Open Call No. 1: Experience
To ask for help, to arrive, to beg, to carry, to embrace, to steal, to survive, to care, to scream, to fight, to grieve.
– Highlights from the unequal nature of our lived experiences.
AWC’s Anniversary Issue examines common experiences of commodification, and how identity, race, gender, and class shape our realities, emphasizing acts of resistance, resilience, and imagination in response to systemic oppression, and the harnessing of personal experience as a weapon to use in the so-called culture wars.
We welcome submissions that critically engage with personal narratives, social commentaries, and art discourses. We seek works that not only reflect on the specificities of individual experience but also create a link to broader systems – e.g., economic, political, and/or social – that shape the context of experience.
Contributions may be reflective, analytical, or poetic, but they should always be grounded in tangible experience. We are interested in the actions, strategies, and solidarity forms that enable individuals and communities to confront, navigate, and resist oppressive forces that devalue their experiences.
Sample Topics:
- Cultural Tokenism and the Instrumentalization of Art:
- The experience of being selected for projects or positions solely based on one’s cultural identity, without the opportunity to fully express or realize that identity.
- Censorship and Exclusion:
- Navigating exclusion or censorship in cultural spaces, workplaces, or social circles based on personal beliefs, identity, or experiences.
- Precarization and Discrimination:
- Stories of systemic precarization and discrimination in the workplace, including how race, gender, and class impact job security, wages, and opportunities.
- Medical Neglect and Discrimination:
- Reflections on how access to healthcare is shaped by race, gender, class, and ability, and the impacts of healthcare systems that ignore or mistreat people.
- Structural Barriers in Housing & Education:
- Experiences of confronting discriminatory legal or bureaucratic systems in accessing basic rights such as housing, education, or citizenship.
- Survival in Crisis:
- Personal narratives of survival in the face of social, economic, or political crises – whether local or global.
- Body, Violence, and Resistance:
- The body as a site of vulnerability and resilience – stories of bodily autonomy, survival, and healing in contexts of systemic oppression.
- Transitory Spaces and Perceptions:
- Experiences of being in-between spaces, whether physical, cultural, or emotional, and how these shape one’s sense of belonging and identity.
Formats:
- Personal Narratives:
- Stories that weave lived experiences with reflections on broader social structures.
- Interviews or Conversations:
- Conversations or interviews with individuals or groups who have shared experiences related to systemic oppression.
- Critical Essays or Reports:
- Investigative or analytical texts that explore the dynamics of power and oppression within specific contexts.
- Poetry or Performative Writing:
- Submissions that experiment with poetic forms to express personal experiences, incorporating elements of performance or theater.
- Visual Contributions:
- Photographs or multimedia works that depict personal experiences and struggles within systems of power.