an old tradition
with illustrations by Lena Dirscherl our last kiss fumbling and strange in a spanish airport bathroom she headed home to a new career me onto anarcho-queer berlin we don’t know each other anymore on...
Category: Stories
POEM I DON’T WANT TO WRITE
by aabbchot aabbaadd aabbswallow // illustration by Jespa Jacob Smith /// I’m trapped in my silence, – I don’t tell anyone about my alarm, – I know why I am in this situation, – thoughts constantly recur, remind me. I’ve developed and actioned plans,…
To be or not to be… this has been my question
by Jocelyne Rigal // illustration by LITA /// Family is a strange thing to me… I like to think my friends constitute some sort of a chosen family. As an only child, I have…
Call: Shifting Traditions
Submission deadline: July 31st, 2020
We accept fictional and biographical work. Submissions can be written, drawn, photo essays, made into a film, song, or installation. Please get in touch if you have a certain idea, but are not sure if it fits the topic or if the form will work.
WHEN OUR MOVEMENT BECAME THEIR CAUSE
TEXT BY: Nikola Italo // Argentina
In Argentina we are living through a very particular but incredibly significant course of events. The parliament (Congress, to be specific) has decided to start the project of a new law: the decriminalization of abortion.
To the girl who made me realise that my being straight was a phase!
TEXT BY: Sneha Rooh // India || ILLUSTRATION BY: Elizabeth Watkin // USA
I remember asking you if you were sure of what you were feeling not because I didn’t trust it but because I wanted to be sure.
A Bed Of Stones
TEXT BY: Chroma Curious // India || ILLUSTRATION BY: Tigrowna // Germany
She put her concerns aside and scanned the scenario. On her left was a river and to her right was a small cave.
20th Century Girl
TEXT BY: Shawna Virago // USA || ILLUSTRATION BY: Dixie Turner // UK/Germany
Over coffee and onion rings, we chatted away, sharing our histories, tracing our connections, discovering our lines of intersection and where we were different, as we unburdened much to each other.
Death on the Beach
TEXT BY: Michael Ampersant // Netherlands || ILLUSTRATION BY: Heather Sinclair // Germany
Shy as I was, I would always make sure that I wasn’t entering the wrong cabin, or walking in on somebody forgetting to lock the door who would then be standing there with his pants half-down and his tiny dick, looking embarrassed or angry and later show up in my dreams.
Travelogue – SAFE project
TEXT AND ILLUSTRATION BY: Julia Lama // Spain
Not so long ago I traveled from Spain to Poland to take part in a youth training, where we learned how to raise awareness on sexuality (sexual education), assertiveness, feminism and equality through methodologies of non-formal education.
The Journey across Southern Island
TEXT BY: Alexander Opicho // Kenya || ILLUSTRATION BY: Beldan Selzen // Amsterdam/New York
We are now driving past Bukolobi Night Club, towards the football pitch where the Al Shabab terrorist once attacked. We are sure no policeman is following us. Uganda police have that type of over-confidence of having been guerilla; they know that no woman can defy their order.
Send me postcards and books
TEXT BY: Sneha Rooh // India || ILLUSTRATION BY: Falco Verholen // Netherlands
Send me postcards and books
Your clothes for swapping
And all the slicing words that repeat
Your clothes for swapping
And all the slicing words that repeat
Call Me A Boy – My journey into music and manhood
TEXT BY: Faris Saad // Malaysia || ILLUSTRATION BY: Tom Moore // Germany
“My bandmates assured me that no one in the straight cis-male crowd would care, and if they did, fuck them, selamba je. Even if I lost everything else, I would still have my core group of friends who accepted me as my handsome self.”
Uncle Joe
video by:Zhen Yee Khor // Malaysia
A father talks about getting drafted to fight in a war when he was still a kid, coming home to find out that everyone thinks that what he did was wrong and shows how even if it’s against all odds, he became a loving father and husband that respects and cherishes all people, especially his gay son.
Time’s up
TEXT BY: Stella Andrada Kasdovasili // Hungary/Greece || ILLUSTRATION BY: Ranafarba // France
“She talked for an hour or so. Told me everything. How everyone got divided. Everything got very complicated. Identities clashed. First came the men, then gay men, then trans men, then trans women, then women, then lesbian women, bisexuals (they really had it ugly, nobody ever believed they were even a thing), asexuals, metrosexuals, non-binary, queer. Riots, protests, violence in all possible ways and forms.”
Darling Fitch
MULTIMEDIA PROJECT BY: Darling Fitch // Germany/USA
“Arising from the cesspool of Berlin’s queer party scene, Darling Fitch’s A Stranger Sound is a dark yet ultimately affirming transgender coming-of-age story.”
Stop Talking, Start Doing:
My experience with the eBay Startup Cup 2018
TEXT & PHOTOS: Lazar Mikov // Germany / Macedonia
“If someone told me that our team would generate revenue on the first day of our business I would have laughed in disbelief. Yet that’s exactly what happened at…”
Interview with spoken word artist Uppa Tsuyo
TEXT BY: Sneha Rooh // India || PHOTO BY: Uppa Tsuyo // India
“I love words and the power they hold. They can save you, and I am a living example of it.”
Another Coming Out Story
TEXT BY: Norman Belanger // USA || ILLUSTRATION BY: Tigrowna // Germany
Howard Roarke laughed. He stood naked at the edge of a cliff…he laughed at the thing which had happened to him that morning, and the things which now lay ahead….
A QUEER DILEMMA
TEXT BY: T.M. Brown // Ireland || ILLUSTRATION BY: Tom Moore // Germany
“If the theory is true that our formative years are what made us queers – what difference does that”
Evan Mwangi’s ‘Quenya’ word is Derogatory to the Gender-Fluids
TEXT BY: Alexander Opicho // Kenya
Professor Evan Mwangi finished reviewing Professor’s Mutongi’s new book, Matatu: a history of popular transportation in Nairobi, by remarking that; ‘matatus are…
BENEVOLENT WINGED ANGEL
TEXT BY: Aabbchot aabbaadd Aabbswallow // Australia
Aaabbchot Aabbaadd Aabbswallow, tall body hair free callow, dreaming again of being naked, exploring gorgeous creature,….
The Christening
TEXT BY: Jocelyne Rigal // Ireland || ILLUSTRATION BY: Tigrowna // Germany
I broke the uneasy pause which followed, with a statement which boomed throughout the car. ‘But that’s nothing to worry about!’ I said, making a wide gesture as an invitation for tolerance.
My Two Mothers
TEXT BY: Nyar Afrika // Kenya || ILLUSTRATION BY: Elizabeth Watkin // USA
My mothers are two women in love and they raised me just fine. They are the best example of a prefect family and I am forever thankful that they taught me how to respect everyone else’s identities and sexual orientation without bias.
WHITE DREAMING ON MOUNT WARNING
TEXT BY: Aabbchot aabbaadd Aabbswallow // Australia || ILLUSTRATION BY: Lekouzinthomas // France
I am dreaming about men. I am dreaming about women. I am dreaming i have tits walking across the nearby highway, walking along the local street with busy endless small shops. I am dreaming this recurring unresolving dream….
If I Should Fall Asleep – CW: Suicide
TEXT BY: Cassia Gaden Gilmartin // Ireland || ILLUSTRATION BY: Avital Yomdin // Germany
It’s nine o’clock, evening but not yet night, and the sky is the colour of peaches. Colours, rather. A pinkish red in the high places and yellow nearer the horizon, as if the sun’s split open and leaked all over the sky.
HOMOPHOBIC POEM NO. 8
TEXT BY: T.M. Brown // Ireland || ILLUSTRATION BY: Tom Moore // Germany
Are Gay People Artistic Because They’re Gay Or Gay Because They’re Artistic?, Either Way It Seems A Strange Conclusion To Reach And To Say The Least Over Simplistic.
What is OUR_STORY?
Storytelling is one of the oldest and most accessible tools used to share culture and experiences over generations. With…
a lake, a sea so far
TEXT + ILLUSTRATION BY: E. C. Schuster // Germany
They are a young, queer lesbian based in Germany. They are a student of English literature, an activist, and work as an academic researcher and freelance journalist.
Eat, Pray, Puke – CW: bulimia
TEXT BY: Nate Eileen Tjoeng // Singapore || ILLUSTRATION BY: Falco Verholen // Netherlands
My name is Beverly. I am 29 years old, I have bulimia and I have lived purging what I consume for 13 years. It all started when I was a plump kid at 16. The mockery and scorn tore me apart.
In Ireland and in Love
TEXT BY: Jocelyne Rigal // Ireland || ILLUSTRATION BY: Lea Daniel // Ireland
How do you heal a broken heart? Mine had been reduced to shreds by Mairead, an out and proud lesbian I met at work. Mairead, all hoodies and short hair, didn’t take my feelings for her seriously because I’d had two babies
Nyelethi
text by: Nyar Afrika // Kenya || photo by: Ambika Thompson // Canada
That surprises me. She never talks about us when we are together. To her, I am this dirty little secret, something she enjoys having by her side. I am okay with that. Personally, I am not out looking for anything that would tie me down.
Quest as in Question or Quest as in Journey
text by: Julius // Trinidad and Tobago || illustration by: Elizabeth Watkin // USA
I stared into his dark eyes. I was washed with pure hate. He hated me. I had no idea why. Three words separated me from gaining his acceptance. I am gay. Those words rang in my ear and danced in the whirlpool of thoughts that strangled my mind. He hated me.
Dark Juices
text by: Nyar Afrika // Kenya || illustration by: Lekouzinthomas // France
The prospect of getting laid sends chills down my body. Exhilaration dances through me. I miss the touch of a woman so much that I am on the brink of insanity. Just kidding.