August 20, 2021

In Activity 1 for this month, we gave you some pretty heavy sources (heavy on multiple levels, we feel: 1) the racist content, 2) potentially a lot of reading, depending on how much the sources pulled you in, and 3) the sources included such a broad range of subject matter, despite having similar purposes). To balance the month out, we thought we’d try something a little different and challenge your creativity by having you make your own primary source! This will, hopefully, allow you to process the aspects of Activity #1 that sparked a strong reaction within you, and give you an outlet to emphasize aspects of life in La Crosse that you are passionate about.   

Here are some questions to help guide you:

• How would you design your own promotional campaign for attracting tourists and migrants to La Crosse?
• Would you include a section about the community’s history?
• If yes, how would you frame La Crosse’s history?
• How would you frame our current community, culture, environment?
• What would your main focus, or selling point, be?
• How would you acknowledge the Ho-Chunk land that our community occupies?

We don’t want this to stress you out, we simply want it to exercise that historian brain of yours! If you can, join us at our August 25 meeting and pitch your idea. You can have a verbal pitch, or if you would like to make a physical copy, try making a zine (see below for guidance) and we can have a little show-and-tell.

If you can’t make it on August 25, but still want to participate, you can email Jenny your idea, or even a picture of your zine, and she’ll share it at the meeting for you. We’ll use this activity to guide our discussion on how the primary sources from Activity 1 made you feel and impacted your own ideas.

Don’t know what a zine is, or how to make one? A zine (pronounced “zeen”) is kind of a short, DYI magazine—you can read more here if you would like. And this short and simple Youtube video may guide and inspire you. The infographic below shows instructions on how to fold one sheet of paper into an 8-page zine. We’ll (Jenny and Tiffany) attempt to make our own so no one is alone in sharing a zine.