This is now a strange scene; to be at a funeral and see a shroud, inside which is a whole body with two hands, ten fingers, two feet, and a head. Nowadays, we Gazans are lucky if we even get to have a funeral, to bury an intact body, or to have our family and friends there to say goodbye and cry over us.
The Gaza Municipality provides water, sanitation and sewage management, waste collection, the removal of debris and reopening of key thoroughfares to facilitate movement, and aid to personnel doing heroic emergency work. They have started a fundraiser and are trying to raise a million dollars. They still have a long way to go. Let’s support them.
Dr. King called on the US to undergo a radical revolution of values. He believed that Jim Crow segregation and the war in Vietnam were rooted in the same ethic of race-based domination. By 1967, Dr King’s religious vision for nonviolence went beyond street protests, to include abolishing what he called the “triple evils” threatening American society. He defined them as racism, poverty, and militarism.
Today we launch the next phase of this project. In the midst of the gruesome genocide we are witnessing in Gaza, people from around the world are welcome to join us in reading, holding up, and sharing the voices and stories of Palestinian writers, poets, and activists. This is an open archive, so contact us if you would like to contribute a reading. Pls follow us on Instagram and listen to powerful poetry and stories from Palestine: @WarpAndWeftArchive
How we met in the lilt and nectary of the typed word
How air wove itself into spring around our screens and snapped time-
tables, and turned us from panic to song, spinning the counterfeit
back into gold, handing us to each other a filament at a time…
Return to Sender: Women of Color in Colonial Postcards & the Politics of Representation will be screened at Southampton Arts Center on Sunday November 19, 2:00 – 4:00 pm. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Jeremy Dennis, Minerva Perez, and Brenda Simmons. This event is free and open to the public but registration is needed.
Return to Sender is an art exhibition inspired by Mara Ahmed’s film of the same title, with Fatimah Arshad, Urvashi Bhattacharya and Sumayia Islam. The Exhibition Catalog by Mara Ahmed, Avina Mathias and Emelyn Pareja-Garcia aims to provide more historical context for the film and exhibition. It hopes to excavate layers of colonial history, gender relations, and power dynamics in order to deconstruct the male gaze (a concept rooted in the objectification and sexualization of women), and to clarify its intersection with colonialism and imperialism. Huntington’s History & Decorative Arts Museum, Huntington, New York, Fall 2023
This art exhibition will include photographic stills from the film of the same title and fabric-based digital collages that celebrate South Asian cities and architecture by Mara Ahmed. On display September 17th to October 15th, 2023, at Huntington Historical Society, Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Building in Huntington, New York.
Return to Sender: Women of Color in Colonial Postcards & the Politics of Representation is a short, experimental film directed and produced by Mara Ahmed. It pushes the documentary medium in unexpected ways by opening with three contemporary South Asian American women who recreate British colonial postcards from the early 20th century. The film will open at Cinema Arts Centre, Huntington, NY, on Sunday October 1st, 2023. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion.
Series: This Heirloom My paternal grandfather Chaudhry Habib Ali standing in front of the Jama Masjid, Fatehpur Sikri, India Newsprint, fabric and acrylic paint on watercolor paper My maternal grandfather Rashid Ahmad Qureshi seated in front of Delhi gate, Lahore, Pakistan Newsprint, fabric and acrylic paint on watercolor paper My father Saleem Murtza as a young boy in front of the Pearl Mosque, Lahore Fort, Pakistan Newsprint, fabric and acrylic paint on watercolor paper My mother Nilofar Rashid as a little girl Lord Ellenborough’s Folly on the Calcutta Course, India Newsprint, fabric and acrylic paint on watercolor paper My paternal […]
I was the featured artist, along with opera singer and pianist Bethany Smith, at Teatro Yerbabruja’s Firehouse Gallery in Bayshore. I shared some of my writing and my translations of Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poetry (the soundscape for Dasht-e-Tanhai and a new recording of my translation of Mujh Se Pehli Si Muhabbat).
So energizing to be part of the Artists Round Table today and talk about Hopeful Art & Artful Hope. The convo was moderated by the wonderful Gabrielle Javier-Cerulli and I learned so much about the work of amazing artists/activists like Michaela Oteri, TL Luke, Kristy Lisle, Kierston Ghaznavi, Yvette Pino, and Della Wells.
