We’ve got some news, after 7 amazing years AZ Mag will be closing. Firstly, we want to thank all our readers, contributors, collaborators and the entire AZ community. We’ve done our best to amplify LGBTQ+ Black and PoC voices by bringing you informative, fun and interesting content and have hosted some great events too. You’ve […]
Category: Culture & News
Azúcar by Nii Ayikwei Parkes Is a Beautifully Crafted Narrative With Humanity at Its Heart
Azúcar, the latest novel by British-Ghanaian writer, Nii Ayikwei Parkes is a story as sweet as the title suggests. Set across the fictional Isle of Fumaz, Ghana and the USA’s ‘Sun Coast’, Azúcar explores themes of belonging, grief, legacy and community through protagonists Yunior and Emiliana. Ghana-born Yunior moves to Fumaz as a teenager, escaping […]
What Being Afro-Vegan Has Taught Me About My Culture
One of the most fascinating things to me growing up has been food, and it was how I was introduced to veganism. As a child, I was always drawn to the way my mother was able to curate a weekly system of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, and I yearned to be able to manage the […]
In Conversation with Cheryl May Coward-Walker
I had the lovely opportunity to interview the gifted and multi-hyphenated Cheryl May Coward-Walker. Our conversation was delightful, Cheryl is a graceful, yet enthusiastic conversationalist. We talked about her play The Wedding Speech and its upcoming run, mother-daughter relationships and their many different forms, identity, being an independent artist and the healing journey. Tell us […]
Jessica George’s Maame Is a Story You’ll Want to Savour
Some stories have a spooky way of showing up in our lives exactly when we need them; Jessica George’s debut novel, Maame, is one of those stories for me. A coming of age tale with a perfectly imperfect protagonist, Maame holds a mirror up to the lives of Black British women anxiously treading the tightrope […]
The Census Data On Bi and Pan People Shows Nothing New. Yet people still refuse to believe we exist
On Friday last week, the 2021 Census data revealed the number of LGBTQIA+ people in England and Wales. This report showed that 1.54% of people who completed the Census were lesbian or gay. It also showed that 1.28% identified as bisexual and 0.23% identified as pansexual. This means a total of 1.51% of people identify […]
From Addis Ababa, With Love
Kweers of the Nile (KOTN) is an online journalistic platform and digital archive documenting the lives of queer and genderfluid people in North/East Africa and the Sahel. The following is a conversation between sudanese writer and organiser of KOTN and Luna, a queer singer from Ethiopia. I got in touch with Luna through exploring queer […]
On The Colorado Shooting, Queer Safety And The Politics Of Homophobic Violence
Just before midnight on Sunday November 20th, 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich opened fire in Club Q, an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs. The shooter killed five people and injured a further 17 with his semi-automatic handgun. The news sent shockwaves throughout the community, echoing back to the 2016 attack at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando and […]
Unmissable QTBPOC Christmas and New Year Events
We can all agree that December 2021 was…weird. Omnicron was rampant and no one was quite clear on the rules for meeting up with friends and family. Also, does anyone else remember track and trace? But one year later things are looking up for December 2022! Now we can go out as much as we […]
Accessorise Your Way To Conscious Consumerism with Hello Zephyr and Hajjar Hajji
It’s getting to that time of year when we unearth our cold weather wears as skin-out season draws to a close. Such seasonal transitions often serve as the perfect excuse for an all-out wardrobe update, prompted by the boredom we feel confronting our old clothes and the relentless treadmill of trends forced upon us by […]