Debris Magazine Issue 05: Prismatic Joy

Marvel at stories exploring collective resistance, ancestral-based healing, queer joy, children-led wonder, and catalysing the power of joy in between the fury and revolt.

Debris Magazine Issue 05 was guest-edited by Mariam Ella Arcilla & Jazz Money with luminous contributions by Merlinda Bobis, Matt Chun, Farz Edraki, George Haddad, Michael Sun, Hoda Afshar, Atul Joshi, Nawa Sybico & Argo Theoharis, Kiera Brew Kurec, Sara M Saleh, Angelita Biscotti, Gurmeet Kaur, and Enoch Mailangi. Together, we investigate what it means to view the world through the prisms of joy – in all its manifestations and generative tensions. 

Editors' curatorial theme:

Prismatic joy can be found in the most delicate point of the heart. It is a type of revolutionary joy passed down by ancestors. It is both armour and deflector. It brings truth-telling into clarified focus through multiple voices and storylines, so that we can rebuild a world we all deserve.

Prismatic joy is a multidimensional container: it enables bliss, grief, wonder and fury to coexist. It reminds us to stay tender in a hardening world, while carving out sharp angles towards intersectional justice. It is the flower pushing through the rubble; the social organising meme; the laughter amidst the grief; the defeat of the oppressor; the sovereign absence of fear.

In this issue, we look at the ways that we care for each other during moments of crisis. What does it mean to cultivate communal joy in the face of colonial horrors and genocide? How can small acts of rhapsody repair and sustain us?

Published in May 2025, Issue 05 features a medley of essays, poems, vignettes, recipes, illustrations, and photography exploring these evolving vessels of joy.

Editor-in-chief: Victoria Pham
Project manager: Julia Flaster
Copy-editor: Carol Que 
Designer: Malou Messien
Cover: Scene by Hoda Afshar
Papers: Invercote
Recytal Offset
Creator Star
Color separation: Fotimprim, France 
Printing: Mediagraphic, France