About Petal Projections
What is Petal Projections?:
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The concept of Petal Projections as a whole is to create a collaborative gallery with, and about wonderful feminine intersectional identities. There are many wonderful spaces that acknowledge traditional feminism, but I find that creatively, and even as a whole, there are very few spaces specifically for intersectional identities. Petal Projections is a community-driven publication that features lovely artistry from the community of creators who keep up-to-date with the project.
Why Petal Projections was created:
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Petal Projections was designed to elevate and project the voices of women who experience multiple forms of oppression and discrimination. This project began as only the Gallery / Garden page. As an assignment for my "Writing in Community Class" at OCAD University taught by Ian Keteku, I was prompted to create a piece that connected a community. I received so many wonderful and powerful words based on the prompt: "Do you have any thoughts/ experiences to share regarding intersectional feminism?". I compiled the quotations and photographed them hand-written next to the pressed flowers. The variety in beautiful pressed flowers acted as a representation of all of the equally lovely yet vastly different perspectives that I had been able to compile. ​
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Eventually the project grew into seasonal magazine. Longer submissions regarding the themes of the original project are featured in the Petal Projections magazine.
Our Petal Projections Mission:
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To create an all-inclusive space that re-sparks what it’s like to braid hair in a train at recess time, or to paint your nails before you learned how.
To release our candy-stained tongues from our mouths, and to show the world the art we eat in secret as guilty pleasure.
To absorb community tales like fresh dish sponges.
To lull ourselves towards rest independently.
To cherish diversity without limiting voices to identity artistry.
To welcome the daily artistry.
To write in diaries with locks and hide the keys like buried treasure.
To draw treasure maps.
To feel the dirt under our nails when we’re ready for adventure.
To share how far we’ve come.
To congratulate our neighbours on their fruits.
To teach each other how we’ve come to be.
To hug our words before we share them with one another.
To embrace tightly the words that we are gifted.
To glow without shame.
To nourish in each others light beams.
To blow kisses and to catch them in our fists.
To preserve them in our pockets, and to swoon with the memory all day long.
To yearn excessively, and responsibly.
To plant ourselves cross-legged in a circle.
To bloom together.
About Me:
Reem Rizk is a 4th year Honours BFA Creative Writing Major at OCAD University minoring in Digital & Media Studies. She specializes in the intersection of literary and visual arts. In her time at OCAD University, she has led the development of the community-based publication "Petal Projections", and has expanded her social media and digital creation portfolio. Her multi-disciplinary work falls within the worlds of design, content creation, and performance. All of these passions tie into one another to fuel the themes of personhood, femininity, and nature that her narratives often take.
