Well, it’s 2020. It’s kind of weird to think that a whole decade went by, but it happened!

Over the past ten years, we’ve seen the rise and fall of indie zines, online blogs and well-intentioned internet cliques. Also Cool came from the frustration of scrolling endlessly searching online for something with substance. After ignoring article after clickbait article, we knew that we needed to do better. We craved genuine, thoroughly developed content that actually resonated with our identities, values, and those of the people around us. We are an all-femme, racially diverse team, and we are over with having our identities used as buzzwords for clickbait article titles. We want to write from our personal experiences because they are important; not because they’re trendy. Our work is important because we put the time, effort, research and creativity into it; not because we happen to fit someone’s social justice narrative. We’re committed to amplifying marginalized voices through fostering a music and arts platform that emphasizes collaboration and community, instead of competitiveness.

Our team comes from backgrounds of expertise in grassroots community organization, independent journalism, show promotion, social media content curation and media production. Our team is currently made up of Zoë Argiropulos-Hunter, Malaika Astorga and Maya Hassa.

Zoë is a music promoter, radio DJ and musician, who strives to facilitate a platform for marginalized artists through safe-space and community-centred advocacy. Malaika is a Mexican-Canadian visual artist, writer and queer-femme. Her work prioritizes creating and promoting Mexican representation in Canadian media, after growing up with virtually none. Maya is a music journalist from Chicago who fell head-over-heels in love with Montreal’s unique DIY culture. She works to promote underrepresented and underground artists through her writing.

Also, hey, we’re the ones writing this first letter from the editors! We’re still growing our team, and welcome applications of all kinds to get involved.

Also Cool is originally the brain-child of pals Zoë and Malaika. We’ve been best friends since we met at a hardcore show in 2015. Malaika designed a poster for Zoë’s high school band, and the rest is history. Growing up together in our hometown’s music scene, we’ve always had our hearts set on giving back to communities and circles that have given us a space to be ourselves. More importantly, we wanted to inspire change so that others could have that same feeling of belonging within industries that are notorious for gatekeeping. And so, Also Cool is here for anything that is, you know, also cool! No matter where you’re at in your creative career, we want to work with you. We believe in fostering long-term relationships, and in providing resources that aren’t always readily available (like writing an email pitch to a magazine, for example 👀 ) It’s scary to put yourself out there, but we’re here to help and to grow our community online and IRL.

This is our first official hello to the next decade, and we’ve hit the ground running. In the coming January weeks, we’ll have our first rollout of online content. We’ve also got some majorly cool Montreal events on the rise. First, we just hosted a lesbian* dance party in collaboration with BLUSH on January 10th. If you missed it, no sweat! We’ll be co-presenting Age of Aquarius: An Aquastellar Experience with the LUX MAGNA music festival on January 24th. We’re so excited! It means the world to us that you care about the arts and music community just as much as we do. Mark your calendars!

We also want to say a massive thank you to The Diving Bell, Hot Tramp MGMT, Mata Mate, Backxwash, Schwey, Maryze, and La Fièvre for being a part of our first fundraiser in November. Thank you to everyone who came to that event, and thank you to everyone who has messaged us since to get involved with our project, or has shown support. We love you, and we are endlessly grateful for you.

You can find us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or via #alsocoolmag. You can also listen to what we’re loving over on our Spotify. If you’re off social media (honestly, we envy you) you can also subscribe to our monthly newsletter here to stay up to date with everything we think is Also Cool.

We can’t wait to see what 2020 has in store, and we hope that it has been kind to all of you so far! Happy New Year!

Also Cool

All photography & illustrations are by Malaika Astorga.

*BLUSH is an event by and for wlw which encompasses lesbian/bisexual/queer women, trans, and non-binary people. We welcome straight allies and male-identified people, encourage them to be aware of the space they are coming into and the space of privilege that they occupy.

Featured