fearless feminist imaginations ~ art as a tool for liberation and adventure
This workshop series ran from Jan 15 – 30 2023. When I choose to see the good side of things, I’m not being naive. It is strategic and necessary. It’s how I’ve learned to survive through everything. – Waymond Wang, Everything Everywhere All at Once In this workshop series, Kandaka Editor-In-Chief Amuna Wagner invites you…
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“these words they have egos and things to prove themselves, don’t they? we plant them & as they bloom we become intoxicated by their fragrance — so much so that reality shifts.” – Alok V Menon
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This article was first publishes on Skin Deep in January 2021, and edited by Nkenna Akunna. Check out their amazing work! This article was made possible by donations to the Black Creatives Fund. Donate now. [Trigger Warning: Homophobia, Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia] * Let me tell you about Haneen and Channah, my aunts who are like mothers to…
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“schwarz is exemplary of the kind of mindful discussions that should be taking place in Black communities: discussions where nobody is shouting above anyone else to declare that the racism they’ve experienced is more damaging than what someone else has faced; where people are free to speak their piece and be heard; and discussions underpinned…
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In this episode of Womxn Doing It For Themselves, we sat down with filmmaker Sarang Nes. She told us about her short documentary Cuntview, filming a naked vulva in a vulva shaped church, and shared an alternative feminist interpretation of Eve & Adam’s life in Paradise. About the film: Even though cunt is understood to…
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Winter doesn’t seem a great time for starting new adventures, but here we are. We have built enough steady groundwork this year to dare the jump. 2020’s madness had us rethink health, communal care and our needs as a socially distant collective. Together, we were pushed (or – ventured?) towards the edges. In 2021, we…
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I’m a white cis able-bodied woman, my partner is a white cis able-bodied man. It often feels like writing about my experiences takes up too much space on this blog. As part of my work on Kandaka I have published „If you look like me“ (2018) and „The right time and place to be a…
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Dear Friend “Before you were artist/activist/feminist/socialist/revolutionary/she/he/they/queer/polyamorous/heterosexual/agnostic/atheist/believing/firefighter/activator/organiser/reader/…/…/… you were once a child. A child that was curious, not nasty. A child who questioned, but was not judgemental. Let this be our common ground.” Community is the only way through. We manifested this in our residency K I N O T I T A in spring. Holding…
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In January 2019, Valia, Vee and I sat down in a Palestinian restaurant in Central London and decided to start a podcast. We were going to call it Kandakat doing it for themselves – Exploring activism in everyday practice. Vee had been experimenting with sound; Valia and I had been looking for ways to capture…
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On Sundays at 7 PM Cairo time (UTC +2:00), we write. Pandemic dystopias have us rethinking life and our expectations of it. In our creative writing session, we dare to give into the alternative realities we have been longing for. To reimagine ourselves in different futures and kinder worlds and write them into our new…
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This residency ran from April 1st – May 30th 2020. Thank you to all who made it wondrous. The apocalypse is best prevented in κοινότητα – kinotita – community. In these weeks of stillness, it is easy to get lost in our anxiety and future fears. Many of us are frustrated and scared, which can…
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You will feel it he said The ache he said You will grow and know he said What it is to want and be wanted he grabbed Haunted by hands too big and feet kicking against the waterDon’t say my name Don’t be nice Hold me and go fast fuck yeah that feels good even…
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(2019) Sitting on the steps of the sidewalks, I was waiting for the bus to take me to the capital’s airport.I said to my friend: “I hope I still belong in Egypt.” I had not visited Egypt in three years and had moved away seven years ago. I had become accustomed to losing and…
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modesty verses this sex ting’s esoteric, belonging to a few. not for girls like me who sprouted perched in pews. when The Bible says you cannot, you repress & grit your teeth. else demons go come and get you, drag you underneath. roasting like groundnut, legs crossed like a saint; sighing at my…
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What comes to mind when you think of vaginal health? Have you ever heard of vaginismus? Does this term ring a bell, or does it sound like “a condition that’s basically… [the word for vagina] mixed with the word for Christmas”? (as Ella Langley tells us half-jokingly in her newest play Have I Told…
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“When I think of what literature can do, and I think of the ways that literature has changed minds and opened imaginations, I want to say that we African writers must centre the African gaze. We must centre the Nigerian gaze, the Cameroonian gaze, the Ethiopian gaze, the Kenyan gaze. We need to be writing…
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The play Emilia is a great example of intersectional feminism – the story follows a black woman countering the stereotypes that are projected onto her by entitled white men. The actresses truly represent an intersectional cast countering racism, ableism, ageism and body shaming, alongside sexism. As such, we believe that inspiring performances like these can…
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Melanin Permission Slip by Jessica Fisher Hmmm, Brown skin, curly hair Intriguing Black? Latina? Native American? All three? Maybe, but surely too pretty to be black And not mixed with something Oh. Does that make it more acceptable to love me? Do you now have permission with the assumed dilution of my melanin? Could your…
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صوت المرأة ثورة Kandaka is the title used for queens in the ancient kingdom of Kush. However, Kandaka the word means “strong woman”. And where can you find stronger women than in Sudan? For four months now (really for many years), Sudanese people inside and outside the country have been protesting for the fall of […]
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feminist fathers don’t exist in my home loving and supporting fathers do. impressed by independent mothers proud of outspoken daughters sometimes victim blaming always happily bathing in their pool of toxic masculinity though loving femininity (for women) not minding tears (for women) accepting fears (for women) therefore still patriarchal, still entitled and still surprised…
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How does a production co-produced by the English National Theatre become testament to the devastating situation in Calais Camp? Refugees are literally trying to cross the French-British border to enter the same ‘national’ land in which the production is freely touring. ‘The Jungle’ is a production created by Good Chance Theatre which aims to to…
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“Islam has ended homosexual practices, not homoerotic sentiment” – Homoeroticism and homosexuality in Islam, Sabine Schmidtke In this paper, the relationship between homoeroticism and homophobia in Muslim countries will be explained while mainly focusing on Egypt, through mentioning a brief introduction about Egypt’s history and the rise of Islam, and reflecting the differences between the past…
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Mohini Can Scream Mohini woke up ten minutes before her alarm. On a normal morning, bombarded with images of the day’s to-do-list, she would have risen by instinct, deactivating her alarm prematurely and shrinking her every movement to not disturb her Sleeping Working Husband. But this morning even began different. Anand’s snoring had crystallised overnight…
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Why do we specifically label our feminism? Because different feminisms imagine different peace. In our opinion, most of the mainstream feminist visions are neither egalitarian nor liberatory. Feminism movement officially arose in what many refer to as the west, in the 18th century. In this context, first wave feminism is usually defined as the wave…
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Who am I? Who am I to myself and who am I to others? Does their opinion mold and influence who I am? A few questions that have crossed and constantly cross my mind. Well, I am a son, a brother, a student, a lover and more, but who is really me? I’ve struggled, like many…
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“أنا هنا لأربككم” هو عنوان خطاب لمنى الطحاوي الصحفية المصرية والذي ألقته في TEDWomen 2010. وتستخدم منى الإرباك كوسيلة لتغيير وجهات النظر ومكافحة كراهية النساء في العالم العربي وأيضاً في الغرب حيث أن هناك صورة نمطية منتشرة عن المرأة العربية بكونها ضحية ضعيفة ومطيعة ولا تستطيع ان تدافع عن نفسها. وبالرغم من أن هذه الصورة…
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“I am here to confuse you” is the title of a speech the Egyptian Journalist Mona Eltahawy gave at TEDWomen2010. Mona uses confusion as a tool to shift perspectives and fight misogyny in the Arab world as well as in the West where Arab women are often times stereotyped as being helpless and obedient victims…
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TRIGGER WARNING: RAPE AND WAR This essay was written a long time ago and does not necessarily reflect the author’s current views. In 2018, the world is being torn apart by international military conflicts, civil wars and terrorist threats with no lasting peace in near sight. The scholars of International Relations have been discussing and…
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What do you wanna be when you grow up? Have you started looking at any career options? I am on the verge of finishing my university degree: sketching a trajectory, defining my course of action and giving a shape to my aspirations has become somewhat pressing. In the West, we are brought from the youngest…
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How do you view yourself? I see myself as a perfect mix between masculine and feminine as I am always playing with both genders, not only in pictures but in every aspect of my life. People often call me a fag, attempting to put me in the box of the hyper feminine gay man,…
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“Hadn’t it been for literature, I wouldn’t probably have written this. Right?! It’s so scary how I’m a product of something I produce. I write poetry. Does this mean anything in particular? Probably no. But I write my body, my thoughts, my feelings; and if all of this doesn’t qualify as poetry, I guess I…
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Where to begin… last year my life completely changed. I shot my first set of nude self portraits in my friend’s bedroom and posted them online for the world to see. After receiving more likes, comments and shares then I had ever gotten on a photograph before I felt uplifted, inspired, liberated and confident. It…
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My grandma was a German catholic girl who had to flee what is now Czech after Germany lost WWII. Her family moved to the Munich area and after finishing school, she started working at Föhrenwald, the biggest camp for displaced persons. There, she met my grandfather, a Jewish man who had escaped the Ghetto in…
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Follow Kandaka on Vimeo. Filmed and edited by Hannah Wolny Idea by Amuna Wagner and Hannah Wolny Text by Valia Katsi Song: staRo – Milk
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Words by Amuna Wagner Photos and Edit by Hannah Wolny
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KANDAKA 