About My.Kali

Get To Know Us A Little

My.Kali is a conceptual webzine for/from the Middle East and North Africa. The magazine was established in 2007 by a group of passionate students with various interests ranging from design, to the arts, and politics. My.Kali strives to address social problems, and empower the youth to defy mainstream gender binaries in the Arab world.

My.Kali is a new form of activism. It is a voice for social justice in oppressive societies. My.Kali builds on the understanding that cultural stereotypes stem from countless factors and discourses that are created and reinforced every day. My.Kali addresses these stereotypes through visually engaging features and social commentary with a local and regional flavor.

Here at My.Kali, we aim to demonstrate diversity and fight repressive forms and norms with art therapy, photography, and visual innovation. Our online pages hosts many bloggers, guest writers, and photographers to come together from across the Middle East and North Africa, to put together empowering and informative editorial. Our writings reflect unheard and marginalized opinions, uncensored voices, and unabashed attitudes. The publication thrives on local and regional pop culture, the underground scene, using our platform to present new artistic and political concepts.

The magazine tackles issues related to women’s rights, personal politics, gender related matters, freedom of speech, alt-communities, and new media. This allows for a window of hope where societies’ minorities can find solidarity, offering a safe atmosphere of reassurance and certainty in the midst of regional turmoil. My.Kali also offers a new perspective on the world that surrounds us with open doors through dialogue and awareness. My.Kali is a space that is inclusive of all members of the Arab society regardless of their identity.

For the past 10 years, My.Kali has served as a bold, collaborative, online platform for the alt community and social minorities’ talents from the Middle East and North Africa to explore artistic and critical approaches to tackling current social issues and underground pop culture trends.

What to expect from My.Kali:

Bimonthly covers: The magazine publishes its covers once every two months, which include our cover story and titles of top features and articles.

For each issue the magazine invites writers and bloggers to join our full-time editorial staff to be guest contributors. We are always on the lookout for fresh perspectives and content from across the region. We represent artists, activists, journalists, and thinkers.

In addition to our bimonthly covers, the magazine continuously updates its site with columns, interviews, reviews, and social commentary, paired with conceptual photography articles, and bold artistic visions. . Most of our photography aims to be socially provocative and satirical, exaggerated, yet reflective of reality

The magazine dedicates pages to lists and monthly music reviews in English and Arabic, where our music editors share what they’re listening to. We also update the magazine’s SoundCloud regularly with playlists, drawing from the mainstream and underground, new music, and retro classics.

On My.Kali’s Covers:

If you are an inspiring figure, being on our magazine’s covers means something. It’s a moment that is created to reflect you, what you represent and most importantly, your work. It has to be iconic, challenging, gender fluid, artistically compelling, and leave an impression that lasts and lasts. For us, it’s personal! Our cover stories are customized to the person we are featuring, through being inspired by their story — not the other way around.

The cover look is very personal. The people featured on the cover are often wearing pieces from Khalid’s (Kali’s) closet, or from his family’s! It’s true! We want our covers to reflect an individual style-perspective, an exception made only for the cover. Whether female or male, naked… we make it work.

What does the word My.Kali stand for?

“My.Kali started as my own safe space online to forever document moments, relevant events, social insights, arts, and self-expression.
Growing up, I had a problem with two things; one: losing momentum of time; and two: ownership! Before My.Kali, growing up, I wanted to express myself all the time and document my life, day in and day out. I was afraid to forget life, to forget certain moments, and documentation helped. At some point, it became a challenge to obtain things like magazines or beauty products, and sometimes personal diaries and drawings. It wasn’t easy having them, let alone keeping them. I was frustrated by not being able to maintain and claim ownership of the objects I collected and all the memories they reflected. Being a teenager at the time, I was denied this independence, to the point where I wasn’t comfortable people touching my belongings. In 2007, creating My.Kali was for the purpose of expressing myself, my attempt to capture time and protect it from being discarded. It can’t be touched, and it can’t be torn. I learned to let go of many hardships, and I learned to share, and it was time to share My.Kali. Uttering the magazine’s title gives you access to own it, and to own a piece of what I own too. My.Kali.”

— The Creator of My.Kali, Khalid Abdel-Hadi — aka Kali

Since then My.Kali has grown to represent the same thing for other people, where they can share their insights and creativity. Today we are the collective product of a community of individualistic people from across the Middle East and North Africa, each unique in their perspectives and interests. By sharing these insights, we become enriched and wiser as a community, erasing divisions.

How can you follow My.Kali (discretely) ?

• For those who don’t want to be outed, have their interests questioned, or be associated with a liberal publication by following us on social media, you can follow our content by subscribing via email through our RSS through the bar on the right side of our magazine’s homepage (here)

Follow us via our social media. Each has its own unique content and feed:

• For general updates and announcements (here)
• For regularly updated news regarding the magazine’s content (here)
• For teasers of upcoming shoots, covers, and behind the scenes moments (here)
• For behind the scenes footage of our artwork (here)
• For global radio interviews, podcasts recommendations, and playlists by our music editors (here)

Edited by Lily Leach, and written by members of My.Kali magazine

عن مجلة ماي كالي بالعربي هنا