aAh! – your arts and culture magazine
Millennials, listen up again: our lovely, liberal generation is also unfocused and vague. We think we know everything – which we kind of do – but mostly we don’t. aAh! magazine hopes to present the opportunity for readers and writers to interrogate their own ideas about the world we’ve fallen into. Each issue will interrogate one important contemporary notion through our regular features, opinion pieces, spotlights, interviews, previews, art, poetry, flash fiction, photography and music.
This issue: YES
“I am not a ‘yes’ person. No matter who you are married to, you still need to lead your life.” – Melania Trump
How often do you say yes? …yeah, yah, yep, yup, mm-hmm, uh huh, that’s right, indeedy. Is there really such a need for so many? Yes is a big, exclamative word – or can be. Some yeses are small and insincere. Yes can be a no in disguise. Yes is a yellow word, a family of nods and winks. A yes can be the selling of a lie.
Yes is a word of consent, permission and agreement. Yes is political word, something chanted by an angry mob. Yes is the ultimate hippy word, maybe more so than LOVE, as in: open yourself up to all, man: say YES. Which is like the yes of YES, the British prog band, or Yoko Ono’s famous yes, a small word at the top of a ladder written on the ceiling. At this point, yes could sound like nonsense, just a meaningless sound – which it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah…
In Old – and Middle-English, yes was a stronger, more forceful alternative to the word yea. So what happened to yea? Imagine your teenage self answering parental questions: Did you do your homework? Yes. How many different yeses sleep in the one word? Do you love me? … Yes.
This issue is about optimism, hope, affirmation (and its lack). Yessir! About conformity, belief and rebellion. So tell us, why yes? If not, why no? What is there to say yes to, and how can we be sure?
We are taking submissions for:
Deadline: November, 2018.
Submissions for all categories should be sent to aah.editor@gmail.com. Please make sure to include your name and category of submission in the body of your email.
Featured image and gallery: Gracie Hall With the streets of Manchester’s Northern Quarter packed with festive revellers, Band On The Wall offers a temporary respite from the premature seasonal celebrations. Debut album ‘Hysterical Strength’ in tow, Yorkshire born DEADLETTER have garnered an avid following in the Northern reaches of England, broadcasting their infusion of post-punk…
Photography: Adrianos Falkonakis, Chloe Tomkinson, Megan Levick, Simon WebbBy Megan Levick and Kate Dening “I left feeling so empowered.” Greater Manchester’s cycling community came together on Saturday for the second annual Lights Up night-time bike ride, an event designed to raise awareness of the issues women face when cycling, especially in the darker winter months….
Featured image and gallery: Kaitlyn Brockley It’s a cold winter’s night, but not in Club Academy. A crowd huddles in the dingy basement venue, warmth radiating from the throng gathered underneath the hue of fluorescent lighting. Opening the night is Miso Extra: an exciting upcoming rapper, producer and vocalist, inspired by everything from UKG and…
Featured image: Layla Caine Cowbells and proggy synthpop, anyone? With a stacked bill, the night promises to warm your cockles and shelter from the impending doom of market season in Manchester. If you can find the venue room, tucked away in an unassuming hallway, it’s a cosy affair. That is until our first support act…
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