The Derivative

The Derivative is a bi-annual online publication launched in October 2020, in the midst of unprecedented political, social, economic, and environmental collapse in Lebanon. It is an attempt at building collective vocabularies, registers, and practices able to account for and run against the systemic onslaught we are faced with.

The Derivative is a student of the uprising of Oct 17, 2019; it is first and foremost a rhizomatic object around which to mobilize a diversity of praxes. Experimenting with collective editorial models, each issue is above all an excuse to think and make together and a way to expand and strengthen networks of friends and allies through divergent modes of address, thought, and action.

Every issue of The Derivative starts with three guest editors, each assigned a theme in the form of a three-letter root word (جذر) in Arabic. Each editor then collaborates with five contributors to help unfold the various facets of each theme, as well as an artist contribution responding to each text.

Issue: 03_03/22-08/22

Issue: 03 03/22_08/22 · List of Contributors

What Sorcery is this? · Haig Aivazian

Human (ب.ش.ر) · Sumayya Kassamali

Transcendent Human / Ordinary Human · Golrokh Nafisi
Sidewalks of Beirut · Majd Al-Shihabi
Humans of Hamra · Hicham Safieddine
The Place Is Not the Place · Hana Sleiman with Beza Girma
 Refrigerator · Alexandra Chreiteh

Fire (ح.ر.ق) · Rijin Sahakian

Autobiography of a Flame · Rheim AlKadhi
Three Poems · Safaa Al-Sarray. Translated by Sinan Antoon
In the Line of Fire (Oh Brother) · Omar Dewachi
S/he Said · Jananne Al-Ani
Gud Decided to Leave · Sajjad Abbas

Issue: 02_04/21_07/21

Beast (و.ح.ش) · Tarek El-Ariss

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness – For Tarek El-Ariss · Hoda Barakat
Separation · Hamed Sinno
The Factory of Beasts · Ahmed Naji
Bone Insurrection · Rabih Mroué
The Imam and the Giraffe · Iman Mersal