March 2018 By Amir Bagheri (i) A letter to my mom Salaam Maamaan, About a month ago, I was given the task to write an editor’s note about “women”. I have been thinking about it for weeks now. You have been at the centre of my thoughts because almost everything I know about women has…
Category: Issue 2: Women
darling i daresay
A Poem By Juwayriya Bemath my dear, she was crystal darling i daresay she was molten glass — trace down her skin and let us find her miles of secrets come inside; blood and sinew red rivers of magic bone, spark and betrayal come inside; there it is the gleam of an ember [ like…
Persian Poetry: I know a woman
A Monthly Column By Mehdi Bagheri I know a woman I know a woman Who wants to flutter with passionate ardour So eager But too scared to begin the tour I know a woman Who at a corner in the house Sings about love in the kitchen As she cooks She looks modest and abandoned…
Brown Wonder, Will You Look At Me?
A Poem By Nkateko Masinga Will you look at me when you have stopped trying to re-enact the Great Flood with your tears? I have questions for you: One. Of all the things that you inherited from your mother, why is it loss that you turned into an heirloom? Two. Do you know that flowers do…
Excuses
A Poem By Tanatsei Gambura In his defence, I always said my father was not A product of himself, That his ways were creations Of his father and his father’s Mistress who I call my grandmother. Even they are difficult to blame; Some truths are violent. Gogo died when I was nine, when she was just…
JOU HOND!!!
A Poem By Indigene “Gene” Harris For all the women I smoke for Your screams echoing into the night They’re spitting insults at you for asking for it and not giving it away, again We were never theirs to begin with Tell them VOETSEK!!!
An Odd Music Spotlight
3 Artists That Are Gonna Change Your Life By Taahir Kamal Chagan Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything. – Plato Without Music, Life would be a mistake. – Friedrich Nietzsche Whether you…
Meditations: Principled
A Column By Lucinda de Leeuw Principled This will be short. The set of principles I want to share with you this month say everything I’ve been feeling and thinking and wanting to express for the past few weeks. It is packaged succinctly into a list of twenty-five. These are not a prescription or a…
Odd Interview: Pussy on a Plinth
An Interview By Shameelah Khan The name of the collective was influenced by… This collective is comprised of ten womxn artists, based in Johannesburg, taking over and occupying male-dominated spaces in Johannesburg. Printmaking (particularly linocut) is a male-dominated field in the art industry which is still seen as unchartered territory for womxn, particularly womxn of…
The Birth of Fire
A Short Story By Nkateko Masinga For decades, my grandmother’s dreams had saved our family from one disaster after the other. When she dreamt of a flood, we would reinforce our buttresses and fix existing leaks. When she dreamt of crops, we knew it would be a difficult harvest. Her dreams always involved the elements:…