• Annie Frame

Brooklyn-based Working Class is a quarterly zine, in print and on the web, put together by unpaid writers, designers, and photographers to showcase their work and others’. The name sometimes gets it into trouble. “Over the years we have received some letters from ‘working class’ people who think the zine doesn’t represent the term ‘working class,’” editor and creative director Marcel Dagenais tells us. But “most artists I know don’t have a lot of money. They make their art in their spare time while working day jobs to sustain living in this city... We are a free, community-based project, supporting artists for the sake of getting their work out on the streets of Brooklyn and beyond. Art doesn’t have to be for the uber-rich or high society. I think it’s undeniable just by looking around this city that anyone can have access to art, no matter who they are or how much money they have.”

Dagenais, a Bay Area native who lives in Greenpoint and “probably always will,” started the magazine in 2007 with a writer friend who has since moved on. That was a risky time to start a print publication, and it’s still tough. “Every issue is a struggle to print,” he tells us, “but I wanted something more tangible than just a website. An online presence is a great platform for being able to publish endless amounts of content, but it isn’t the same as connecting with something in print while sitting on the train. Or the toilet.”

Slideshow

Working Class Magazine: For Artists Who Work

By Annie Frame

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