A "Resistance Toolkit" Pages Through Arts & Activism

Nelani Mejias at the New Haven People's Center. Abiba Biao Photos.

Nelani Mejias has a knack for doing things old-school.

Holding an original zine in the air, she traced a middle crease in the paper, outlining where an incision should occur. On both sides, she had marked the front and back of the booklet, her handwriting large enough to spot across the room. Soon, the snip of scissors filled the space as participants followed instructions to create their own zine. 

Arts and activism collided at the New Haven People’s Center last week, during a “Resistance Zine Night” that became at turns a call to arms, launch party, tutorial on shared safety and gathering space for cultural community. Mejias, a graduate of Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School who is now a senior at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU), is the brain behind the revamped City of New Haven Peace Coalition’s 2025 Resistance Toolkit.

The toolkit is available in both English and Spanish. In the interest of full transparency, Mejias has also appeared in these pages, as a freelance writer for the Arts Paper (catch her byline here). 

Susan O’Leary folding a zine with Nelani Mejias as Issac Chase follows along. 

The decision to format the toolkit through a digital zine was intentional, Mejias said. She—with members of the city’s Peace Commission—wanted it to be digestible for college students and younger audience members, who don’t always engage with printed matter or with the commission’s work. For months, she’s been working with commissioners on tips and resources to include, from a guide to the U.S. Constitution to ways for residents to get civically engaged.

Zines, short for fanzine or magazines, are small home-made booklets that can cover a wide variety of issues and topics.

“It’s a way to sort of communicate to each other within your own community and empower and lift one another,” she said to the intimate audience during her workshop. 

The toolkit includes explanations on political terminology, provides an overview of the powers of the president, discusses where the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) operates within the executive branch, and a summary of Project 2025, the controversial conservative federal policy outline published by The Heritage Foundation.

It also highlights local demonstration efforts against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), DOGE, and school funding reforms. Included at the end is a call to action for individuals looking to get civically involved, listing nonprofit organizations and advocacy groups like Citywide Youth Coalition, the New Haven Climate Movement, New Haven Immigrants Coalition and New Haven Pride Center among others.

Attendees Jamie Myers-McPhail and Mareika Phillips as they follow along to Mejias’ presentation.

The project, which Mejias worked on this year, intersects with her academic work and budding interest in print and digital culture as a way to grow one’s activist footprint.

An English major at SCSU with a concentration in creative writing and minor in arts administration and cultural advocacy, Mejias was first introduced to zines during her freshman year at Co-Op,  but didn’t think much of them until the concept resurfaced while taking classes for her minor (she has written about another SCSU student, Daniel Ramirez, making waves in the zine world with his own press, El Rincón de Papel).

Then in June, Peace Commissioner Joelle Fishman put out a call to make a resistance toolkit from the group more accessible to young people. Mejias got in touch, and the rest was history.

"It’s a really good resource for people trying to understand what’s happening now with the current administration, and what the city is doing to fight what the current administration is doing,” said Renee Deminne, cultural director at the People’s Center. "That combats a lot of hopelessness people feel about the situation, I think, when they understand what can be done.”

Deminne added that hosting this event aligns with the center's goal of becoming a designated “third space” for community members, including with more art-themed events. She listed other events the center will host, including a Local 33 union meeting alongside a movie screening of Union by Stephen Maing and Brett Story later this month and a Halloween-themed movie night in October.

Mareika Phillips knows firsthand the communal power of the People’s Center, she said. When she moved to New Haven seven years ago with her husband, Jamie Myers-McPhail, the duo began frequenting the space often. Both are organizers with New Haven Rising and supporters of Local 34 Unite Here, and the space was their entry into New Haven’s activism scene. Now, they bring their young daughter along with them. 

‘I love to collage. I love to make zines and I love coming to the People’s Center,” Phillips said. 

Phillips also had a message of hope for others: “No act of resistance is too small right now,” she said. 

At the end, participants shared their zines around the room. In solidarity with the immigrant community, Susan O’Leary based her zine off of immigration rights, including information from posters made by the New Haven Immigrants Coalition.

“This book is a sample of different flyers that have information on them with numbers and QR codes that they can access,” O’Leary said. 

“Things are a little bit scary. There’s so much going on, but there is also a lot that New Haven is doing,” Mejias said. She also attributed the toolkit to feeling a more heightened sense of civic literacy, adding that during the research process, she learned more about legal action the city has taken against Trump’s executive orders and withholding of funds.

This ultimately reflects Mejias’ goal behind the toolkit: “giving peace of mind, giving information, and giving resources.”