Introducing the new Peterborough Currents editorial team

Hello! We’re Gabe Pollock and David Tough, and we’re excited to introduce ourselves as the new co-editors of Peterborough Currents. 

We come with a long history in journalism and the arts in Peterborough. Gabe is a writer, editor, and arts administrator who has worked with the Electric City Culture Council, and Dave is an academic, musician, and former editor of Arthur Newspaper and The Leveller. Together, we founded Electric City Magazine in 2016 and spent several years writing about this community, and we’re thrilled to be getting back to it with Peterborough Currents.

The spirit of ‘hopepunk’ is alive in local news

Last Wednesday, Gabe had a chance to attend the Hopepunk Short Story Writing Workshop at Artspace, presented as part of Peterborough-Nogojiwanong Pride and hosted by Derek Newman-Stille and Lisa Trefzger Clarke. ‘Hopepunk’ is a new genre of speculative fiction. Emerging in the last decade or so, it proposes the radical possibility that, despite the state of the world, despite all evidence to the contrary, maybe all is not lost.

“I’m sure folks have heard the term ‘it is what it is,’” said Derek. “This is about challenging that and saying, ‘no actually, it doesn’t have to be.’ We can move out of ‘it is what it is,’ and into what is possible.” 

Hopepunk narratives imagine positive futures (and sometimes even positive presents). They’re about people coming together, using their shared resources and shared abilities, as well as the best of modern innovation and traditional practices, to build a world of equity and justice, where we can live in community with each other and with the world around us.

At the same time, hopepunk isn’t about naive optimism or ignoring the harsh realities of the world. Instead, it faces them head on. “The ‘punk’ part of hopepunk is the resistance aspect,” explained Derek. “Rather than letting us fall into despair and immobility, hopepunk is about actively choosing to fight for a better world.” 

In 2025, at a time of increased prejudice towards queer, trans, and other marginalized people, there is something quietly radical in a diverse group of queer people coming together, sitting around a folding table at a downtown art gallery, eating grocery store muffins, and collectively imagining that things might turn out alright.

There is something inherently hopepunk about Peterborough Currents. 

It’s certainly never been an organization plagued by naive optimism. Our city is facing unprecedented challenges, including a housing crisis, growing inequality, an overburdened care sector, and the ongoing effects of climate change, and the Currents team have faced these problems head on.

At the same time, there is a spirit of hope in an independent, non-profit journalism organization funded primarily by its home community, with an unflagging commitment to present stories that matter, built on the premise that good journalism can make a difference.

In our previous venture, Electric City Magazine, we tried to do high-quality hyperlocal journalism and opinion pieces, written from an unabashedly bratty perspective, and run it as a for-profit business.

We wrote about local music and arts, and also did news features on topics like the opioid crisis, the job market, and accessibility. The magazine was successful in every way except as a business, and it (mostly) wound down after less than three years. 

Since then, we’ve watched with admiration (and a little bit of professional jealousy) the work of the Currents crew: the rigour and intelligence of their reporting, the depth of their commitment to the community, and the slow, intentional way they’ve built the organization. 

“How can we make a difference in this community through information?” asked Currents co-founder Will Pearson in one of our first meetings together, and it’s a question we intend to keep asking ourselves as we move forward. 

Currents is uniquely suited to report the news in a way no one else does. It can break down complex issues and provide the long view, highlight underreported stories in our community and draw attention where it needs to be, speak truth to power (with the data to back it up), and celebrate the artistic and cultural communities that make Peterborough such an exciting place to live.

We’re honoured that the PALN board has entrusted us with Peterborough Currents, and we’re eager to get out there and tell stories that matter to this community.