sweet-thang zine
| Title: sweet-thang zine | Dates: 2017-present |
| Periodicity: Sporadic, annual | Price: Issues cost between £6.00 and £7.70. |
| Circulation: – | Place of Publication: London, UK |
Description
sweet-thang is a submission-based zine with its own website. While some back-issues and individual articles are available online, sweet-thang is first and foremost a print zine that appears as and when it can attract funding. For Zoe Thompson, sweet-thang’s founder, ‘print is powerful’ because it offers black creatives a safe space for expression outside the racist and sexist algorithms of social media.
sweet-thang defines itself in opposition to mainstream magazine culture, drawing on the influence of feminist, punk and riot grrrl zines and combining the diy, counter-cultural, aesthetic of those print traditions with an awareness of the important role that black print culture has played in mobilising black activism in the 1970s and 1980s. Developing an intersectional approach to zine-making, sweet-thang has its own distinct vibe that might be best encapsulated by the word ‘joy’. While there are many articles and interviews that explore pain, fear and sadness, the overriding mood is one of celebration, acceptance and hope.
sweet-thang zine‘s Mission Statement
sweet-thang is a print zine and independent press publishing work by Black creatives worldwide.
We publish zines that uplift, archive and advocate for the voices of Black folks, particularly fostering a space for women, queer and trans folk. We want our publications to be written collaboratively with artists from all around the world who share a love and interest in the practices of zine culture, radical publishing and art as activism. We also deliver zine-making workshops to facilitate collective making, build manifestos, and learn about the history of zines and creation through an accessible, anti-mainstream lens.
Key Campaigns/Features
Issues revolve around themes:
- Issue 1: Power, roots, beginnings
- Issue 2: The Body
- Issue 3: Mind
- Issue 4: Love
- Issue 5: Nostalgia
- Issue 6: Healing
- Issue 7: Vanity/Muse
Magazine Aesthetic
sweet-thang embraces the zine aesthetic associated with the punk culture of the late 1970s/early 80s as well as the riot girrrl scene of the 1990s. Ripped pages, funky fonts and collage-effects are reproduced on thick paper with vibrant colours popping off the page. Eschewing the rules and restrictions of mainstream publishing, sweet-thang aligns itself with a history of alternative feminist media both in form and content. It also acknowledges the history of black British activism in the UK and in an interview with black activist, Leila Hassan Howe, sweet-thang traces the connections between the print activism of the journal Race Today (edited by Darcus Howe and Hassan Howe) to contemporary zine activism.
sweet-thang, along with the fitful and erratic publication of many other non-commercial zines/magazines in circulation in the 2020s including Bad Form and Burnt Roti, self-consciously returns to print media as a safe space to explore issues relevant to black and minoritised communities.
Historical Contexts
Like gal-dem and Burnt Roti, sweet-thang emerged in the second decade of the twenty-first century in the context of a cost of living crisis, Brexit and the inexorable rise of social media. The Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 temporarily boosted sales for issue 6, but since then, sweet-thang, like other alternative zines, has struggled to sustain itself as a print publication.
Editors
- Zoe Thompson
Printers, typesetters, publishers and distributors
Mixam UK Printers
MagCulture (issue 7, 2024)
Athenaeum Nieuwscentrum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (stocked periodically from 2019-present, issues, 3, 5, 6, 7)
Business model
The first issue was funded by money received for Thompson’s 18th birthday. Subsequently, sweet-thang has used crowd funding to pay for production costs.
Contributors usually receive a free issue of the zine they appear in (though this was not the case for the first two issues).
Connections to other feminist magazines
Extracts from Feminist Review, Spare Rib, polareyes and Women feature in Issue 5.
Thompson has discussed the influence of the American magazine for teenagers, Rookie edited by Tavi Gavinson.
Both Nuria Castro and Mnamug, founders of Aghh! Zine cite Zoe Thompson as an influence on their own publication.
Further Reading
HOW TO CITE THIS PAGE:
‘sweet-thang zine’, Liberating Histories Periodicals Guide, Liberating Histories <https://liberatinghistories.org/periodicals-guide/sweet-thang > [accessed dd/mm/yyy]
© Liberating Histories 2024
| Where to find sweet-thang zine: online | Digitised copies: print and digital formats are available from the sweet-thang website |
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