Dennis Farnsworth
My name is Dennis Farnsworth and I started Shoebox Magazine in 2023 as a passion project – bridging my interests and studies of art, literature and languages, and to share my thoughts and ideas. The goal has also been to use Shoebox as a way to enable other people to do the same. I know I’m not alone in the feeling of reading a book or listening to music and wanting to cry by its beauty – wanting to tell everyone about it – only to realize that there’s nowhere to put that energy. For me that energy is being put in Shoebox, as well as all the other questions that come with it. There’s also a very nice collaborative feeling when making a magazine, and I’ve realized how fun it is to look through submissions and be inspired by the many various things people are up to, and think about.
Lumi Androvic Muzio @lumiamuzioarchive
My name is Lumi Androvic Muzio and I am joining the Shoebox team! Dennis Farnsworth and I met in 2022 at the beginning of our Fine Arts degree at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, and became fast friends. Despite coming from different backgrounds, having grown up in London and Stockholm respectively, our shared love of dive bars, Tom Waits songs, and Jim Jarmusch films led to an ongoing discourse about the writing and art projects we were working on. I have been a contributor to every issue of Shoebox so far, mostly with essays and drawings, but when Dennis moved to Cairo last year, we got discussing the potential of working together on this project, which has now finally come to fruition. While I am a huge fan of what Dennis has been doing with Shoebox, I hope to bring a new perspective to the table, in keeping with the creative and community oriented ethos that Shoebox is already a strong proponent of. I am super excited to be embarking on this new collective chapter of the magazine, and to seeing all the wonderful new submissions!
Omnia Najm @omnia.najm
Is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Egypt, having spent two transformative years in Lebanon. A graduate of the Alexandria Media Institute, Omnia possesses a rich skill set in voiceover and storytelling, with her writing experience further enhancing her ability to craft compelling narratives.
Her creative journey spans six years, blending photography, film, writing, poetry, and performance. Starting with analog photography, she gradually embraced digital media. For the past 16 years, Omnia has explored various forms of dance, eventually bringing her poetry to the stage, proving it to be her true playground. As a traveling artist passionate about storytelling, she embarked on a photography cycling trip from Cairo to Khartoum, capturing the essence of her journey through her lens.
In 2022, Omnia moved to Lebanon to explore the potential of her work. She showcased her talents at a Lebanese art festival with a poetry recital and a short film screening. In 2023, she culminated part of her cycling trip in her first photography exhibition in Beirut. Driven by her dream of creating a poetry community, she founded The Poetry Salon in Beirut in 2023. Her first participation in a photobook in Beirut that same year portrayed the daring societal aspects of her photography. Her interest in migration led to her acceptance into a summer writing residency in Beirut, where she published her story merging her journeys between Egypt, Lebanon, and Sudan in 2024. She also contributed two poetry-photography pieces to Shoebox, a creative art magazine in Cairo, in December 2024.
Beyond her personal practice, Omnia has been designing and leading storytelling-driven writing experiences for the past three years, offering safe spaces for participants to explore self-expression and develop their narrative voices. These workshops help transform personal experiences into compelling stories, forming a foundation for various artistic disciplines.
Omnia delves into storytelling through poetry performances, photography, film, and writing, driven by the expressive potential of her voice. Her ultimate goal is to use her camera, body, and pen to create unique and impactful sensory performances and experiences, transporting audiences to new, translucent worlds.
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