Hello! Merhaba! Salām!
What worlds unfold when single threads intertwine? What futures could we unravel—and reweave—together?
For The Mesh Issue, awhām magazine’s upcoming 7th edition, we invite you to explore the theme of weaving through multiple dimensions.
"A world of life is woven from knots, not built from blocks as commonly thought. When everything tangles with everything else, the result is what I call a meshwork.”
From adorning pieces of fabric in symbols of belonging to locking arms in demonstrations, weaving is a powerful metaphor for solidarity, connection, and acts of care. It embodies our resilience, resistance, and the transmission of generational knowledge. It speaks to the preservation of memory, a lineage carried into the digital age, where early computer memory was literally handwoven by women, binding circuits together like threads on a loom.
Braiding together, we follow each other’s gentle pull, threads intertwining and strengthening in unity. Strung together, we become one—looping, linking, and moving collectively.
Like countless fabrics stitched into a single blanket, each thread adds depth and subtlety to the whole. Wrapping around each other, every fiber, strand, and rope joined together, fortifying the mesh. It is in the interlacing of perspectives, the intertwining of struggles and hopes, that something unbreakable emerges. Solidarity is not just togetherness—it is the strength found in connection.
Across cultures, weaving—whether in fabric or the braids of our hair—is an assertion of existence, holding history, memory, and identity. Patterns are more than design—they are language, tradition, and resistance.
Warping and wefting, our hearts become a tapestry of dreams.
awhām #7: The Mesh Issue calls for submissions that explore solidarity, resistance, resilience, storytelling, memory preservation, acts of care, healing, restoration, patching, and cyberfeminism through the metaphor of weaving. We seek work that threads together histories and futures, intertwining personal and collective narratives.
awhām is an anti-orientalist, queer, feminist platform dedicated to distributing counter-hegemonic sensibilities, providing space for marginalized stories. We welcome contributions that approach the theme from queer, feminist, intersectional, and decolonial perspectives. The unfolding genocide and devastation in Gaza calls for resistance to be at the core of this issue’s thinking and praxis. From this political standpoint, we seek work reflecting on resilience amid colonial ruins—work that envisions liberation despite systematic erasure.
Submission Guidelines
As part of this issue, we will host several thematic workshop groups. Each group will focus on different aspects of the theme, allowing contributors to engage, experiment, and develop their work through guided sessions. These workshops will be held online and offline, fostering collaboration across different mediums and practices.
Collaborative Working Groups
Contributors will participate in collaborative working groups to engage with the theme through various subtopics and collectively shape the upcoming issue. To join, submit your initial ideas, drafts, or concepts. The groups will meet online and offline and exchange throughout the creative process.
Independent Submissions
You can submit your work independently if you prefer not to participate in a collaborative working group. We accept both new and existing pieces, whether crafted specifically for this issue or previously created works that align with the theme.
Deadline for collaborative working group submissions: 21st April 2025
Submit your project ideas and concepts (~ 500 words) by 21st April 2025.
Workshops for collaborative working groups: April–July 2025
Throughout May to July, selected participants will attend regular meetings to develop their ideas in collaborative working groups.
Deadline for final submissions: 18th July 2025
Contributions developed within the collaborative working groups and independent submissions must be finalized and submitted by 18th July 2025.
Group 1: Patching Worlds: Threads of Dissent, Knots of Care
This workshop calls on participants to weave their voices into a shared tapestry. Through creative expression, writing, collective reading, performing, or otherwise, with each contribution becomes a unique patch, transformed from text to visual form and vice versa. These fragments intertwine together, creating a collective whole. The journey is one of connection, translation, and the unfolding of a unified story.
In the framework of a series of collaborative workshops, we will read, discuss, and collectively shape the structure of our sessions alongside the artistic works we create. Together, we’ll experiment with material, work with fabrics, patch narratives, and weave new worlds. All selected works will be published in awhām’s seventh printed issue.
We expect 5-6 participants.
The workshops will take place at the MMAG Foundation in Amman.
Group 2: A Cyberfeminist Workshop
In our second working group, ‘mesh.exe’, we approach the theme through a cyberfeminist lens. Participants will work through foundational cyberfeminist texts and artworks and produce new works that challenge and reimagine the relationships between technology, gender, identity, and power.
We will collectively explore through critical discussion and hands-on creation: “How might technology serve as a tool for resistance, renewal, and empowerment?”
Using creative methods such as storytelling, coding, and hacking, the attendees will produce a networked artwork—a collective digital creation incorporating text, images, or code—reflecting the shared visions developed throughout the workshop.
Artists, activists, scholars, researchers, and technologists are invited, and no prior technical expertise is required—we value diverse knowledge forms and experiences. We especially welcome contributions from queer, feminist, intersectional, and decolonial perspectives.
Throughout the workshop—commencing with a kickoff session and potentially followed by up to two additional online gatherings—attendees will collaboratively develop their ideas and contributions. The kickoff session will take place in mid-May, with exact dates and further details to be provided upon registration.
Facilitated by Janset Genel and İpek Erdöl from awhām.
What to submit
Submissions can include, but are not limited to:
Written works: Essays, poetry, or prose
Visual art: Photography, painting, illustration, collages, etc. This may also include representations of objects such as embroidery and weaving.
Mixed media: Any interdisciplinary work that explores the theme through form or materials.
Send your proposal or initial draft to mail@awhammagazine.com with the subject line: awhām Issue #7 Submission – The Mesh Issue.
Feel free to reach out with any questions about the open call.
We look forward to hearing from you!