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Guest Editor: Justine Youssef
Editors: Ena Grozdanic, Victoria Pham, Debris Facility, Varsha Ramesh, Myranda Thomas, Madeleine Martin, Anneka Scholtz
Digital Producers: Athanasios Lazarou, Thomas Capogreco, Giana Festa, Jayden Fisher, Yanti Peng, Amy Yu
Cover Page: Yanti Peng
Issue 49: BloomPublished August 2025
As I prepare for my travels to Syria, I am in a state of anticipatory grief for the places and people I know will no longer exist. I have watched my family miss many milestones and seasons, losses and achievements to the relentless devastation under a tyrannical dictatorship. Yet from ruins, I’ve watched through a screen, they have come together to laugh. Everytime I lose hope I hear laughter over Whatsapp memes and my mama and her sister both making kousa on video chat. Who will I be to them now? Will I still be the baby they nibbled the feet of? The kid who pissed themselves laughing?
Sara El Youghun is a queer Muslim from bayt El Youghun born in Damascus, Bilad El Sham which embraced Syria, Lebanon, Palestine & Jordan before borders. Sara aims to break down such borders, barriers and boundaries whilst residing on stolen Darug land. Their goal is to unite community and arts together to uplift the most vulnerable in our liberation. Their fluid vulnerability is an invitation to pray, play and grieve together ritually and freely. Saras uses the art of storytelling, poetry and prayer as an invocation of their inherent right to resist and challenge colonial structures and faith as fuel for the revolution.