Issue 8 of sweet-thang zine is all about dreaming of new worlds

Zine-maker and founder of sweet-thang Zoë Thompson is seeking to inject new life into old traditions. “We champion DIY culture and radical publishing through the lens of Black art, using zine culture as a medium for storytelling and community building,” Zoe says. The zine’s 8th issue centres around the theme of dreaming, blending threads from Zoe’s upbringing –leafing through fashion magazines found in her sister’s bedroom – with the perspectives of sweet-thang’s writers and artists, who’ve submitted their own stories of dreaming.

Reflecting on her publishing journey, Zoe remembers reading a day-in-the-life of a woman who hosted feminist poetry nights as part of her zine, which first got Zoë thinking on her own goals. Now they’ve materialised: “I want to document Black girlhood in all its forms,” Zoë says. This issue was specifically inspired by the works of Audre Lord and Octavia E. Butler, both known for their radical imaginations of Black futures. From their work, Zoe says, “I came to understand that collective dreaming is a way we can reimagine new worlds, with art as a portal for that imagination.”

Sweet-thang’s dreaming issue is filled with motifs of stars and clouds, and each page header features a soft title with bold impact. These graphic elements sit side by side with analogue and collage moments, Zoë collaborated with collage artists Funmi Lijadu, Tina Tona and Ethel Tawe. Collage is a big part of sweet-thang’s identity, it refers to back to the rawness of early zine culture. To balancing this nostalgic and hazy aesthetic across analog and digital, Zoë worked with designer and educator (and fellow Zoë) Zoë Pulley on the zine’s editorial design.

The practice of zine-making is very dear to Zoë T’s heart – it helps the artist to remedy the fatigue of digital with the presence of the physical. The rarely perfect and inherently tactile ritual of combing through, curating, designing and piecing together sits at the core of Zoë’s relationship to the practice. “Nearly everything on the internet is shareable and visible, but you can pour your heart into a zine and have it just be for you, or for close friends, or for a niche community,” Zoe says. This incredibly vulnerable process is a communal one. Some of Zoë’s stand-out moments from issue 8 are Lisa Isansa’s essay Embodying the Marvellous, Harnessing Chaos – which drew on Black publishing history and informed the issue’s direction – and Hillarynx’s piece called Earthseed Jazz – a reference to Octavia E. Butler’s ecofeminist novel Parable of the Sower.

With this issue, Zoë is on her own journey; “I’m in the process of rediscovering who I am as a zine artist outside of what I’ve build with sweet-thang,” she ends. “A lot of that journey is me not being afraid to sit with an A4 sheet of paper, a pair of scissors and a sharpie and just making something, regardless of whether it’s neat or polished.”

Sweet-thang’s issue 9 is set for 2026. In the mean-time, Zoe’s scratch your itch for some daydreaming with sweet-thang’s Collective Dreaming Community Day on 2 November at Peckham Levels.