The idea for Echoes Within Journal came like a memory knocking at the door. After years of moving from place to place, I realized what I longed for was a sense of belonging. I kept thinking of Boqala nights during Ramadan, when as young girls we gathered under the stars, tossing poems like secrets, wrapping them in laughter and silence. Nothing was explained outright. Meaning unfolded slowly, through tone, pauses and echoes. That's the memory that shaped this journal. I wanted to make something that feels like a gathering you can carry with you.
On warm nights, Algerian women would gather and pass around a little clay pot filled with folded slips of paper each of which held a verse of poetry. Someone would pull one out, keep it to themselves or read it, and everyone would sit with it sometimes laughing, sometimes going quiet, sometimes nodding because it landed just right. What I love about Boqalas is that they never gave you the full answer. They were fragments and you had to lean in and find your own meaning.
Inside the journal are 52 Boqalas, one for each week of the year, paired with prompts to nudge your reflections. The pages are filled with Cubist-inspired illustration, broken into shapes and angles, because nothing in life is ever flat. The colors remind me of the landscapes of my ancestral home with ochres, sand, terracotta, deep browns, gold light.
You can move through it in your own way. Start at the beginning, flip to a random page, or follow a thread your intuition tugs on.
This is what I hope for with Maktoub Studio too: to create companions for the inner journey, pieces that remind us that even when the night feels heavy, the stars haven’t forgotten us. Echoes Within carries that reminder that every reflection, every fragment you write down, becomes part of the composition you’re still unfolding.
Warmly,
Ratiba
