It’s June and notably in many countries around the world, June is Pride month—the UK included. Given this, I’m using the next four weeks as an excuse (not that we needed one) to explore some of the most exciting queer magazines on magCulture's shelves right now.


This series follows on from the We Love Queer Magazines event which we held (what feels like) way back when in March. During the evening, which took the form of an informal panel discussion and Q&A, myself, Sharan Dhaliwal of Burnt Roti, Louis Shanker of The Bittersweet Review, and Ben Saunders of Strap explored contemporary queer culture and community through the lens of independent publishing—this being a subject we’ve seen grow and diversify significantly.

So, where to begin? How about a brand new, Amsterdam-born magazine digging into underground queer nightlife and culture? Enter No One. Created by Viêt and Jeremy Raider-Hoàng with design by Samuel Salminen, this slim, red, sticker-dotted publication arrived with us in May.

The concept? Each issue explores a different city’s queer scene as well as the ‘communities and collectives’ who help create, celebrate, and sustain it. Naturally, the first place No One explores is Viêt and Jeremy’s adopted hometown, Amsterdam.

‘Steaming heat, pumping beats, and stomping heels, they wore them fiercely and danced in them joyously. Their femininity, masculinity, and humanity converged on the dance floor. They were us, and we were them. With them, we were everyone. Without them, we were no one…

The idea for No One came to Viêt and Jeremy while at a party hosted by Amsterdam-based queer collective, Supernature. As they recall in their opening letter to this first issue: ‘There, for the first time, we saw the meaning of “queer” manifest: a harmony of beauty, fierceness, individuality, and community. […] Following this encounter, we were inspired to discover more of this incredible space, not only in Amsterdam, but also around the world.’

This is how the magazine was born and, for anyone else who’s found themselves immersed and embraced by their own city’s queer scene (a privilege for those living in countries where it’s possible to do so), this paragraph will no doubt ring true. It’s often in such spaces—on dance floors, hot and pulsing under strobe lighting—that we experience “queer community” overtly for the first time. It can be an incredibly powerful experience and it’s unsurprising that an independent publication has been born of it.

Fun fact: the stickers on the cover of this issue are inspired by those given out at queer club events in the city to discourage people from using their cameras while inside. They're also used a neat editorial device throughout with different stickers corresponding to articles within the issue.

Across 130 pages, No One explores a ‘very short herstory’ of nightlife in Amsterdam; queer nightlife concept ‘Body’ which advocates for ‘a dance floor that cherishes all bodies’; the effervescent Bar Pamela, which exists to foster community for queers and especially BIPOC queers; friends, DJs, and nightlife organisers Val and Diora (above) who share their experiences of nightlife as two trans women living in the city; and the task of bridging past, present, and future with the creators of FLINTA* night, Lesbique.†
 
Coming away from reading this first edition of No One, I feel as though I've spent a whirlwind 48 hours immersed in Amsterdam’s queer clubs meeting a host of like-minded individuals and collectives along the way. (I might even have a hangover?)

No One manages to combine queer culture, community, and history as well as doing something that’s traditionally reserved for travel magazines –– immerse us, the reader, in another city or place for the time that you spend in between its covers. It’s armchair travel with a queer twist. 

In a nutshell: The perfect publication for queers looking to visit Amsterdam; particularly if you love your nightlife. And stay tuned for more Pride-inspired deep-dives into the shelves over the coming weeks.

† Popular across Germany, the acronym FLINTA* stands for: female, lesbian, inter, non-binary, trans and agender people. The * highlights all genders and non-gender.