Writing queer history in No One magazine
Our June delivery to Stack subscribers was the second issue of No One magazine, which reports on the queer nightlife scenes in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Editors Việt and Jeremy Raider-Hoàng joined us for our Stack Magazine Club evening at the end of July, and in the video below you can see them speaking about some of the big, serious ideas that motivate this print celebration of joyfulness and hedonism.
As Jeremy says early on in the conversation, “Queer history is not something that only lives in textbooks. It continues to happen all around the world every day.” By making a print magazine they wanted to create an object that literally takes up space, and which creates a lasting record of the many different club nights, collectives and individuals that are establishing queer identities in different cultures around the world.
The first issue of No One magazine focused on Amsterdam, the city where Việt and Jeremy have lived together for a decade, so choosing Vietnam for the second issue was a major departure, and it significantly impacted their editorial choices. While they had written most of the first issue themselves, in the form of Q&As, they turned instead to commissioning local writers, asking them to tell stories reflecting their insiders’ perspectives. The result is a more ambitious and engaging editorial mix, still rooted in their original intentions for the magazine, but representing more voices and perspectives.
It was lovely speaking with them, and really interesting hearing about the process of making the magazine, which involved no fewer than four launch parties, first in Hanoi, then Ho Chi Minh City, then Amsterdam and finally Bushwick. And the issue isn’t finished yet – they’re also planning to release a vinyl record next month, which will put an emphasis on the music coming out of Vietnam’s overlapping queer scenes.
Check the video below to see them speaking about that and the rest of this brilliantly ambitious project, and if you haven’t seen it yet for yourself, head over to the Stack shop to buy a copy and we’ll get one in the post straight away.
