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: Molly Goble and Anna Comerford aAh! Magazine fashion editor Imogen Burgess meets the Manchester fashion creatives rewriting the rules of the industry. Fashion has long been defined by its connection to exclusivity and elitism – an industry where “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” rings true. This phrase, also a…
Featured image: Ciara Reynolds and Charle Mooney Every Tuesday, 91-year-old Joan walks from her flat to Turncroft Lane in Stockport to set up for the weekly ballroom dancing. Joan, a dedicated member of Woodbank Community Centre, has been attending ballroom classes for more than 20 years – and she has no plans to slow down anytime…
Featured image: Aigerim Zhumabay Life comes at you fast once you leave uni. One of the biggest decisions you’ll make post-degree is where to set up home. If you plan on staying in Manchester, there’s so much more to the city’s suburbs than Chorlton or the familiar sights around the Oxford Road/Wilmslow Road corridor. Greater…
Featured image: Georgina Hurdsfield Sam Fender has become impossible to ignore in the past year, from being crowned the Mercury Prize winner to releasing his best-selling album, selling out stadiums, and receiving four Brit Award nominations. The Geordie’s indie-pop anthems and addictive, rock-influenced tunes provide something for the masses to sing their hearts out to. If…
Leave a reply