Issue #20
“Horror Noire”

It’s our first official release of the new year, and I feel honored (and a bit nervous) to be the one to welcome us into another year of Night Terror Magazine, but as always, I’ll take my best shot.

This last year has been exhausting, to say the very least, for many of us. It goes without saying why that is, and to be honest, there are far too many reasons to list in detail. As we went into the new year, there was so much evidence of the toll it’s taken on all of us. The usual resolutions we see every year for progress in fitness or to excel in our careers didn’t flood my timeline when the ball dropped. Instead, I found a lot of people had goals of being more intentional and slowing down this upcoming year. I even found myself having rest as my personal main focus.

However, with the new wave of intention I’ve also seen so many people of color building personal curricula around their ancestral traditions and classic literature as a means to reinstill their strength and rediscover their stories. We’re rebuilding our communities for the reclamation that must be on its way. This isn’t with blanketed hopefulness, but with focused intention. 

This sentiment was kept in mind as I designed the cover for this month’s issue featuring an intense looking Soucouyant. According to Caribbean folklore, Soucouyants are shape-shifting, blood-sucking entities with the skin of an old woman. It was said that these entities would shed their skin and launch into the sky as fireballs looking for their next victims to suck the life out of, striking fear into many. Unfortunately, many of these accused older women were being harassed because of how independent they were on their own terms. During a time when women couldn’t own assets, to see a woman somehow keep herself afloat by her own means was seen as a threat. And as many legends go, it's easier to burn a witch at the stake in the name of “safety” to take back power. 

However, for many of these women, they fed off the power that was assumed of them. The ancestor illustrated on our cover has claimed her power in being considered this almighty blood-sucker. Instead of being consumed by the flames, she embraces them. She stares directly at the viewer, fire broiling within her, as if to say, “Just try it. You won’t live to tell the tale.”

This year of intention references this ancestor’s strength and this magick within is what many in the Black community are currently reaching for in an effort to renew themselves. I’ve witnessed so many Black women with TBRs full of books featuring Hoodoo and ancestral spirituality as an effort to figure out what our foremothers used for survival during such trying times. This issue examines this aspect from different angles. 

Elli, our superstar Editor-In-Chief,  has a beautiful article dismantling the idea of what modern folk horror has become in popular media, by looking into the survivalist nature of folklore for communities of color. Our amazing contributors show us how these traditions are being used within art as reflection as well as in practice for connection. As for my own offering this month, I put emphasis on how important it is for us to protect evidence of our histories as we no longer can trust institutions to do this for us by archiving them in our own personal libraries.

This is a very raw issue in many ways. One that bares its soul as our contributors speak personally of why the community is journeying to find our way in the chaotic world and reaching back to rediscover what may have been lost along the way. Some may feel reflected in its contents and some may feel confronted. Regardless of which it may be for you, dear reader, I urge you to explore why that may be. The answer may be a North Star for you as you find your own journey to survive the current state of the world.

Here’s to stoking the fires currently burning within us as we stare intensely into the face of 2026, with an expression of assuredness that says,

“Bring it on.” 

Kelsee