Issue 3 is here!
Let’s jump in.
For our third issue, it has been an absolute joy to collaborate with writer and artist Erin Clark, author of If You Really Love Me, Throw Me Off the Mountain. Erin's work across film, self portraiture, creative nonfiction, and fiction is a reclaiming of disability in narrative, which is historically and commonly extracted and misused in all areas of art and media. Let Erin’s The Queen of Cups transport you from quarantine life to another shore.
This month’s featured art, Justice for all, features the spectacularly powerful work of contemporary artist Sara Rahbar. A passionate animal rights activist and deeply kind human, Sara says of her work: “Separation and belonging have been persistent themes throughout my life. Reflecting this idea, I attach pieces together until they form a solid unit each belonging to the other. My point of entry as a mixed-media artist has been purposing various types of textiles, wood, bronze and collected objects in ways that present different aspects of their inherent physical characteristics, revealing them in unexpected, unseen ways.”
Check out the Issue 3 highlights from our current team of writers and artists below.
If you’re excited about Khôra, please share the love!
With our galactic gratitude,
Leigh Hopkins
and the Corporeal Writing Squad
Click to read Khôra.
Issue 3 Highlights
In every issue of Khôra, we feature the work of a curated team of four writers and four artists. This team will change every four months. In addition, we feature the work of one groundbreaking writer and one visual artist.
Here’s what we’re excited about in Issue 3:
The Queen of Cups by featured writer Erin Clark / film by Erin Clark
Writer and multimedia artist Erin Clark is the featured writer for Issue 3. Erin is the author of If You Really Love Me, Throw Me Off the Mountain and co-author of the upcoming Breakup Artist. She is a Canadian world-traveller, world champion and record holder as a parapole athlete, and, as a paragliding pilot, Erin has a wheelchair that can fly.
“The Queen of Cups sits on a throne at the edge of the water. Waves lick her toes and she holds a chalice and symbolizes things. What I always think when I see this tarot card is: someone had to bring in that throne…”
Read The Queen of Cups.
birdgirl by Shane Rowlands / artwork by Lori Lorion
Note: Shane’s piece includes the subject of someone who leaves the world by their own hands. We wanted to mention the sensitive nature of the content to our community.
“Not long after we arrived in Australia, I drew a picture. I know this because my mother kept it and I have it now. Dusty it sits downstairs on top of a chest of drawers. A fading buttery card inside a simple square wooden frame…”
Read birdgirl.
Fauna by Kirin Khan / artwork by Samira Abbassey
“Three days before the final ceremony, Husay walked barefoot in the evergreen dark. Surrounded by her elders, with their flaking black trunks and branches clawing strands from her six black braids, she tried to pass through as incorporeal as the low clouds curled away from her body with each step forward, only to close up behind her, erasing her path. She needed to find the right place. The village depended on it…”
Read Fauna.
Letter to My Imaginary Daughter by Grace Loh Prasad / artwork by Christa David
“Dear Daughter:
I want to share with you the things that are passed down from mothers to daughters, what I wish my own mother had told me, what you will tell your daughter one day. These are stories that will teach you about growing up, about what you wish for and what you are given, and what will be taken away…”
Read Letter to My Imaginary Daughter.
Istikhara by Sagirah Shahid / artwork by M. Florine Démosthène
“Potted cups of empty soil, except for African Violets. Now there’s snow. Pressed frost against lone windowpane. A forgotten prayer for guidance. Dua dwindled with whispered wishes. Hidden spinster sprout, sturdies eclipsing memory ritual. Before disappearance, rogue petals rested on burgundy fibers of a childhood prayer rug. Duende niche, sajdah…”
Read Istikhara.
Justice for all by featured artist Sara Rahbar
“Separation and belonging have been persistent themes throughout my life. Reflecting this idea, I attach pieces together until they form a solid unit each belonging to the other. My point of entry as a mixed-media artist has been purposing various types of textiles, wood, bronze and collected objects in ways that present different aspects of their inherent physical characteristics, revealing them in unexpected, unseen ways…”
Read Justice for all.
December 2020 / Issue 4
Khôra will be back next month.
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