So Long, Noon - I'm Writing for After Noon now!

 

I have some wonderful news for all you culture freaks out there. After a brief absence following the Covid pandemic, Noon is back – glossier, more relevant and more ‘post-everything’ than ever. Except now it’s called After Noon, and has recalibrated itself for the end of 2025 by going back to issue 01

 

When Jasmine Raznahan told me she was launching After Noon, I immediately agreed to contribute something. I like working with her very much and was very happy to contribute to issue 01 as I have been a regular contributor to Noon since Jasmine first invited me to write something for issue 2 back in 2014. In fact, I have contributed something to every issue right up to the magazine’s recent post-Covid hiatus. While writing for the magazine, I developed a very strong sense of what Jasmine wanted from me, especially for the ‘theme’ issues. I was aware that she was looking for texts that would complement the visual content of the magazine but would also take the reader off on some interesting and unusual tangents. 

 

It usually takes Jasmine and I one conversation to come up with the right tangent. She told me that the theme was ‘Borders’. And my immediate response was to write about New York in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. The memory of this event had started haunting me again: Donald Trump was in the White House ordering airstrikes against Iranian nuclear sites. Back then he had been boasting that the destruction of the World Trade Centre meant he now had the tallest building in New York – spoiler alert: he didn’t, and he never had. I was actually in Manhattan in the middle of October 2001 with my bride Rachel. As newlyweds, we had always planned to honeymoon there and were determined not to change our plans, despite the terrible tragedy that had just unfolded. What Rachel and I encountered there still surprises me to this day. 

 

I have always tried to make every text I wrote for Noon as different from the others as I possibly could. Jasmine has always given me the space and the opportunity to experiment with new ideas and approaches. It’s one of the reasons why I’m so excited to be working with her magazine again. ‘The Safest Place on Earth’ is different from a lot of my previous writing in that it is highly personal – I have rarely used the first person in my previous work, but I’m finding that autobiographical and autoethnographic writings are increasingly useful instruments for probing whatever the hell it is that’s happening to us today. One thing is clear to me, however: at some point, every writer worthy of the title owes their readers a life – and I’m trying to pay back some of that debt right now. 

 

The After Noon 01 launch took place last week at Claire de Rouen, a chic little bookshop in London’s East End. You knew it was chic because someone had dumped one high-heeled shoe and an empty can of Pabst Blue Ribbon in the trash. 

 

Buy yourself a little happy with After Noon (01) – and check out some Noon back issues by clicking here.

 

Dazed digital currently has a feature on the reincarnation of Noon as After Noon, and you can read it by clicking here.

 

Pictured above:

After Noon 01 cover – Katherine Hamnett by Juergen Teller

After Noon 01 cover detail

After Noon trash at Claire de Rouen

After Noon spine

Dazed screengrab

KH flashing ‘The Safest Place on Earth’ at Claire de Rouen (pix by Max King)

‘The Safest Place on Earth’ detail