We here at the House of Thing are over the top about the release of THING magazine as a book.
Published in Artforum
#7) THING (Primary Information, 2025)
April 2025, Nate Lippens Top Ten
The saints at Primary Information recently published all ten issues of Thing—a groundbreaking zine that chronicled the queer Black music and art scenes in Chicago and beyond—into one gorgeous volume (the magazine started in 1989 and ran until 1993, when its founder, Robert Ford, died from AIDS).
Read the full review at artforum.com/lists/nate-lippens-top-ten
Blind Magazine
Get Into Thing, the Legendary 1990s Black Queer Magazine
April 17, 2025, by Miss Rosen
Some say disco died on July 12, 1979, when 50,000 white men and women turned out in force for “Disco Demolition Night” at Chicago’s Comiskey Park. What began as racist, homophobic rage against disco — a predominantly Black queer art form — invariably ended up as a wholesale riot with few arrested for disorderly conduct.
But disco never died, it just went underground and was reborn on the dance floor. By the mid-1980s, Chicago emerged as the heartbeat of a new sound — house music — that would take global nightlife by storm. But where disco was treated as a novelty and farmed for profits, house music largely resisted co-optation by the music industry, it’s influence inescapable yet unconstrained.
By the end of the decade, house music had become a way of life. Love was the message, and music it’s messenger, and those who heard it followed its call. Enter Robert T. Ford, Trent Adkins, and Lawrence D. Warren, the masterminds behind THING, the legendary 1990s Black queer magazine that became a defining voice of the early 1990s scene.
Read the full review at blind-magazine.com/news/get-into-thing-the-legendary-1990s-black-queer-magazine
Billboard Magazine
Reissued ‘Thing’ Magazine Captures Early Chicago House History
April 2, 2025, by Elias Leight
“When we weren’t doing the zine or running the gallery, we were out dancing,” Bouyer notes. By osmosis, “house culture was a big part of Thing magazine,” according to Terry Martin, who contributed photos to the publication and worked on another short-lived, house-focused publication titled Cross Fade with Ford. “We were in the middle of this history forming around house culture — it was blowing up in Chicago at the time,” Martin continues.
Ford “knew music inside and out. It is really a thread that runs through the entire series.” (His co-editors were Trent Adkins and Lawrence D. Warren.) Even as DJs and producers created house history in real time through riveting sets and thrilling new 12-inch singles, Thing shows that debates about the essence of the genre — and its direction — were already raging.
Read the full review at billboard.com/music/features/thing-zine-reissue-chicago-house-music-1235937040
Windy City Times
THING, the ‘90s zine about Black queer Chicago nightlife, republished as anthology
February 25, 2025, by Jake Wittich
The essence of THING, a groundbreaking magazine that documented Chicago’s Black queer night life scene from 1989-1993, can best be described by the publication’s tagline: “She Knows Who She Is.”
THING’s first issue was a 20-page, photocopied zine that came out in November 1989, justas Chicago’s burgeoning house music scene and ballroom culture was thriving in underground club spaces. And THING’s founders—Robert Ford, Trent Adkins, and Lawrence Warren—were there to document their rise.
Read the full review at windycitytimes.com/2025/02/25/thing-the-90s-zine-about-black-queer-chicago-nightlife-republished-as-anthology
Resident Advisor
New zine anthology celebrates Chicago house’s queer history
January 2025, by Hattie Lindert
The new, 460-page book compiles all ten issues of THING for the first time. Founded in 1989 by designer and artist Robert Ford, THING became a staple publication of the Chicago house scene, which emerged out of the city’s queer underground. It platformed influential house artists like Frankie Knuckles, Larry Heard and Deee-Lite, while also publishing writing from American greats like Gary Indiana, David Sedaris, Vaginal Davis, and Marlon Riggs.
Read the full review at ra.co/news/81927
DJ Mag
Chicago house music’s queer history explored in THING zine anthology
January 20, 2025, by Martin Guttridge-Hewitt
The anthology aims to “to reinstate the Black voices who were so central to the history of HIV/AIDS activism and Queer and club culture.”
Chicago house music’s queer history and origins are explored in THING, a new anthology named after a landmark LGBTQIA+ publication launched in 1989 by the designer and writer Robert Ford.
The 460-page collector’s edition brings together all 10 original issues of the magazine. Known for platforming dance music pioneers and performers such as Larry Heard, Frankie Knuckles, Deee-Lite, Gemini, and RuPaul, its pages featured poetry, fiction and original artwork, while also containing gossip and interview pieces.
Read the full review at djmag.com/news/chicago-house-musics-queer-history-explored-thing-zine-anthology
