Boy.Brother.Friend Is a London-based fashion and arts magazine. In 2023, the magazine received a $100,000 grant from George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. ¹

Background

Boy.Brother.Friend was first launched in 2017 by Nigerian-born stylist KK Obi. The magazine began as a limited-edition piece on fashion and the arts, but became a regular biannual magazine by 2020. ²  Obi previously described the magazine as a space that “seeks to examine fashion, contemporary art, and theory through the guise of the male experience.” ² Obi claims to have originally planned on releasing the magazine as a print-only limited edition, but created a digital version alongside the print due to the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns. ²

Advocacy

Black Lives Matter

In July 2023, Boy.Brother.Friend published an essay by activist Andrew Pasquier titled “The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted: Black Lives’ Matters Legacy from the US to Europe.” According to the piece, Pasquier claimed that online posts and X (formerly Twitter) social media tags for Black Lives Matter have been, “regularly hijacked by people opposed to BLM, with right-wing voices tagging critical posts with the popular hashtags in insidious attempts to contort meaning and obfuscate the coherence of the movement’s language.” ³ The piece continued by claiming police institutions within the United States began as “slave patrols” ³ and further claimed the concept of defunding the police began from “abolition” activism by those like Angela Davis and Alex Vitale that advocated for opposing, “prisons, the military, and police.” ³ Regarding BLM sentiment spreading to Europe, Pasquier’s piece also claimed, “it is the responsibility of white Europeans not to import or reject BLM, but to ask themselves what racism their countries continue to manifest and why.” ³

Middle East

In August 2023, Boy.Brother.Friend published by activist Ahmad Harhash titled “The Afro-Palestinian Narrative: Resisting Occupation in Palestine.” According to the essay, Harhash wrote on the struggles faced by “Afro-Palestinians” within the Middle East. ⁴

In November 2023, Boy.Brother.Friend published a story on a local photo gallery organized by aid group Medical Aid for Palestinians that featured media from over 150 photographers that claimed to raise awareness of citizens impacted by the ongoing Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza. ⁵

Women’s Magazine

In August 2024, Boy.Brother.Friend’s publisher KK Obi announced he planned to publish a sister magazine for women called Girl.Sister.Friend by the end of 2025. ⁶

Financials

In 2023, Boy.Brother.Friend received a $100,000 grant from George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. ¹

Leadership

Boy.Brother.Friend’s founder and editor is KK Obi. Obi is a Nigerian-born stylist who moved to London when he was 17. He was formerly the creative director at Seventh Man magazine. ⁷

1. “Awarded Grants.” Open Society Foundations. Accessed October 21, 2024. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/grants/past?grant_id=OR2023-91952.
2. “Boy.Brother.Friend Is the New MAG Exploring Diverse Realities.” Dazed, May 13, 2020. https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/49192/1/boy-brother-friend-new-mag-exploring-diverse-realities-kk-obi-emmanuel-balogun.
3. Pasquier, Andrew. “The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted: Black Lives’ Matters Legacy from the US to Europe .” – Boy.Brother.Friend, July 29, 2023. https://boybrotherfriend.com/the-revolution-will-not-be-tweeted-black-lives-matters-legacy-from-the-us-to-europe/.
4. Harhash, Ahmad. “The Afro-Palestinian Narrative: Resisting Occupation in Palestine.” – Boy.Brother.Friend, August 3, 2023. https://boybrotherfriend.com/the-afro-palestinian-narrative-resisting-occupation-in-palestine/.
5.  Dopamu, Jojolola. “Pictures for Palestine: A Fundraiser for Medical Aid for Palestinians .” – Boy.Brother.Friend, November 20, 2023. https://boybrotherfriend.com/pictures-for-palestine-a-fundraiser-for-medical-aid/.
6. Stout, Emma. “‘it’s Time That Art Is Purposeful’: KK Obi Takes Us inside Boy.Brother.Friend.” Interview Magazine, August 2, 2024. https://www.interviewmagazine.com/fashion/kk-obi-takes-us-inside-boy-brother-friend.
7. From Nigeria to London, KK Obi on Creating an Alternative Identity in Fashion: Of The Minute.” MODELS, February 28, 2019. https://models.com/oftheminute/?p=118669.