“The subjective challenges of the hookah lounge—that imperfect family-feeling, the sometimes questionable art, the interpersonal surveillance—are important, even with the systemic problems at hand.”
Christina Hajjar
Christina Hajjar is a Lebanese artist, writer, and cultural worker based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada on Treaty 1 Territory. Her practice considers intergenerational inheritance, domesticity, and place through diaspora, body archives, and cultural iconography. As a queer femme and first-generation subject, she is invested in the poetics of process, translation, and collaborative labour. https://christinahajjar.com
“Up above emerged a trans sunset— the kind my friend in Regina had named as their favourite part of living there. The extraordinary pink and blue sky was my perfect finale, a blanket I was ready to receive.”
Much of our fall editorial program considers the environment and how its overlapping histories inform contemporary social and cultural contexts. Through conversations about the evolution of monster plants, equity in the outdoors, and the aesthetics of food and fat, these works explore the myriad of ways that we can still advocate for ourselves and the natural world.
BlackFlash Expanded is excited to launch our series focusing on collectives with an archive of Prairie Collectives that have and continue to shape the region.
Artist, writer, and cultural worker Christina Hajjar integrates objects and food into her practice – exploring their social and political associations through memory, rituals, and conversations over shared food at hookah lounges.
Fresh off the presses!
Our spring issue celebrates and explores moments of collectivity—sharing spaces, experiences, and knowledge. The issue features writing by Christina Hajjar, Michael Peterson, Cléo Sallis-Parchet, and Cole Thompson as well as artists Diane Borsato, Sean Weisgerber, Leonard Suryajaya, and Preston Pavlis.