These past few months we have voiced our outrage, vented our frustrations and protested in defiance and in hope for a better future. For weeks, our city was on fire as people marched, cried, mourned and demanded change. We stood in solidarity and took both to the streets and the socials to share our anger. So, in this next print issue of TWSS, we channel it… 

We are so thrilled to share with you Issue #21, ‘RADICAL HOPE’. In light of recent events and the fire it has ignited in so many of us, we wanted to do something different. In order to make a change in this world, we need to be bold and stand out and we want to reflect this in the new edition which will be in a smaller and more arts based zine format. We’re experimenting and we’re inviting you to experiment with us. 

We want your photography, collages, paintings, and more. How have you used creativity as an outlet for your radical hope these last few months? We want your words, in whatever style they take: poetry, stories, opinions, and thoughts in their most authentic and rawest form. We’ve reduced the word count to 600 and so encourage you to be innovative in your writing. 

Radical hope means something more than blind optimism or toxic positivity. It is an active mode of being, one that centres on the belief that a better world is worth hoping for, that it is a realistic prospect that we can achieve if we all put in our passion and our effort. 

It is in direct opposition to cynicism and resignation, which protect us against disappointment and make us feel worldly, but ultimately keep us passive. There is nothing radical about giving up on the world. 

It’s good and important to feel, even if it makes us vulnerable, because it’s proof that we actually care. Anger is an energy! Joy is resistance! 

To get your wheels turning, we’d like to invite you to think about this quote from Jonathan Lear’s Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation:

‘What makes this hope radical is that it is directed toward a future goodness that transcends the current ability to understand what it is. What would it be for such hope to be justified?’

Send us your art and words by the end of June – we know it’s deadline season and we want to give you enough time. So pitch us your ideas in the meantime and we can’t wait to see what you’ve got.

Artwork by Eliot Lambert.