As we’re entering 2020, we’d like to welcome you to the 27th issue of The Funambulist. Entitled “Learning with Palestine” (in opposition to the extractive dimension of learning from Palestine), it constitutes a collaboration with the Palestine Festival of Literature (PalFest). As such, it offers contributions by five PalFest 2019 guests, three PalFest organizers, and four guest Palestinian authors around one question: how to reclaim what colonialism stole?

In this issue, reflections on Urban Futures (Mahdi Sabbagh), Indigenous Land Liberation (Nick Estes & Maath Musleh), Spatial and Personal Interiors (Victoria Adukwei Bulley & Sarbrien Amrov), Reclaiming Language (Jehan Bseiso & Karim Kattan), Colonial Landscapes (Samia Henni & Mostafa Minawi), State Cartography vs. Activist Mapping (Madiha Tahir & Majd Al-Shihabi), constitute the core components of the various answers formulated around this question. Throughout this issue, Palestine is simultaneously the site of anti-colonial learning and solidarity, as well as a the source of a productive dialogue with other colonial geographies such as Turtle Island, Algeria, the “Federally Administrated Tribal Areas” (FATA) in Pakistan, or Aotearoa.

As usual, our News from the Fronts section that opens each issue and complements the main dossier includes articles reflecting on ongoing struggles. This time, we offer three texts about the ongoing Iraqi Revolution (Zahra Ali), the Korean “Comfort Women” for justice (Stephanie Kyuyoung Lee), as well as a dive into imaginaries of Black resistance (Cases Rebelles).
We wish you an excellent read.

 

CONTENTS ///

Cover FuturismsThe Funambulist 27 Index
COVER | A SAHRA WITH RAJA SHEHADEH
Nadia Bseiso

— NEWS FROM THE FRONTS ///
2 | “WE DEMAND A HOMELAND!” THE REVOLUTION OF THE YOUTH IN IRAQ
Zahra Ali

5 | SITES OF CONTENTION: STATUE OF PEACE AND KOREAN COMFORT WOMEN REDRESS MOVEMENT
Stephanie Kyuyoung Lee

8 | UNQUIET IMAGINARIES OF BLACK RESISTANCE
Cases Rebelles

— MAIN /// LEARNING WITH PALESTINE

12 | INTRODUCTION + MAP
Léopold Lambert

16 | ON URBAN FUTURES: COLONIAL SPACE TODAY INTRODUCTION TO PALFEST 2019
Mahdi Sabbagh

20 | WORKING TOWARDS INDIGENOUS LIBERATION FROM TURTLE ISLAND TO PALESTINE
Nick Estes & Maath Musleh

26 | RECLAIMING SPATIAL AND PERSONAL INTERIORS
Victoria Adukwei Bulley & Sabrien Amrov

34 | RECLAIMING LANGUAGE INSIDE OUT: OUR MAPS, WORDS, BODIES, AND ROOTS
Jehan Bseiso & Karim Kattan

42 | READING COLONIAL LANDSCAPES IN ALGERIA AND PALESTINE
Samia Henni & Mostafa Minawi

50 | WHICH DIGITAL INSTRUMENTS FOR THE REVOLUTION?
Madiha Tahir & Majd Al-Shihabi

58 | OTHER PALFEST 2019 ORGANIZERS AND GUESTS’ BIOS

 

About
The Funambulist is a magazine that engages with the politics of space and bodies. Our hope is to provide a useful platform where activist/academic/practitioner voices can meet and build solidarities across geographical scales. Through articles, interviews, artworks, and design projects, we are assembling an ongoing archive for anticolonial, antiracist, queer, and feminist struggles. The print and online magazine is published every two months and operates in parallel with an open-access podcast and a blog. The Funambulist is founded by trained architect and writer, Léopold Lambert.