Table of contents for Issue 78: Autumn/Winter 2022 in Huck

When I was fresh out of journalism college, I pitched a feature about Arofish, the first Western graffiti artist to paint on the West Bank Wall, to a magazine that had caught my eye. It was pretty new on the scene, but it seemed to cater entirely to my tastes in art, music, culture, surf, skate and people. That magazine was Huck. They accepted that pitch for issue number 3 – I think it was my first-ever paid commission. Now I find myself as Huck’s new Editor and this magazine you’re reading is issue 78. I couldn’t be more proud of it. There’s a resilience to everyone in this issue – it’s full of people who’ve fought to do things on their own terms. Cover star Denzel Curry tells us…

Leo Baker looks good. As the competitive pro skater logs on to Zoom from his New York City apartment, afternoon sunlight spills into his spacious living room, softly illuminating his freckles and slightly throwback middle part haircut. When he smiles, which he does a lot, he takes on a charmingly confident demeanour, like the one he adopts when he finally lands a particularly challenging trick in the legendary skate videos heʼs been making since he was a teen. ALL THIS PERSONALITY WOULDN’T BE SO REMARKABLE if it wasn’t in such stark contrast to the person at the centre of Stay on Board: The Leo Baker Story, Giovanni Reda and Nicola Marsh’s unflinching Netflix documentary that chronicles Baker’s road to, and then retreat from, skating in the 2020 Olympic Games. At…

The first guitar to knock me for six was Funkadelic’s 10-minute, LSD-induced, mind-melting masterpiece ‘Maggot Brain.ʼ I heard it in my friendʼs basement when I was 14 years old, kissing a skateboarder crush at a Halloween party. The kiss wasn’t memorable but the guitar blasted me to another plane and blew my mind. Fast forward to the top of 2020, and, amid the global pandemic, I came across a clip posted by visual artist Nadia Lee Cohen of a moustachioed guitarist with inkblack curls, snakeskin and flanked by stacks of Marshall amps, called Stolen Nova. He was playing his own rendition of ‘Maggot Brainʼ, and it stopped me in my tracks and sent shivers down my spine like the first time I heard that record. I knew I had to…

"YOU HAVE TO GIVE THESE AMAZINGLY CREATIVE PEOPLE THE SPACE TO PUT OUT THEIR CONCEPT." I’M GOING TO BE HONEST WITH YOU. I did not know I was going to be writing this piece when I stepped into the club on a sunny Saturday afternoon in September. Had I known, there is a part of me that would like to think I’d make slightly different choices. Maybe I wouldn’t have switched from beer to spirits quite so early. Maybe I’d have declined one of the many (many) shots I poured down my throat over the course of the night. Maybe I’d have taken some notes. Though, in the spirit of honesty, I am not sure I can hand-on-heart say I would have. It was early when I arrived at M.I.L.K.…

“The world feels sad as shit right now,” explains Amaarae, her eyes hidden behind a massive pair of Gucci sunglasses. “Motherfuckers are depressed as fuck!” Speaking to Huck at an East London recording studio, the multifaceted singer, songwriter, producer and sound engineer is mixing a psychedelic tribal drum solo that sounds like Ginger Baker on Xanax. She continues: “It is important musicians bring some happiness and joy back to peopleʼs lives. Music is at a standstill and the world needs to be shaken up, and I truly believe Iʼm one of those artists capable of doing it.” Since emerging with 2017ʼs Passionfruit Summers EP, Amaaraeʼs woozy fusion of R&B, trap, Afrobeats, rock, and pop has consistently astounded and resulted in her last album, 2020ʼs The Angel You Donʼt Know, winning…

WHEN YVETTE CURTIS’ 12-YEAR-OLD daughter said she wanted to get into surfing, her mother wasn’t stoked. Curtis had loved sport her whole life; inspired by iconic Black women athletes from the late ’80s, including Tessa Sanderson, she took up track and field in her youth and later went on to work as a personal trainer. She didn’t want to push her kids into any specific sport but was keen they’d each find an activity to be passionate about. Not least for the physical outlet and to keep them emotionally grounded during those vulnerable teenage years when society puts a lot on girls, and they give up sport in their droves. She didn’t expect her eldest to choose surfing. It wasn’t on their radar as a family, in part because Curtis…

“THERE ARE SO MANY OF THEM!” Mikaela Loach squeals with delight as she runs into a clearing and dives to the ground. The 24-year-old climate activist pops her head above the ferns after a couple of minutes, returning with her bounty. “I get quite emotional about mushrooms,” she half jokes as she fills our photographerʼs reflector bag with handfuls of what she thinks are bright orange chanterelle. Weʼre deep in the woods near her family home in the south of England, without signal and no way of verifying her hunch. “Iʼve been really trying to get into foraging,” she says as she ducks down again after finding another big patch – her Afro and signature pink coat dart up and down between the foliage as she talks and exclaims with…

Contemporary artists, avid ravers, and curators Christopher Stead, Carolina Aguirre and Jo Dennis, are kicking down doors in the art world with their immersive, collaborative, large-scale art project, Pigeon Park. Working out of a huge disused building… the trio have been inviting the likes of cult fashion label Sports Banger and Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller, alongside new-gen performance artists and, most importantly, the local community onto their dance floor. “PIGEON PARK WAS CREATED in response to the political bloodbath that followed the Brexit and Covid crises,” explains Stead – Pigeon Parkʼs director, as well as a contemporary art rebel, painter, enigmatic graffiti writer and seasoned raver, “which saw us trapped at home on benefits, locked out of our studios, jobs and universities, while the Tories held their own school…

IN 2013, AS HE TREKKED around Florida looking for projects with his camera, artist Anthony Blasko happened upon Plant City Strawberry Festival, an 11-day community event. Since 1930 the fair, held in the small, eponymous city you’ll find on Interstate-4 between Tampa and Orlando, has been an annual celebration of the strawberry harvest amidst beautiful golden light and a slice of classic American life. “For much of America’s history, annual fairs in a rural community would be a big deal,” he says. “People would travel long distances. It was a chance to socialise and also a market to buy and sell livestock. Some of that spirit remains, even though most people attending today are not farmers. Local fairs and carnivals have a long history in America. Even as we lose…

Growing up in the inner city has blessed me with so many advantages, opportunities and insights that have benefited my life. Navigating the world through the lens of an inner-city dweller has made it easier to adapt to other metropolitan areas around the world. However, for a lot of us who grew up in the urban environment, particularly people of colour, there has been a distinct lack of connection to nature, and an almost inherent fear of going into outdoor spaces. It’s unfortunate, and very limiting, that our life experiences have created this invisible barrier to exploring the great outdoors. Britain has an abundance of inspiring green space, forests, woodland, fields, rolling hills, mountains, lakes and much more. Sadly, many of these spaces have felt “off-limits” to people of colour.…

London-based multi-disciplinary artist Joy Yamusangie specialises in illustration; although they also experiment with traditional processes such as drawing, film, painting and collaging to produce mixed-media pieces. Their big bold colours jazz-inspired visuals seen Yamusangie selected for Royal Academy of and have being the Arts Summer Exhibition, and commissioned by the likes of Gucci, Penguin Books, The New York Times, and Tate Collectives. They’ve had several successful solo shows and have exhibited in group shows alongside Shepard Fairey, Grace Neutral, David Shrigley, and more. When did you know being an artist was what you were going to do? I was quite unhappy at my last job, it helped me get by but my childhood dream of being an artist was always present. I went part-time at first and got a studio…