Breakdown Press is a small independent publisher based in Melbourne, Australia, co-founded by poet, researcher and community organiser Lou Smith and printmaker, muralist and graphic designer Tom Sevil (aka Civil). Tom and Lou both have a longstanding involvement within the zine, DIY, street art, and alternative media communities in Australia. Breakdown Press has been producing books, posters, zines and anthologies since 2004. Publications include: Scrapbook to Somewhere, The Stolenwealth Posters, The Breakdown Posters, The Nuclear Posters, YOU: some letters from the first five years, Market Crossings: Plotting a Course through the Preston Market and How To Make Trouble and Influence People: Pranks, Protests, Graffiti and Political Mischief-Making from across Australia. We believe in producing ethically printed and affordable publications, bringing together artists, thinkers, and writers to build friendships and solidarity with different communities, and to tell stories that often remain untold.
BREAKDOWN PRESS
Tom Civil and Lou Smith
Postal Address: Po Box 1283, Carlton, Vic, 3053
Email: info@breakdownpress.org
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If interested in organising an interview, for extra information, or to republish any of the material in any of our publications, email Breakdown Press: info@breakdownpress.org
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DONATIONS!?
We currently are not listed as a ‘not-for-profit’ organisation, but are yet to make a profit. We work as volunteers and all money goes into future projects. Thank you very much for your support!
Make all cheques payable to: ‘Breakdown Press’, PO Box 1283, Carlton, Vic, 3053
or pay direct to: ‘Breakdown Press’, Bendigo Bank BSB: 633 000 Account No: 127 570 174
PAYPAL address: info@breakdownpress.org
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TOM SEVIL (AKA Civil) is a printmaker, community graphic designer and artist. Tom Civil’s work can be found in many tucked away nooks of the city and the bush. He is interested in how street art and graffiti create community, mark space and act as a human-scaled anarchic form of urban architecture. His stencil and street work has been featured in various publications including Melbourne Stencil Art Capital, Street|Studio, Space Invaders (NGA), the film Rash, as a feature artist in the Melbourne Stencil Festival 2004/05/09 and the Cans Festival in London in 2008. He has also exhibited walk-through installations and worked closely with his brother Ned, who died from cancer in late 2010, under the guise The Evil Brothers. Tom and his brother Ned also exhibited with their Dad, Tony as Sevil & Sons. Tom has given workshops and talks in different communities about murals and the political nature of street art. Since completing a Bachelor of Environmental Science in 1999 he has gone on to become involved in the independent media and publishing community. Tom has worked as a graphic designer for many political and community organisations including 3CR 855AM and the 2006-10 Seeds of Dissent Calendars; The Big Issue; Voiceworks Magazine 2003–2005; The Paper; Melbourne Indymedia; NGO-in-a-Box Free & Open Source Software CDs; Stolenwealth Games, Stop G20 and Tassie Forests campaigns.
www.tomcivil.com
LOU SMITH is a Melbourne-based poet and researcher of Jamaican, Welsh and English descent who grew up in Newcastle, NSW. Her writing has appeared in various Australian and international journals and anthologies including Wasafiri, The Caribbean Writer, sx Salon and Overland. Lou has a PhD in creative writing from The University of Melbourne, her writing exploring concepts of cultural memory and ‘sense of place’. For ten years Lou co-programmed The DIY Arts Show on 3CR Community Radio, Melbourne and, in the late nineties, an eighties music show called Eighty Degrees in the Shade on 2NUR Community Radio, Newcastle. Lou started out making zines and was an early member of Octapod the organisation which instigated The National Young Writers’ Festival, part of This is Not Art Festival, Newcastle. Lou played keys in the bands Sycorax, The Beef Curtains, and Suzanne Grae and the Katies. She has worked in a variety of jobs including a teacher and lecturer of creative writing, disability support worker, editor, researcher, shop assistant, sustainability project officer, events co-ordinator, cleaner, and a facilitator for workshops, community events and festivals.
www.lousmith.net
