acrylic paints, clay, and watercolor “Art to me is the opportunity to put into tangible forms what words cannot express.”
Paul C. is a teacher and artist in Nashville. Paul founded Stagger Press in 2024 as a platform to champion the power of individual voice through storytelling. He has many endeavors, one of which is the Unbannable Library. He is a mentor to many.
Buc. boy hustle. Buc is going to build the Buchanan business empire.
Melinda P. sells and writes for The Contributor street paper, writes poetry, and makes zines. She was born in Nassau, Bahamas. She became a U.S. citizen last year and her grandmother was born in the States.
Dennis T. draws and creates comics. He writes regularly for The Contributor street paper.
Norma B. is a poet and writes regularly for The Contributor street paper.
Will C. is the director of The Contributor. “My vocation is to stand with those whose backs are against the wall.”
Melissa W. is a lot of things to a lot of people. artist, writer, mom, mortician, anti-artist, recovery advocate. She will try to learn anything that remotely interests her and will climb anything except the corporate ladder, mwahaha!
Maurice B. is a mover, shaker, contributor to the paper and zines, seller of essential oils, and a bright spot in the community
Katie and Matt H. create zines together, sell the paper together, and even got hitched at The Contributor office!
Jeffrey W. wears so many hats, he doesn’t have room for them all. He creates zines, shows up to events, cycles across the U.S., and keeps us on our toes.
Daniel H. is an advocate for the arts, a morning coffee artist, a supporter of Daybreak Arts, a vendor, and zine enthusiast.
GUEST ARTISTS
Omari Booker has been featured often in The Contributor. His art is mixed media and he uses found objects as well as ink, charcoal and paint to create his pieces. His show Be was featured on the cover of The Contributor.
Alex Lockwood is a sculptor and the owner and director of Elephant Gallery. He works with repurposed materials, primarily plastics, in very large numbers.
Natalie Butler has been making stitched newspaper art from local newspapers, including The Contributor. This week’s cover is inspired by her work.
Benji Anderson is a self-taught artist who uses many mediums, including acrylic paintings, etch-a-sketches and comics.
Nashville’s Voices of Resilience Homeless Choir is Nashville’s first and only homeless choir, “uniting voices once unheard to create powerful anthems of resilience and hope.”