Posted on: July 27, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Silence is Death #1 / Half-Sized / 16 Pages / Amanda Hernandez, 762 Snediker Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11207 / [email protected] / 

I know that this zine is already incredibly old, but I feel that I should review it more as a beginning and as a good focus point for all of Amanda’s zines that have since followed. Starting out with a fitting poem by Mumia Abu-Jamal, Amanda moves onto a zine divided into two major parts that are interspersed at will through the rest of the zine : prose and stream-of-consciousness type of writing. Various snippets of Amanda’s life are delivered through eir’s poetry, such as in eir’s piece about the subway, while ey is watching a young child that reminds eir of eirself as a younger Amanda. The piece, untitled, by S.N. Trik (Amanda’s partner in crime) with anarchistic feelings show someone who is just that fed up with urban society and the very normal feeling about wanting to get away from it all, start a communal house, and live rightly. These real life stories and confused little snippets of semi-poetry are all that is needed to weave a rich tapestry about Amanda and S.N., and show exactly the universality of these events. While the art is mainly laid out to the side of the pieces, we still get yet another insight into the minds of these two, specifically in the urban landscape and dreamy contrasts that are provided within. The zine ends with a quote from Martin Luther King jr, and it details life perfectly. “The great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom(is those who are) more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefer a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.”

Rating: 6.9/10

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