Table of contents for Issue 76: Autumn/Winter 2021 in Huck

In his debut novel, the London author blends fiction with biography, resulting in a searing coming-of-age tale that deals with identity, heritage and mental health. A year after winning the prestigious Desmond Elliott prize, the 33-year-old – whose inspirations range from D.H. Lawrence to grime MCs – wants to continue the work he’s begun: sharing stories about Black British life that move beyond tired, two-dimensional tropes. * This profile includes references to self-harm and suicide. 18TH CENTURY ENGLISH POET AND HYMNIST WILLIAM Cowper was a deeply troubled man. His adult life was disrupted by waves of mental illness, which resulted in delusions, suicide attempts and commital to an asylum. In 1782, when Cowper was experiencing a bout of severe depression, his friend and muse Lady Anna Austen told him the…

BACK THEN, there were a lot of layers to Miami. My grandparents had moved down there after retiring – they were immigrants from Russia who had lived their life in New York City, they came for sun, beaches, warm winters. I was 22 years old, already in photography school up in Massachusetts. My grandfather had just died, so I went down to visit my grandmother. I wonder if I was really down there to visit my grandmother, or whether I had a real thought of, ‘Let’s photograph this place.’ I think it was probably twofold. That’s because Miami was totally photographic. These people would dress up. There was a big Jewish enclave in the area that’s now South Beach. They all retired and moved into these little Art Deco hotels…

FOR JULIA DUCOURNAU, THE filmmaking process is similar to the lion’s share of her art: a matter of life and death. This distinction will surprise no one even broadly familiar with her work. Her debut feature, Raw, introduced her to the international stage as a bold storyteller with an eye for the visceral. The film follows a young vegetarian, Justine, who develops a craving for human flesh after her carnivorous virginity is broken at a hazing ritual. Not only does it literally straddle the line between life and death, it percolates with the deep idiosyncrasy of an artist who leaves nothing on the table. Justine, as with all of Ducournau’s characters, is rich with humanistic moral ambiguity. The conversation that emerged around Raw in the mainstream press, and indeed during…

From releasing the album of 2021 to securing a nomination for the Mercury Prize, it’s been a colossal year for the Plaistow-born MC. Almost two decades into his career, the 37-year-old is at the peak of his powers, finally receiving the critical and commercial attention his blistering output has long warranted. So, as he sits down to reflect on a remarkable 12 months, it begs the question: how does he follow this up? GHETTS IS RIFLING DOWN THE ROAD ON HIS TRUSTY quad bike, its engine a crackling, cacophonic roar. Without slowing, he leans back, foot hooked around the metal bar attached to the vehicle’s rear, and pulls up into a triumphant wheelie. He holds it there, two wheels aloft, and continues charging forward at full pace. It is a…

EMMANUEL MACRON KNOWS the French people are losing their minds as he tells them to be home by 6pm. It is March 2021 and a daily curfew is enforced by military-like police. They patrol the public squares. The bars remain closed. France’s strange president has never recovered from making a speech in which he declared that he was the descendant of Louis the Sun King. He did this from a gold-plated room. “Vive la France,” he said, as unmaintained buildings full of people collapsed in Marseille, a city where you can find homeless families sat on a mattress in the street; where refugees hang under a resplendent arch – The Porte d’Aix – that once greeted the traveller into this historic port city. It looks just like Paris’ Arc de…

WE HADN’T PLANNED ON A CONTEST. BUT WHEN John Fiedler showed up with a bottle of tequila, Cuzner with a bottle of vodka, Parking Lot Danny with a 12-pack, and Willy with a keg, well, somehow it all made sense. ■ It was Labour Day. The beach at County Line was packed. Situated on the Los Angeles/Ventura county border, it enjoyed almost no police presence. Here you could drink and frolic and maybe even fornicate on the sand. Here was where we had bonfires at night, and where a guy who’d picked me up hitchhiking claimed to have seen Charles Manson and his girls playing in the shore break. ■ Our surfer buddy Matt Warner had rich parents, and they had a house that looked out to the fun break.…

“THIS MUSIC THING HAS NEARLY BROKEN ME,” ADMITS CHICAGO rap maverick Chris Crack. The 32-year-old – real name Christopher Harris – is speaking over a fuzzy transatlantic phone connection and he’s in a candid mood. “I’ve had nights where I’ve cried. Nights where I’ve been so mad I’ve gone outside and shot my gun into the air! ‘Is this rap shit even working – do I need to wait until I am 55 to get any credit?’ Those were questions I asked myself this morning.” I bring up ‘Don’t Be a Vic’, a gorgeous dose of surrealist soul where Harris complains that he’s not dreaming due to a lack of sleep. “I’ve literally been up [for] three days straight making music in the studio,” he replies, providing a raw insight…

I moved back home after graduating university and my friends are now scattered across the country. But I don’t feel aligned with my friends from home either. How do I create a community that reflects the person I am today? – Janakai This is a really deep question. It’s like what my therapist always says to me: as hard as it is as an adult to make new friends, try and find special-interest groups in your city. Finding spaces where you can meet people whose personalities are kind of aligned with yours – who can match your maturity or who have similar belief systems – is super healthy. You have to try. It’s a hard one, because making friends in adulthood is kind of brutal. I experienced a bit of…