SAAG is an internationalist literary magazine of the left, and an argument that South Asians have claimed avant-garde traditions since longer than the word was coined, with an interest in reclaiming avant-garde histories and tendencies in the contemporary moment. We represent a large and transdiscplinary masthead of editors: forty-six South Asian writers, editors, academics, organizers, translators, playwrights, journalists, visual artists and designers from across the globe. We share a deep political commitment to radical art that says something new about power and inequality.
We publish original investigative reporting, dispatches, op-eds, fiction, poetry, essays, plays, multimedia, and cultural criticism. See more on our website.
Happy to share my recently published op-ed on Election 2024. My analysis focuses on "the Bernie left" and its habitual capitulation to the centrist platform of the Democratic Party.
"A large contingent of the Bernie coalition has treated genocide and other policy issues as equal considerations amongst many, conducting cost-benefit analyses with wonky incrementalism on one side and crimes against humanity on the other. The only red lines are those drawn by Republicans—everything else goes. You cannot trade the lives of innocents for personal freedoms and leave with your political conscience intact."
Dr. Aisha Ahmad's (Assisant Professor, SAHSOL) op-ed on the U.S. elections has been published in the South Asian Avant-Garde (SAAG) Anthology, exploring political narratives with an activist lens. Read it here:
https://lnkd.in/ewZMsQCG
🎶 South Asian Avant-Garde (SAAG)'s latest newsletter dives into the story of Diwali Riddim, written by (dare I say exceptional) music reviewer Vrinda Jagota. From its dancehall roots to global pop impact, discover how this beat has travelled and evolved.
If you have not subscribed to SAAG’s newsletter yet, now is the time! Head to our website and become part of our community: https://lnkd.in/ecWqpij6
SAAG is now multilingual.
With eleven new logotypes, we're ready to publish works in a whole set of languages representing the many peoples of South Asia and its diasporas. This is a starting point and is not meant to be completist. We want to expand our logotypes, and work with more languages & typographers.
When our design team first began experimenting with various typographic forms, they began with a question: Is there a coherent historical progression across different scripts in early-20th century hand-painted type in contemporary graffiti and protest signage?
Our archival research unearthed a trend towards block-like, monolinear typography—a sort of confrontational, no-frills approach in contrast to to calligraphic, traditional forms of writing. The no-frills approach is perhaps most obvious in protest signage but it is also potentially decorative in non-calligraphic ways, as with graffiti, storefronts and other street lettering (see Saad Halim. A clean and orderly style with more verticality to upright letterforms (see Nimish Sawant), sharper curvature and often juxtaposed with sharp, hand-painted sans serif Latin type, is often seen in vintage movie posters. A notable exception is the slanted Dhivehi, where verticality and sharp edges are seen in new digital fonts.
The tradition of hand-painted type has been researched Chandrika Acharya, Hanif Kureshi, Pooja Saxena. In some but not all scripts (departures from the calligraphic Urdu Nastaliq letterforms are recent), it is both interesting to see similar type in contemporary protest signs and some surprising evocations of Soviet aesthetics.
Over a year of R&D later: the 11 new logotypes.
Systematization by Divya Nayar.
Design by:
Divya Nayar (Latin, Devanagari, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali)
Kamil Ahsan (Urdu, Dhivehi, Meitei, Bengali, Sinhala)
Mira Khandpur (Latin, Devanagari)
Shreyas R Krishnan (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada)
Kruttika S. (Telugu, Kannada)
Video + animation by Mukul Chakravarthi.
Feedback and refinement across languages by Prithi Khalique, Mushfiq Mohamed, Nur Ibrahim, Mehr Un Nisa, Abeer Hoque, Sabika Abbas, Zoya Rehman, Priyanka Kumar, Rita Banerjee, Tehani A., Ting Thouno + more
More to come. Stay tuned.
From our latest Volume 2, Issue 2: CEREMONY LOST (2024).
“The protests are not led by any civil society [organization], political party, or [established] activist. They are people-led, they are impromptu and they happen everywhere.”
Today's youngest Kenyans helmed the country's recent anti-tax protests: from creating a Finance Bill GPT, to organizing on X Space, to turning smartphones back into walkie talkies, their technology savvy helped facilitate a mass mobilization with a strength that President Ruto could demonize, but not deny.
Read "Revolution X," a dispatch on the recent Kenya Finance Bill protests from Pierra Nyaruai.
LINK: https://lnkd.in/ge-2B592
Image Description: Macakaya – Lamentations (2013-16), painting on work-hardened builder's paper, sheet metal by Naomi Wanjiku Gakunga.
#RejectFinanceBill2024#GenZ#protests#Rutomustgo#Kenya#CeremonyLost
"A border demarcation that split communities on both sides was a part of colonial cruelty by the British,” explains Jangkhongam Doungel, who teaches political science at Mizoram University. “The scrapping of the FMR and the fencing are extensions of that colonialism for these communities.”
In Mizoram, new geopolitical and security measures are dismantling long-standing community bonds and obstructing essential trade in a region accustomed to fluid boundaries. These controls lay bare the disruptions to daily life wrought by political decisions on both sides of the Indo-Myanmar border.
Read "Crossing Lines of Connection," a dispatch from the Indo-Myanmar border by Arshad Ahmed and Chanchinmawia.
It is also the first piece from our latest Volume 2, Issue 2: CEREMONY LOST (2024). Stay tuned for more...
Image Description: ARTWORK, Untitled (2021), Digital Collage by Manglien Gangte.
https://lnkd.in/e2sfH7xJ
LinkedIn is an odd, discomfiting place to discuss anything related to the literary world, but here’s a smol update: we [@ South Asian Avant-Garde (SAAG)] made and printed our very first batch of zines for the Brooklyn Art Book Fair (most of which were designed by our resident illustrator/genius Hafsa Ashfaque), where our East Coast team repped us (along with SAAG folks from India and Sri Lanka). Here’s a sneak peek at our gorgeous zines and the newsletter I sent out about them, featuring Priyanka Kumar's words and labour. SAAG is finally venturing into the world of print, albeit with baby steps, and we are here for it. 😍
Do subscribe to our newsletter via the website; more updates soon.
“Food organization at Columbia’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment began as the effort of just seven students organizing the chaotic assortment on the tarp, but it quickly evolved into a network attracting several student groups, professors, community members, and even other encampments, including the NYU and City College encampments."
At the Gaza Solidarity Encampment on the Columbia University campus, student organizers and the larger community came together to provide food and other resources to the student movement advocating for divestment from the Israeli Apartheid. The encampment had a “beautiful problem of abundance," with enough vegan, vegetarian, halal, and kosher food available that they even began redistributing to local mutual aid organizations in New York City.
Read more about "Food Organizing at Columbia's Gaza Encampment" in the latest for the Vertical by Surina Venkat on our website.
Image Description: Shared Hope, digital media. Courtesy of Mahnoor Azeem.
#Columbia#Gaza#FreePalestine#StudentEncampment
Introducing the facilitators for our Community Newsroom: Lahore Edition.
Expert journalist and the Regional Editor for the Global Investigative Journalist Network (GIJN), Amel Ghani, and SAAG Editors, Hira Azmat and Iman Iftikhar will be leading the pilot session of the newsroom workshop on September 21 at Kitab Ghar Lahore.
We are also extending the deadline for submissions until September 17, at 11:59 pm PKT. Send us a short pitch of your local, Lahore-based story idea for a chance to attend this one of a kind workshop and publication opportunity with South Asian Avant-Garde (SAAG). Our facilitators will be providing all workshop attendees with guidance and mentorship on crafting a solid pitch and getting their story idea from the pitch to the publication stage, including training them to conduct evidence-based reporting, narrative writing, and interviewing sources. SAAG will also be providing all attendees with a small stipend to cover food and travel costs for the workshop.
Are you looking to report on what affects your home, school, mohalla, tehsil, or katchi abadi? Send us a pitch now at lahore.newsroom@saaganthology.com!
What is happening in your neighbourhood, katchi abadi, colony, tehsil, your school, workplace, or even in your own home?
At South Asian Avant-Garde, we believe in journalism that is local, communal, and human. We imagine journalism as being ethical when it comes from the communities it discusses, as opposed to extracting whenever convenient. We believe that cultivating relationships with working-class communities begins with trust and commitment. With the current state of traditional journalism, reporters need resources, help, and time to work on their stories and to do their communities justice by telling them as ethically and truthfully as they can. It all begins with a story.
Community journalism differs from traditional journalism outfits where reporters parachute into communities, especially neighbourhoods that are made up primarily of working-class, lower-caste, or minority peoples. In a mega-city like Lahore, with approximately 13 million people working and/or residing in the metropolitan area, there are many stories to tell and budding reporters will tell them best.
The newsroom is where we can meet collectively, share skills, learn from you and offer you time and space for your work, and do it justice. Send us your story ideas and tell us about your reporting experiences, if any, at lahore.newsroom@saaganthology.com by September 15 for a chance to be selected for our first community newsroom, Lahore edition!
Selected writers will join SAAG Editors and seasoned journalist Amel Ghani on September 21 at Kitab Ghar Lahore for the pilot session of the community newsroom.
#communityjournalism#lahore
What is happening in your neighbourhood, katchi abadi, colony, tehsil, your school, workplace, or even in your own home?
At South Asian Avant-Garde, we believe in journalism that is local, communal, and human. We imagine journalism as being ethical when it comes from the communities it discusses, as opposed to extracting whenever convenient. We believe that cultivating relationships with working-class communities begins with trust and commitment. With the current state of traditional journalism, reporters need resources, help, and time to work on their stories and to do their communities justice by telling them as ethically and truthfully as they can. It all begins with a story.
Community journalism differs from traditional journalism outfits where reporters parachute into communities, especially neighbourhoods that are made up primarily of working-class, lower-caste, or minority peoples. In a mega-city like Lahore, with approximately 13 million people working and/or residing in the metropolitan area, there are many stories to tell and budding reporters will tell them best.
The newsroom is where we can meet collectively, share skills, learn from you and offer you time and space for your work, and do it justice. Send us your story ideas and tell us about your reporting experiences, if any, at lahore.newsroom@saaganthology.com by September 15 for a chance to be selected for our first community newsroom, Lahore edition!
Selected writers will join SAAG Editors and seasoned journalist Amel Ghani on September 21 at Kitab Ghar Lahore for the pilot session of the community newsroom.
#communityjournalism#lahore