Much like the number it signifies, infinity on its side, this mobius strip cycle destroys the O of the past, the apostrophe uttered when we consider the histories and institutions that have failed us. But balanced through the fulcrum funnel of its infinite, figure 8 crux, the O of the future twists into being, to create possibilities and worlds anew. As each O makes way for the next, the first tentative step outside its bounds, that tail transforms an O into a Q. And OCHO is concerned with all things Q. The Q that includes the L, G, B and T, but goes beyond those limited letters and increasingly hardened identities in favor of a more fluid movement across the spectrum of human experience. The Q that interrogates, that queers tradition in both content and form, that takes established modes and moves them forward, evolves them into new beasts and creatures we haven’t seen before. The Q that ignores either/or, that challenges both/and to explore a fertile and disruptive third space. OCHO’s editorship will change each issue, creating a chain and succession of aesthetic concerns that will undoubtedly overlap and diverge as each subsequent editor extends, undermines, indeed queers the position of those who came before. OCHO exists at the cross-roads of queer arts. We want its pages filled with poetry, flash fiction and essay, photography, collage, painting, poem-comics, video, interviews, and especially hybrid work that mixes genre and form, that defies categorization. Work that understands the inherent performativity of the queer positions it stakes out. Work that does not shy away from intersections, be they of race, class, nation or gender.
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