Words: Oli Spleen, B&W Images: Estate of Fred W. McDarrah Ten years ago this June, a gunman walked into Pulse, an LGBT+ venue in Orlando Florida and opened fire. Forty nine people died as a result. Deeply shaken by the news of this tragedy I was honoured to be asked to write a poem for…
Words: Oli Spleen Feature image: Corrina Eastwood, March for Palestine, Central London, October 11th 2025Images below: Eamonn Burke-Duggan, Hastings Jews for Justice protest Saturday 21st March 2026 On Saturday April 11, police outnumbered peaceful protesters on Hastings seafront as seven people were arrested simply for holding signs opposing genocide. In February the High Court ruled…
Words: SGH Image: Hastings Rental Health’s new plot.A co-op isn’t just a weird little group of people opting out of wearing shoes together, it’s a collective making a joint decision that something would work much better without any self appointed, self-entitled whoevers exploiting us or doling out unnecessary orders from upon high. Cooperativism is co-operating…
Words: David Williams. Images: Hastings Urban Bikes. It’s unavoidable sometimes, but making comparisons to our capital city (L**don) are often unhelpful, even damaging. Take housing, for example. In the city, it is now not uncommon to be paying close to a grand a month for a room in a shared house! And the median house…
Words: Merlin Betts Artwork: Chris Sav @disappointman Well, it was a little more than a month to decide, and they’re backdating it so it’s more like the next 18 years, but you get the idea. The Local Plan is out for consultation, and our Hastings future is being decided. The decision-makers are a government in…
On Saturday 21 February campaigners from Housing Rebellion interrupted an attempt by Southern Housing to auction a property intended for use as social housing. 4 Wellington Gardens is a three bedroom house, built by the government in 1922 as part of their “homes fit for heroes” initiative to provide affordable homes for working class families…
Words: Andrea Cowhig, Treasurer of Hastings Area Southern Housing Tenants Association (HASHTA). Image: “The Battle of Hollington” by P.A. Uri, the Marquis of Markwick. All Four Courts residents recently received a newsletter from Southern Housing (SH), please see our response, as there was some misleading information in there regarding HASHTA, which is rather upsetting. All…
Words: Oli Spleen. Gig photos: Jeff Pitcher. “I’ve killed so many men, but I saved one” – Lydia Lunch says as she puts an arm around me to pose for a photograph at The Piper, Norman Road. She’s just torn through an incredible set with her band Big Sexy Noise. Any attempts to define the…
In December 2025, the podcast team at Hex interviewed local powerhouse Dawn Dublin at Hatton’s Yard, a community space in St Leonards currently trying to remain open despite financial and arguably political pressures. Dawn Dublin set up Black Butterfly as an afro-centric mutual aid organisation in the 2020 lockdown. It was among many other mutual…
Words: Lizzie Beck. Pictures: Tatenda Mikey and Hatton’s Yard. Where I live in St Leonards it is well established that there are as many art galleries as there are coffee shops. Which is actually pretty impressive for a small town. But why is this worth mentioning? Because in six years I’ve been in every one…