Sonic Cultures: Lovers' Rock Zine Workshop with sweet-thang zine

This October, Calico Projects is proud to present our Sonic Cultures programme for Black History Month 2026. Sonic Cultures seeks to highlight the value of music, spoken poetry, and other sonic forms as ways to remember history, celebrate culture, and express individual identity.

Join Zoe from sweet-thang zine at 2pm on Saturday 10th October at Crofton Park Library for a free zine workshop inspired by Lovers' Rock music. This workshop is an ode to Lovers' Rock, a genre birthed in South London. Led by Zoe, you'll have the opportunity to engage with the Lewisham Community Zine Library, music magazines, Lovers' Rock music, song lyrics, and the iconic Lovers' Rock photography series captured by John Goto in 1977 at the Lewisham Youth Centre. You'll create your own collage zines from contemporary music ephemera, archival material, and our collection of craft materials. This is an opportunity to engage with the history and culture of the local area while exploring and expressing your identity through music and collage, ultimately creating your own sonic zine that captures the energy of this beautiful genre and its local roots.

This event is free and all materials are provided. Open to ages 16+.

About sweet-thang zine: Founded in 2017, sweet-thang zine is a community and print zine, publishing work by Black creatives worldwide and centering the experiences of women and queer folks. Through zine culture, they curate an alternative publishing platform which archives the Black contemporary, nurtures and champions Black artistry, and uses art as a portal for dreaming and reimagining new worlds. Entirely volunteer-run and majority self-funded, we have published 200 Black visual artists and writers across our 8 print issues while cultivating a worldwide readership that spans Europe, Africa, the US and the Caribbean. Our issues have been stocked in MagCulture and independent bookstores across Paris and Amsterdam.

What is a zine? Zines (pronounced "zeens") are small, independently created and self-published works with a decades-long history of social activism, creative expression, and grassroots publishing outside the mainstream. Zines can focus on anything from art, media and pop culture, writing, commentary and politics, comics, and more! They're a great way to get creative, document lived experiences and opinions, and celebrate culture in a tangible way. The best part is, anyone can make one!

This event was made possible by a grant from Lewisham Council.