Return home
Inspired by humdrum press’ living, breathing manifesto
>>contribute ur thoughts here
re:wave is an East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) queer feminist press, open collective, and learning commons that publishes online and open-access written, oral, multimedia, and experimental work.
By carving out a community-centred space for dialogue and action, re:wave aims to redress fragments in ESEA queer feminist imaginaries, weave our pasts and present to reimagine our collective futures, and reorient our ways of knowing and doing.
We seek to publish, archive, and circulate queer feminist work from and for ESEA that are beyond critical and deconstructive, which do not settle in stasis. Instead, we seek those that push boundaries of knowing, re-worlding and worldbuilding that is oriented towards building queer feminist solidarity in the region and beyond.
Our mission is for our press to produce methods, catalysts, and triggers that compel us to action. Our aims are not archipelagic goals envisioned in the future to “be achieved” — they actively shape our practice as re:wave.
Our methods
Developed mainly in Western Europe and North America, this narrative to understand feminism has been used to categorise the diverse histories of womxn’s liberation movements globally. We want to move beyond this Eurocentric mode of queer feminist knowledge production. The prefix ‘re’ in re:wave signifies our dual standpoint of recognition and critique of the current intellectual cartography, as well as our commitment to redressing, reimagining, and reorienting narratives on our past, present, and future.
We can do so through traversing the boundaries of Western modes of knowledge production, locating ourselves in between rather than within the existing boundaries and becoming a site of exchange and collaboration — much like the ocean that surrounds the region and has been a vital space of cultural production in ESEA histories. re:wave can be this ocean, a learning commons for and about ESEA queer-feminist knowledge production which is shared in an accessible manner. An ocean where imagination is both directed towards and travels through.
The prefix "re" is also indicative of our commitment to constant reassessment and growth, over and over (growth not as a singular happening but as a continual required process) — an acknowledgement of our constant state of flux, and a humble understanding that there is always more for us to learn.
Our methods
1
re:wave is an online-based, open-access magazine.
This is to make our content accessible to those who are marginalised by the structure of neoliberal university and academic publishing where dominant queer-feminist knowledge is produced. We also acknowledge that the existing knowledge-production platform has structurally alienated certain groups of bodies from accessing dominant discursive platforms based on gender, sexual orientation, and its many intersections, such as race, ethnicity, religion, and dis/ability. By actively inviting you to write to and participate in our dialogue, re:wave strives to serve as an open and accessible space for you to explore your radical thoughts and visions.
Whilst re:wave primarily focuses on ESEA, it refuses to take its geopolitical border for granted.
Far from a neutral category, the idea of ‘East’ is a political invention with a long history; notably, it has been appropriated as a conceptual apparatus to enable systems of oppression, be it European expansionism, Japanese colonialism, or U.S. imperialism. At re:wave, we do not intend to, nor is it possible to, imagine or create another monolithic entity of Asia that could compete with the existing systems of oppression. Rather, following the recent intellectual currents revolving around the concept of “Asia as method” proposed by Chen Kuan-hsing
At re:wave, we see English as a bridge, rather than the standard language.
We oppose the popular belief/practice in ESEA that posits Western construction of English as most desirable for knowing and thinking. We also believe that translation between non-English languages plays a vital role in decolonising our vocabularies and building alternative intra-regional relations in ESEA. While established academic institutions have monopolised our knowledge about gender and sexuality, it has always been written, defined, and developed elsewhere. We thus also value and encourage contributions written in and about languages that are often deemed ‘non-academic’ in popular intellectual practices.
We are committed to rooting our efforts of decolonising knowledge in the physical space of collective survival and alternative world-making.
We aim to publish critical accounts that are informed by, and informed in return, grass-roots movements, activisms, and community-building initiatives in ESEA and its diaspora. Through our work, we wish not only to help existing activist communities and individuals amplify their radical imaginaries and movements of resistance, but also to connect their individual efforts and promote their future collaboration towards new agendas.
Care isn’t usually talked about in the context of producing knowledge, but in re:wave’s work, care is deeply embedded through our practice of epistemic humility as a method
Epistemic humility is the remedy to intellectual arrogance and linear institutionalisation of knowledge. It is settling and moving in the discomfort of Not Knowing, not completely understanding everything. However, Not Knowing in this context does not mean ignorance and apathy. This process emphasises learning from the bottom, through experience and practice, therefore being in flux of constant change, reparation and experimentation towards more just ways of being. We look for guidance in practising epistemic humility from storytelling as method.
The relational ways of storytelling makes it a crucial form of care. Listening and holding safe spaces for one another, practising non-linear conversations, and being swept wayward. In using storytelling as a method in our press, we work towards becoming less outcome-oriented, more process-focused, and without conclusion, against marking the end of knowledge.