“It was very important for me not to pretend to have surmounted the pain and terror of that time of my life, very important not to pretend that it left no mark on me. It marked me forever.” ― James Baldwin, 1976 This workshop series is a continued exploration of memory as an imagined, contested, and…
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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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Scroll down for English ——- Es ist ein seltsames Konzept oder Verfahrenall diese Dimensionen von Sinnen und Geschmäckern und Texturen und Instinkten und großen Emotionen in kleine Worte zu fassen und auf der anderen Seite herauszukommen, nicht kleiner, nicht weniger aber fast mehr, auf die eine oder andere Weise transzendiert. Genuss. Die Reinheit die ich…
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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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Who are you, Zoe? Hi! Gosh how do I answer that ? I am just a being navigating her way through reality, writing things here and there, trying to create and just be. At the time of writing this (while ‘I Am the Black Gold of the Sun’ by Rotary Connection and Minnie Riperton…
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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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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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“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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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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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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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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“Muskizism” is a poem by Amuna Wagner about her experiences living in Egypt for a year. The poem was turned into a short film using footage she captured while observing her environment with the help of her dear friend Ahmed Doola. It is presented and produced by kandaka.blog and edited by Hannah Wolny.
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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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“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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Words by Amuna Wagner Photos and Edit by Hannah Wolny
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Photos by Hannah Wolny Words by Amuna Wagner Edit by Hannah Wolny and Amuna Wagner Models: Veronique Belinga and Amuna Wagner
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