The Octagon

Ghadeer Alkhenaizi and Sara Musaifer
This image is a multi-part sketch on a white background, combining architectural, calligraphic, and decorative elements, laid out within a loose yellow grid. It has the feel of a design

Our story began with a conversation between two friends, Ghadeer and Sara, walking back to the university library after a quick dinner in Dinkytown on a cold evening in December 2017. Fueled by the crisp air that filled our lungs, our feet rushed through crowded pavements and across busy streets, making their way through a fog of breath exhaled by warm bodies and buildings. Soon enough, our minds wandered away in denial, escaping the painful one mile walk under the cloak of another harsh Minneapolitan winter. Naturally, we both started thinking of home: Bahrain, or should we say: Bahrains?

Muddy Truth

Katayoun Amjadi
This image captures a close-up, angled view of an art installation against a plain white wall. The artwork features numerous dark, rose-like forms, interconnected by thin, shimmering golden wires or threads.

Original artwork by Katayoun Amjadi.

This is Not an Eggplant

Katayoun Amjadi
This image captures an artistic installation featuring several dark, pear-shaped objects, which strongly resemble eggplants, suspended on thin red rods against a soft, light background. The accompanying context, "This is Not

Katayoun Amjadi’s multimedia installations and visual poems, This is Not an Eggplant and Diaries of a Village Potter, question the “collective” and meditates on the course of political and environmental shifts.

Silence | CHUP

Fawad Khan
This image is a diptych, meaning two distinct photographs are presented side-by-side, sharing a common theme or event. The overall impression is of a staged performance or a deep discussion

English translation of the script of CHUP | Silence by Fawad Khan.

Vellai Mozhi

Marappachi Theatre, A. Mangai, A. Revathi, and Tamilarasi Anandavalli
This image is a digital poster for an online performance and panel discussion, set against a warm, light brown or orange background. **Overall Layout:** The poster is divided into two main vertical sections.

We live in a time when conflict and destruction are no longer the exception but the norm. It often feels like a dark cloud is looming over us. However, those of us who have chosen to live with the purpose of changing the world to the best of our ability always see a silver lining to these clouds. Here we feature a performance of A. Revathi’s Vellai Mozhi directed by A. Mangai as well as a bilingual (Tamil/English) panel discussion on the role of art in queer activism. We also include written comments from Mangai and Revathi on how art, theatre, and Vellai Mozhi have presented issues of sexuality in Tamil Nadu.

Not Everything that Shines is Gold

Ericka A. Lara Ovares and Juliana Vélez
This is a wide, horizontal banner image with a light, off-white background. It features bold text in the upper half and a dense, abstract crowd of figures along the bottom edge.

Collaborative writing isn’t easy. In the fall of 2017, Juliana and I (Ericka) took a class on ‘Ways of Knowing: Approaches to Knowledge and Truth in Development Studies and Social Justice’ that encouraged us to write together. Even though our fields are very different, we discovered we had a love for nature and our homelands in common. We took the opportunity to write on what threatens the vitality of our countries’ environments, and to write in a way that also reflects our people’s struggles to maintain sovereignty over their lands.

Basic Demographic Questions

Suzanne Chew
This image captures a wide outdoor scene in a snowy, residential area, likely during winter. The sky is a clear, pale blue, suggesting a bright but cold day, possibly early morning or late afternoon, as the sun casts long,

Suzanne Chew’s poem grapples with the question of a “good interview” and the extractive nature of traditional academic research.

जसिन्ता को पढ़ने पर …

Vishal Jamkar and Richa Nagar
This image captures a vibrant communal gathering in a rural setting, likely a village, under a bright, overcast sky. The scene is dominated by two traditional-style buildings and a large group of people,

The essay in Hindi emerged organically over the course of several months as we jointly engaged with Jacinta Kerketta’s submission to AGITATE!. It continued to find inspiration from her ideas and poetry as it grew from our verbal discussions into Vishal’s diary, and then into a co-authored reflection and essay. To try to convey in English all of the contents of what has evolved in the preceding pages seems far too mechanical to us. Therefore, we offer here a summary of our engagement with Jacinta, chiefly for those readers who do not read Hindi.

Collective Anti-Disciplinarity: Feeling Promiscuous, Positioning Narrative, and Making Home

Siddharth Bharath, SeungGyeong Ji, Naimah Petigny, and Sandra Rellier
This is a wide, horizontal banner image with a light, off-white background. It features bold text in the upper half and a dense, abstract crowd of figures along the bottom edge.

Caste, Race, and Indigeneity Collective: How does one navigate the uneven terrains of scholarly recognition within academic work? What happens when no matter how loud you speak, certain bodies and the collectives they signify are not engaged, entirely dismissed or ignored within the academy, or within dominant intellectual and political institutions more generally?

Kaatru

Tamilarasi Anandavalli, A. Mangai, Marappachi Theatre
This image features a young woman standing in what appears to be a brightly lit, semi-outdoor or utility space with vibrant lime green walls. The woman is positioned slightly to the right of the center,

On June 7, 2020, a show rehearsed completely through Zoom was presented by Tamilarasi, a theatre student at the National School of Drama and a member of Marappachi. A video of this performance is shown below. The performance features a 20th Century poem by Bharathiyar (a modern poet in Tamil) titled Kaatru (Wind).

أبصار

Ahmed K. Ali
This image is a composite piece with a strong vintage and dreamlike aesthetic, featuring a black and white portrait overlaid on a blurred, colorful background. **Central Element:** Dominating the center

Original poetry and artwork by Ahmed K. Ali.

Playing With Silence: Fawad Khan Speaks with Richa Nagar and Abdul Aijaz

Fawad Khan with Richa Nagar and Abdul Aijaz
This image is a composite of five photographs arranged in a grid, with a large portrait on the left and three smaller, stacked images on the right, plus a small image at the bottom right. The overall

Fawad Khan speaks to Richa Nagar and Abdul Aijaz about the journey of writing ‘Chup,’ bringing it to the stage given its critique of the oppressive state apparatuses, his vision and hope for art, and what the border-crossing by ‘Chup’ has meant for him.

Autopsy and State Violence: Implications in the Death Investigation of George Floyd

Deondre Smiles
This image captures a wide view of George Floyd Square in Minneapolis, a memorial site at what was formerly a gas station, under a bright, partly cloudy sky. The scene is filled with memorials, graffiti

This essay examines the circumstances surrounding the death investigation of George Floyd, tying it into larger discussions surrounding the role of law enforcement and state structures in death investigations and autopsies. Drawing upon indigenous studies research, the piece looks at the undue influence upon coroners and medical examiners in cases of death by police brutality that do not put law enforcement in legal jeopardy.

The Perils and Possibilities of Creative Economy: A Conversation

Dia Da Costa, Richa Nagar, and Sarah Saddler
This is a wide, horizontal banner image with a light, off-white background. It features bold text in the upper half and a dense, abstract crowd of figures along the bottom edge.

This conversation, built around themes and questions discussed in Dia Da Costa’s book Politicizing Creative Economy: Activism and a Hunger Called Theatre (University of Illinois Press, 2016), analyzes the terrain of the “creative economy” and explores its ethical implications for national belonging, epistemic justice, and academic knowledge production through the politics of academic journeying.  Exploring the possibilities, limits, and risks of the creative economy across multiple personal trajectories and political realms, we offer perspectives on the creative economy as a landscape where colonial histories of violence, academic privilege and positionality, and possibilities for progressive politics become especially visible and critical.

The Labor of Political Theatre as Embodied Politics: A Conversation

Richa Nagar, Anna Selmeczi
This is a wide, horizontal banner image with a light, off-white background. It features bold text in the upper half and a dense, abstract crowd of figures along the bottom edge.

What follows is a letter exchange between Anna and Richa. Richa’s book, Hungry Translations: Relearning the World Through Radical Vulnerability, underwent significant revisions during the course of this letter exchange. In addition to mediating on the labor of political theater and embodied politics, this exchange underscores the making of conversations and relationships as continuously unfolding journeys that cannot be contained by fixed words on the page.

TORRE DE MARFIM

Sarah Almeida, Matheus Caetano, Raquel Chaves, and Josinelma Rolande
This image captures a serene, contemplative scene at dusk or dawn, featuring four people silhouetted against a vibrant sky, looking out over a distant landscape. In the foreground, the bottom third of the

An original poem by Sarah Almeida, Matheus Caetano, Raquel Chaves, and Josinelma Rolande.

A Haunting, Howling Chup: Literature and Ecology of Violence

Abdul Aijaz
This image is a stark, monochromatic line drawing, primarily in black ink on a plain white background, with subtle accents of thin red lines. The composition is highly dynamic, creating a strong sense of depth and

Reflecting on Chup, Abdul Aijaz asks, “How do you tell a tale that resists narration and yet screams to be told? How do you weave a narrative around a ‘chup’ that  is haunted by what it cannot say. How to share a story that so clearly unveils what it does not tell?”

Sites of Contestation, Letters Between Friends

Keavy McFadden and Julie Santella
This is a wide, horizontal banner image with a light, off-white background. It features bold text in the upper half and a dense, abstract crowd of figures along the bottom edge.

What follows is a series of letters between the two of us – Julie and Keavy, two friends and agitators – that meditate on how we, as graduate students, step into the academic world inevitably carrying prior knowledges with us and must continually agonize about how to do justice to and with them in academic life. As we write to each other, we also write to you, in the hope that these reflections might help to remind you of the prior knowledges you also carry.

I am not your data

Abhay Xaxa, with a translation by Antonádia Borges
This is a wide, horizontal banner image with a light, off-white background. It features bold text in the upper half and a dense, abstract crowd of figures along the bottom edge.

The poem “I am not your data” by Abhay Xaxa. Translated to “Não sou seu dado” by A. Borges.

Healthy Living

Jordan Starck
This image is a horizontal banner, predominantly white or off-white, with text at the top and an illustration of figures filling the bottom section. At the top, centered, is the word "AG

This set of companion poems agitates the dominant narratives that, for marginalized peoples, silent compliance will best secure their safety and wellbeing.