Current affairs Archives - STACK magazines

Not Here to Make Friends issue 3

Steve Watson — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 14:01:24 +0000

Often grotesque and always insightful, Not Here to Make Friends views contemporary culture through the prism of reality TV. The magazine’s writers are clearly obsessed with reality TV, but they don’t always seem to enjoy it in a straightforward way, and the result is a clever and critical look at sex, power, and money as it plays out on our screens.

In this issue:

The long and troubled tradition of women eating (or not eating) on TV
Enduring the increasingly extreme ordeal of Alone
Dance Moms, social media, and Abby Lee Miller as The Algorithm
Illusion, inequality, and the emergence of reality TV in Dubai
And one woman uses the Real Housewives as a way to understand her own life lived in service to the male ideal

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Skin Deep issue 11

Steve Watson — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 09:26:30 +0000

Skin Deep exists to present “culture in service of racial justice”, and the latest issue looks back over the last 11 years to present an anthology of its work so far. Mixing archive stories with fresh pieces, it creates a collection, “in which past, present and future interrupt each other… a noisy, time-travelling miscellany.”

In this issue:

Speaking with the makers of Babymother, the 1998 film that showcased Harlesden’s reggae heartland
Identifying the “slow violence” of the climate crisis, and holding the worst offenders to account
Emma Uwejoma’s photography navigates the complexities of her Igbo heritage and British upbringing
Writing at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, Jordan T Jones on the simple beauty of an uneventful day
And Akasha Rabut’s photography captures the street-parading traditions of New Orleans

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Solomiya issue 4

Steve Watson — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:03:20 +0000

Launched in 2022 in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Solomiya provides a platform for Ukrainian artists, creatives and activists to reflect on the world around them, as they see it. This fourth issue is smaller and more concentrated than the first three, focusing closely on the intersection of war and the environment, illuminating some of the struggles and contradictions that are central to contemporary Ukrainian life.

In this issue:

Countering stereotypical views of the Ukrainian landscape, which see it as either devastated battlefield, economic breadbasket, or post-nuclear wasteland
Possible scenarios for restoring nature in Ukraine
Photography and artworks reflecting on the environment in Ukraine
Seeking an alternative nature in kurgans, the ancient earthen mounds scattered across the Ukrainian steppe
And relationships with nature, in contrast to relationships with people

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The Fence issue 20

Steve Watson — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 15:00:40 +0000

The Fence gives readers a unique view of the world, tapping into its network of contributors to present a range of perspectives that are not normally available to the uninitiated. That might mean going behind the scenes in big business, or just finding a great London pub for a quiet pint, but whatever it is, The Fence will deliver it with its trademark wit and style.

In this issue:

Retracing the wobbling steps of Chelsea footballers on a legendary bender
Hunting for ghosts in the old Ace Hotel building in Shoreditch
Take a look inside the amoral world of corporate intelligence
An anonymous probation officer tells all about their working life
And an art dealer explains why they decided to leave the high-rolling art world behind

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Crude Futures issue 1

Steve Watson — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 09:29:58 +0000

A magazine born out of the pandemic, Crude Futures is dedicated to examining notions of collapse. Covering a wide range of writing, from short fiction to long essays, and focusing on subjects including the environment, popular protest, war, and international supply chains, it uses systems-level thinking to understand what it means when our world falls apart.

In this issue:

Inside a Just Stop Oil nonviolence training session
Catabolic collapse and the fragility of global supply chains
Picturing polycrisis – the cascading effects of parallel ongoing crises
How collapsology has been weaponised in Palestine
And the manmade (but inadvertent) spread of the murder hornet

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Offal issue 1

Steve Watson — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 17:26:09 +0000

A literary magazine made from texts that haven’t found a home in other publications, Offal is a brilliantly dark and distinctive new title. Designers Richard Turley and Julia Schäfer used Microsoft Word to lay out the pages, “driven by a desire for limitations in an over-stimulated world”, and creating a fittingly stark and anarchic atmosphere for the magazine’s stories, poems, and literary experiments.

In this issue:

Homelessness and the collapse of British towns and cities
Flat-pack Britain is skewered in mock-epic poem An Alboniad
One man’s bitter, mescal-driven bid for revenge in Mexico
An opera by Darren Cunningham, aka Actress
And a business proposal for Thom Yorke

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Mildew issue 2

Steve Watson — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 10:28:49 +0000

The fashion magazine with a difference, Mildew focuses on secondhand clothes to create a beautifully warm, nostalgic picture of what we wear. There’s a strong ideological angle too – Mildew’s vision of secondhand provides an alternative to the social and environmental damage done by fast fashion, and even extends to alternative models of ownership. And because none of the clothes on its pages are for sale, it’s a rare example of a fashion magazine that’s not trying to sell you anything.

In this issue:

One man’s quest to preserve every Gap in-store playlist from 1992 to 2006
Harking back to the exuberance and excitement of post-Soviet Lithuania in the 90s
An elegy for the estate sale
Sexy statement knitwear upcycled from granny’s old jumpers
And a day of treasure hunting at Brooklyn vintage fair A Current Affair

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Surprise Pack issue 3

Steve Watson — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 09:40:19 +0000

The third edition of our Surprise Pack is the ideal way to get a taste of our monthly magazine club experience, but without subscribing. Buy this Surprise Pack and you’ll get a one-off delivery of five previous subscriber magazines for just £20. But there are only 100 of these Surprise Packs available and we’re not re-stocking, so once they’re gone, they’re gone.

The magazines in this pack are worth a total of £72 and just like with our monthly magazine club, you won’t know exactly what they are until they arrive at your door. (Don’t be fooled by the illustration above – these are not magazines about coffee! Though we thoroughly recommend reading them with a drink by your side.) They cover a range of subjects, from art and design, to literature and the environment, and they have all been enjoyed by our subscribers at some point in the last year.

Numbers will always be strictly limited for these special offers, so grab yours while you can. And at the risk of stating the obvious, please don’t buy this Surprise Pack if you have been a Stack subscriber in the last year, because you will already own these magazines!

Our artwork for this third edition is by Brazilian artist Daniel Batista. We love his bright, wobbly illustrations – to see more of his work, go to instagram.com/freshprincipee.

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Ecoes issue 5

Steve Watson — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 13:39:53 +0000

Published by Sonic Acts, an interdisciplinary arts organisation based in Amsterdam, Ecoes shifts readers away from the anthropocentric norm and shows the non-human as more than just a resource to be exploited. This issue focuses on water, and its stories take turns to problematise the stuff that comes out of our taps, encouraging readers to slow down and think again about something that most of us probably take for granted.

In this issue:

A close look at ice, asking what melting means in the climate crisis
How bleached coral is being rehabilitated by playing the sounds of healthy coral
Considering the sky at the world’s first cloud bar
Listening and sound recording within the harbours of cities
And thinking about the acient history of the water in your body

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Coming Out of the Fog issue 1

Steve Watson — Thu, 04 May 2023 11:10:12 +0000

A personal and powerful magazine made by Zoe Lowdermilk-Oppenheim, Coming Out of the Fog reflects on her own experience as a British woman who was adopted from China as a result of the one-child policy. Beginning with her own observations, Zoe develops the subject by interviewing a group of other adoptees, focusing on the identity dilemmas of trans-racial adoptees in general, and more specifically on the contradictions and challenges faced by British women who were given up at birth in China.

In this issue:

An intimate portrait of life after the one-child policy
Identity and trans-racial adoptees
Considering the role of birth parents, and the likelihood of finding them
The unreliable narratives surrounding adoptees’ infancy
And the struggle to accept the circumstances of birth, without being defined by it

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