a visit with dear shafqat aunty this morning, my khalajan’s best friend, with wonderful connections to both my family and my husband’s. thank u for making my visit possible dear ayesha. may aunty continue to be a strong and loving presence in our lives <3
a beautiful iftar with some beautiful friends at the islamic center of rochester <3
non-linear time: evening at a friend’s house where i got to meet all my girlfriends, dynamic convos at spot coffee this morning, afternoon tea with a friend who taught me all about manga and anime, and lunch at peppa pot jamaican cuisine.
yesterday at hydra coffee, zemeta’s, and basha mediterranean eatery with these beautiful friends <3
we had to bring in extra chairs to fit everyone tonight at the visual studies workshop. it was more than a full house. so many people i love and admire in the audience. a presentation about colonial postcards, internal colonialism, police brutality, and white feminism, with strong connections to palestine and the ongoing genocide in gaza. a question for the audience about how to develop a decolonial feminist lens and then a group discussion to figure out more humane ways of ‘looking’ at one another.
thank u hernease davis and the @visualstudiesworkshop
rochester, i love u. too many incredible people live here.
in rochester, and the first place i had to visit, of course, was the french quarter. ethan, who has grown up in front of our eyes, recognized me. even after three years of being away on long island. unbelievable. this is a new, pared-down location but the food is as good as ever.
I am thrilled to announce that I will be coming to Rochester, NY, on March 28th to present a dialogue between my work on colonial postcards and the Visual Studies Workshop’s film and lantern slide archives!
This will be an exciting conversation where we will see clips from my new film, about the aftershocks of colonialism, juxtaposed against film clips from Rochester in the 1970s that talk about police control and violence. We will make connections to current political power systems and pay special attention to the representations of women from the global south and white feminism. I make a lot of presentations, but this is the first time I have engaged with an institution’s archives and located my work within that framework.
Pls join us and add to the convo. You can register here.
Here is more info from the VSW’s website:
Mara Ahmed is an interdisciplinary artist and award winning activist filmmaker. Mara’s documentaries center marginalized voices and have focused on communities grappling with nuanced experiences around racism, colonization and islamophobia. She will present a program that incorporates her work with postcards, lantern slides and films she has researched and chosen from the VSW archive. Mara will also present clips from her latest film, Return to Sender: Women of Color in Colonial Postcards & the Politics of Representation, which was awarded a NYSCA film grant, and will premiere at a future time in Rochester.
The evening will culminate in a discussion with Mara Ahmed facilitated by Hernease Davis, the Assistant Curator of Education and Public Programs. This program will also be livestreamed via twitch.tv.
on international women’s day, with some kickass women of color, conspiring to overturn genocidal systems and suffuse the world with palestinian poetry <3
Out of the 1.9 million people displaced in Gaza, close to one million are girls and women. An estimated 9,000 Palestinian women have been killed by Israeli forces so far. That’s a rate of 63 women killed every day. There are an estimated 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, with over 180 giving birth daily, without any anesthesia or meds or fully functional hospitals. An estimated 37 mothers are killed daily, leaving their families devastated and their children with diminished protection — at least 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip are unaccompanied or have been separated from their relatives since the beginning of the genocide on October 7th. There is no food or water and most of Gaza’s infrastructure has been destroyed. A man-made famine is setting in. At least 20 people have died from malnutrition and dehydration in northern Gaza. The time to speak up is now.
great screening at montauk library yesterday afternoon. small audience but most excellent questions, for example, the role played by caste when engaging with representations of indian women in colonial postcards. after the screening, lunch at streetfood on the green. it was a beautiful sunny day. will have to come back soon.
