Deadline October 21, 2024
(link to submission form)
Sana wara Sana Wara Sana wara Sana! My Kali finds itself at a time when societal structures are both clashing and adapting. In many ways, we are living in a unique moment —empire and ideologies are colliding and cracking, technology is updating rapidly, borders are re-solidifying as geographies are becoming increasingly intertwined, timelines are folding in on themselves— but how new is this really? What does generation even mean once you destabilize the “universal” nature that the term assumes? How are things passed down or forgotten, reclaimed or pushed back against —whether in aesthetics or icons, kinds of communities or communication, modes of political movements? How do generations view the concept of aging and the gap between ages, differently, and how does our generation develop as it ages? How do we neglect, discriminate against, or reflect on each other, causes, and ideas through generational divides and bridges? What might a “generational perspective” teach us about ourselves, and how we relate to each other and our contexts?
We invite you to get nostalgic and imaginative, critical and disruptive,
as we imagine this issue together <3
Here are some questions to get you thinking with us:
Thinking about Generations…
- How do we understand the concept of “generation,” anyway? What binds us together or divides us? Is it technology, the political regime or crisis that we grew up managing, a set of sensibilities, what/how we consume, or something else?
- What do we long for from previous generations —divas, clubs or hangout spots, an aesthetic or energy— and what do we envision for future generations? How do we reclaim and remix these in our present?
- Have attitudes toward queerness, sexual activity, intimacy, and public affection really changed over time? What has become more accepted or taboo, hidden or visible, from generation to generation, and how have different generations dealt with this?
- How do we understand ourselves (identity, struggles, personalities, communities) through inter-generational perspectives? Where does intergenerational storytelling, cultural expression, or archiving fit into this puzzle?
Through technology, communication, and community…
- How have technological developments opened up and limited how we imagine our world and how we create? How was technology “sold” to us, and what are its real impacts (for example, thinking about work or access or connectivity)? Is technology making things more accessible, or widening the gap (between ages, classes, geographies, and who is producing it and the markets)?
- How do we manage platforms and formats as we communicate with each other, and shape our own sense of self and time? How do we engage with documenting and critiquing our present (for example, through humor and memes, Reels and TikToks, or sharing trends and information)? How have these shifts “rewired” how we consume and process our worlds?
- As third spaces (social and recreational) have been defunded and swept aside, and face-to-face interactions declined, how have ideas about the meaning of “community” shifted? How do we identify ourselves, define others, or are defined by others as “one of us/them”… and what sort of connection emerge from this?
Through movements, mobilities, and flows …
- How are (our) generations processing this moment of intense migration (from small towns to cities and back, within the region, from the region to “outside” and back…), and how does this relate to previous generations’ experiences? What sort of new pressures or possibilities does this create? What tensions —hopes or traumas, fears or ambitions— are carried over amidst this movement?
- How does our experience of movement during lockdown/quarantine —the limitations of movement even inside our own neighborhoods— affect our understanding of migration, repeated displacements, and border walls that grow higher and higher for each generation that passes? How might this shape how the next generation will imagine borders, migration, and movements?
- The last 15 years have witnessed a wide array of political and social movements on local, regional, and global scales. What traditions of activism have been passed down, and what has been lost? How do we understand both the stories and silences of older generations when we organize? In what ways are practices and the concept of resistance —against heteronormativity, mainstream culture, political oppression, and classism— contextual, both within generations and locations?
The deadline to submit concept notes is: October 21, 2024