ConfrontationsWe start the year confronting — and confronted by — the centripetal power of whiteness. Youssef Rakha, a novelist who was born and lives in Egypt, recounts a lifelong journey to forge the “new, contemporary ore” of culture in the aftermath of… Jan 16 24January 16, 2024Article at Guernica
Before and AfterIn our last issue of the year, we share work that explores a moment of change — an often unarticulated, sometimes unnoticed moment where our worlds, individual and collective, seem to cleave. To do so, April Zhu and Theo Aalders must complicate… Dec 11 23December 11, 2023Article at Guernica
Art as ActivismWhen the Israeli bombardment of Gaza began, Faisal Saleh reached out to US museums, interested in whether they would make statements in solidarity with artists from Gaza. “The museums told me they focus on programming,” Saleh told me by telephone.… Dec 11 23December 11, 2023Article at Guernica
Salar Abdoh: On “how to keep your decency and your humanity in a world that has gone insane”You needn’t read very far to find the theme of A Nearby Country Called Love — or one of them, at least. Salar Abdoh’s latest novel tips its hand almost immediately. A man named Nasser claims a distant kinship to a woman who set herself on fire after… Nov 14 23November 14, 2023Article at Guernica
In Search of PassageRecently, I came across a new book that collects and translates hundreds of Kirundi proverbs. It’s the work of Lionel Kubwimana, and it brings treasures from the language of Burundi to speakers of English and French — and to speakers of Kirundi… Nov 06 23November 06, 2023Article at Guernica
Of Monsters and MenAlexander Chee’s essay, taken from a new edition of Dracula in bookstores this week, takes the myth and the monster more seriously than, surely, many of us have. Among his considerations, he writes, were “the many ways we can write about evil, as it… Oct 02 23October 02, 2023Article at Guernica
Where to BeginThere is something, this month, about beginnings. So often, they act like flirtations — sometimes aggressive, other times coy, always with an agenda. Stay with me, they insist, at varying decibels. In this issue of Guernica, the beginnings are not… Aug 07 23August 07, 2023Article at Guernica
Jack Jung: “Perhaps they regard us as barbarians at the gates”In this short interview with Guernica editor in chief, Jina Moore Ngarambe, developed for the Guernica newsletter, translator Jack Jung talks about discovering the work of the poet Kim Hyesoon, translating her “non-poems” from Korean, and how readers… Jul 12 23July 12, 2023Article at Guernica
Celebrating Kim HyesoonWe’re absolutely thrilled, in this new issue of Guernica, to showcase the work of Kim Hyesoon, a singular feminist South Korean poet; the translations by Don Mee Choi and Jack Jung; and the art of Fi Jae Lee. In fact, “showcase” feels like too weak a… Jul 06 23July 06, 2023Article at Guernica
We Are Who We WantThis month, Guernica looks at what we want — who we want — and how on earth, or anywhere else, we can possibly survive our own wanting. We lead our June issue with a diptych on desire and the divine. MM Gindi and Enzo Escober, coming of age as queer… Jun 05 23June 05, 2023Article at Guernica
The April IssueGuernica, I often tell people, grew up with the Internet. We’ve been an online magazine since 2004, and we’ve seen online conversation grow and change a lot in those nineteen years. We’ve changed too — adding, some years back, a daily blog, then… Apr 05 23April 05, 2023Article at Guernica
What the West Gets Wrong About the Rwandan GenocideIn early April 1994, when the genocide began in Rwanda, the meetings started in Washington. “They couldn’t say we were not going to do anything, because that’s bad policy,” recalled Prudence Bushnell, then the deputy assistant secretary of state for… Dec 15 22December 15, 2022Article at The Nation
AmniocentesisOur cultural script on pregnancy insists on certainty. Whether the authorities are doctors or majority-male legislatures, we are assured that humans know — that we know how to know — what pregnant people should eat, whether growing babies are getting… Aug 15 22August 15, 2022Article at Guernica
Suffering Is for Other PeopleYou don’t have to read much beyond the headlines from Ukraine to know how this story goes: There are bad guys, stooges of a dictator, and good guys, fighting for freedom. The good guys are the underdogs, which is great for the narrative. But the… Mar 08 22March 08, 2022Article at Guernica
What African Nations Are Teaching the West About Fighting the CoronavirusIn early March, Ingrid Gercama left her home in the Netherlands and flew to war-torn South Sudan. An applied-research anthropologist with a special interest in epidemics, she had spent time on the African continent during a public-health emergency… May 15 20May 15, 2020Article at The New Yorker
Anatomy of an internet shutdownHolly Pickett/Redux, for Rest of World Abdelazim Hassan is not tall. His voice does not boom. He is balding, wears glasses, and his suit, the dark brown of a standard boardroom table, hangs from his body as if it has given up. He’s mostly a corporate… May 12 20May 12, 2020Article at Rest of World
تحليل قَطْع الإنترنتHolly Pickett/Redux, for Rest of World عبد العظيم حَسن ليس طويل القامة. صوته خافت. يتساقط شعره في طريقه نحو الصلع ويرتدي النظّارات، أمّا بِذلته فلونها بنّي داكن يُشبه لون طاولة اجتماعات تقليدية، تتدلى من على جسدهِ كما لو أنها قد استسلمت. يعمل عبد… May 12 20May 12, 2020Article at Rest of World
Betraying Justice for Rwanda’s Genocide SurvivorsIn July, 1993, an eleven-year-old named Damas Dukundane got a new pair of shoes. His mother bought them, unused, and paired them with a new blue suit. She was not terribly religious, and her son’s baptism would be the only time in her life that she… Jul 09 18July 09, 2018Article at The New Yorker
U.N. Cases Read Like ‘Manual in How Not to Investigate’ Sexual AssaultIt took the woman one agonizing month to decide to report that she had been sexually assaulted by a colleague from the World Food Program, a United Nations agency, while working in Ethiopia. It took the agency a week to investigate, concluding in a… Jun 29 18June 29, 2018Article at New York Times
Burundi Voters Back Constitution Extending Presidential TermBUJUMBURA, Burundi — Burundi’s voters approved a new Constitution that extends the presidential term from five to seven years, according to provisional figures released on Friday, handing a major victory to President Pierre Nkurunziza. Mr.… May 18 18May 18, 2018Article at New York Times
