How To Make Magazines Good Again with 614

Gone are the days where magazines once reigned – and it’s fucking sad. To hold something physical, each page made with the same precision, all made with an overarching creative intention… it was a small pleasure. 

Though the internet can be a magical place (and also sometimes not), there’s something artistically lacking about the 2D spaces of a computer screen. The omnipresence of needing instant information means high competition for views for any given popular media site. It’s always the next thing, then the next thing, then the next. Creating something that wholly relies on collaboration and slow-told stories, while encapsulating the feelings and general atmosphere of people at one place, at one time: That’s what magazines did best. 

In Australia, with a small cultural scene in comparison to places like the US and UK, it’s often hard to abridge how our culture is moving, especially as POC creatives move to the forefront and deeper, more enriching stories are told.

That’s where 614 Magazine comes in. 

At the start of 2021, Francesca Nwokeocha was caught in the hurricane that was COVID. She had saved enough money to travel overseas - but with that option off the table and a long-want to start a magazine – she decided to funnel the funds into the first ever issue of 614. Amazingly – and not always the case for start-up publications – it had a globally recognized talent on the front: Sampa The Great. 

“I literally just hit up her manager, because I know her choreographer as well,” Francesca told VICE.

“And I was just like, ‘Yo, I’m doing this magazine’. And I emphasised on the whole that we wanted to empower people of colour  in the creative and music scene in Australia and that it’s black, woman-owned, because there’s not really many magazines that you could really pick up like that.”

They shot the cover in Sampa’s homeground of Botswana, navigating the shoot from Australia, after she replied, “I’m in.”

The first issue also involved appearances and interviews from Genesis Owusu, BLESSED, B Wise, Milan Ring, Jessica Jade, Yibby and Maina Doe: an avid selection of POC artists shaking up the Australian musical circuit. Also included were photography appearances from The Kid Laroi, Post Malone, A$AP Rocky and Trilla Venus.

“The whole mag is actually made by the community. And it’s about owning our own culture, and representing our own culture and telling our own stories,” she says.

“And it's made by people like that. The majority, like 90% of the team, are people of colour.”

It’s a side of the market that the Australian entertainment and music industry have barely touched on in magazine form: taking the overarching decision of who deserves to be spotlighted away from the commercial sector and placing it into the hands of those actually in the know. Then, to become a true reflection of time and place.

With the second issue released (dropping Genesis Owusu – blue paperclips showering his face as he smiles maniacally – on the cover), Francesca looks to the third while carrying the same ethos.

“We’re uplifting the community, trying to unify the scene out here. We’re trying to bring it together through this magazine,” she says.

“It's just the fact that we're powered by the community and made by the community, and it's about time we get the recognition we deserve.”

Follow Julie Fenwick on Twitter and Instagram.

Read more from VICE Australia and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, This Week Online.