hate zine is back. Founded by co-editors Luisa Le Voguer Couyet and Scarlett Carlos Clarke in 2015, hate was created with the intention of promoting nascent artists and talent while crucially, addressing society’s most pressing issues head-on. Across multiple issues, the likes of Tim Noble, Ian F. Svenonius and Maisie Cousins explored topics such as mental health, sex and gender, love, and death. Having taken a hiatus from the print publication and reinvented themselves as a meme account (much to the surprise of Luisa) with a conscious, now hate zine returns with a new issue centred around the theme of housing, tackling the rise in rent prices, unsafe housing, and on a macro level, how we treat the planet we all call home. Now running hate zine as a solo editor, we caught up with Luisa to find out what’s inside the upcoming issue, how you can attend the issue’s fundraiser, and how the country’s approach to housing needs to change – asap!

Alex James Taylor: Why did you decide to bring hate zine back as a physical publication?
Luisa Le Voguer Couyet: We never intended for hate zine to have an Instagram, let alone become a meme page! While it’s so lovely to connect with our community on the platform, I’m acutely aware of the limitations of social media. Social media platforms regularly crack down on left-wing accounts and hate’s Instagram has been deactivated twice, so it feels very precarious to rely on this page as the main way of connecting with people.

“hate’s Instagram has been deactivated twice, so it feels very precarious to rely on this page as the main way of connecting with people.”

I’ve wanted to bring hate back into the physical world for ages but it’s been hard as I’ve run it alone alongside full-time work and studying. This summer I did zine-making workshops at Wide Awake and Field Manoeuvres – two iconic independent festivals that everyone should get tickets for – which my cousin Bella and friend Isis supported with. It was amazing to work with them on these events, and bringing more friends into the project – Holly, Maeve and Mac – made me realise it’s actually way easier and more fun to work collaboratively than alone.

Scarlet and I have also been discussing doing an anniversary edition with our favourite pieces from the previous six issues as next year will be hate’s 10th birthday. The zines and the events we used to organise brought so many people together. Sometimes it feels like social media does the opposite of that. It feels like the right time to bring hate zine back into physical form.

AJT: And what made you land on the theme of housing?
LLVC: Past issues covered mental health, the environment, sex and gender, love, and death. I always like to choose themes that universally affect people as it’s really interesting to see how they’re interpreted in so many different ways.

I wanted to explore housing in response to the housing crisis and on a deeper level examine what ‘home’ means. Landlords are constantly introducing rent increases despite the cost of living crisis and wage stagnation. From private renters to council tenants to the people living with dangerous cladding, so many people around the UK are subject to precarious and unsafe housing. I really want to shine a light on this and feature the work of the activists fighting back – like the housing activists who take on councils and big developers, as well as campaigners, like London Renters’ Union who consistently show up for renters by empowering them to take a stand against exploitative landlords and holding councils to account.

I also want to explore our relationship to our homes, especially in light of Israel’s ongoing displacement of Palestinians, and the conflict in Sudan which is forcing so many Sudanese people to evacuate their homes.

AJT: What and who can we expect inside the issue?
LLVC: Expect a classic hate zine mix of illustration, photography, poetry, opinion pieces and long-form articles. We haven’t fully started commissioning just yet, as I wanted to ensure we had enough money to fund the issue first. But I took some photos from the Aylesbury estate exhibition last April, where housing activist Aysen Dennis opened up her home for an exhibition about the gentrification of the estate. There are so many amazing housing battles and rent strikes to cover, including the Barcelona tenants union strike, where just under 130,000 people recently took to the streets to demand a 50 percent reduction in rent.

I really want to include some work about the planet and animals, we all share the same home planet. I’ve been chatting to the Great Unwashed about featuring their work as it’s really essential. I also want to explore alternative housing and speak to people living off-grid, in communes, intergenerational and non-nuclear households, bargees, and squatters. I think it’s really important to portray non-traditional forms of living, as well as ways people live outside the system. Across the country, councils are harassing Gypsies and Travellers for their traditional nomadic way of life, and this criminalisation must stop. I really want to use this issue to portray as much of this as possible.

“The last print issue launched in 2019 and explored death, which felt like an ominous and prophetic ending.”

AJT: How have things changed for you since the last print issue? And in general for the world, in relation to hate zine?
LLVC: The last print issue launched in 2019 and explored death, which felt like an ominous and prophetic ending. I really didn’t want it to end there. I recently did a talk for Glasgow Zine Library and went through the archives of everything we used to do, like hosting events, workshops, club nights, zine fairs, etc, and it reminded me how fun and important these physical spaces are for connecting with people. The in-person and print element of the zine naturally fizzled out a bit thanks to the pandemic, and it’s been so hard to find the time to properly dedicate to it.

As lockdown began in 2020, hate’s online presence grew. It was a time of mass awakening for so many people who resonated with hate’s output. I think people began realising the importance of politics, and how deadly it can be to have greedy, selfish and exploitative people in power. It feels like since lockdown, since George Floyd’s murder, since the disastrous Tory government’s actions were exposed, and the genocide in Palestine, so many people are engaged and actively want to fight for a better world for everyone.

AJT: You’re holding a fundraiser event on 20th December at Moth Club, what can we expect?
LLVC: The fundraiser on the 20th December at Moth Club is raising money for our first print issue since 2019. We have a really fun line up: Jessica Winter, Miss Tiny, and a secret guest that we’re announcing soon! People can get last minute Christmas gifts from independent publishers and artists like El Bras, WhatMegKnits, How to Catch a Pig and more. We’ll also have a hate zine stall with merch that’s not available online.

At the end of the night, we’ve organised a charity raffle with some great prizes donated by Verso, Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives, Deptford Northern Soul Club, FEM Press, Ursula Holliday, Josie Rae Turnbull and more. Raffle ticket proceeds will be split between Khartoum Aid Kitchen and Operation Olive Branch.

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