awhām is an anti-orientalist, queer, feminist magazine printed annually since 2018. It is based in Berlin, Germany.

awhām is dedicated to distributing counter-hegemonic sensibilities, providing space for marginalized stories.

awhām publishes written works, including essays, poetry, prose, and visual art, such as photography, paintings, illustrations, and collages. awhām is contribution-based, working with a network of global artists, scholars, and activists.

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: Patchworlds

This workshop invites participants to weave their voices into a shared tapestry. Through creative expression, writing or otherwise, each contribution becomes a unique patch, transformed from text to visual form and vice versa. Together, these fragments intertwine, creating a collective whole. The journey is one of connection, translation, and the unfolding of a unified story.

Group 2: A Cyberfeminist Workshop

This working group will explore the entanglements of gender, technology, and power, interrogating the capitalist control over data and digital infrastructures and the power structures embedded within them. Through weaving, coding, storytelling, and hacking, how can we stitch together speculative futures beyond the technocratic dystopian horizon?

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!