yesterday afternoon at the sculpture garden, new orleans museum of art: ‘the twelve-acre sculpture garden at NOMA is one of the most important sculpture installations in the united states, with over 90 sculptures situated on a beautifully landscaped site among meandering footpaths, reflecting lagoons, spanish moss-laden 200-year-old live oaks, mature pines, magnolias, camellias, and pedestrian bridges.’ the sculptures mesh beautifully with their environment and the moss-covered oaks seem ghostly, dream-like, unreal.
yesterday brunch at satsuma cafe on dauphine street and a walk around the neighborhood where i found a beautiful palestinian flag. knocked at the door to thank the homeowner and met mark, a retired lawyer, who feels enraged by the genocide going on in gaza and wants to make his solidarity public. we talked for a while and he gave me his card: “u have a friend in new orleans now”
more nola – waited in line for 30-40 min for beignets from cafe du monde yesterday. walked all over the french quarter, easy access from franklin ave where we are based. bought some local art from an artists’ co-op and postcards at the french market. love the unapologetically vibrant colors here.
today i got to meet madera rogers-henry of the recycle project and ric kasini kadour of the kolaj institute – a side of new orleans, its art scene, and people i’d love to learn more about. yummy brunch at who dat coffee and fabulous dinner at N7. drove to riverbend (violet) and passed thru this pecan tree tunnel. this morning we saw wonderful views of the city from crescent park. nola has such a chill, artsy vibe. but u know what truly aligned things for me in a big way? the free palestine graffiti i found all over the city. i’d love to create art here!
Screenings of A Thin Wall are coming up in Ahmedabad, India! Pls attend if you are in the area. Repost from @arthshila_ahmedabad:
Arthshila Ahmedabad’s Film Showcase this week features A Thin Wall by Mara Ahmed
A Thin Wall is a documentary about memory, reconciliation, and the Partition of India. It focuses on a unique event but derives lessons that remain urgently relevant today.
Screening of ‘Return to Sender’ and community discussion at Montauk Library on March 3rd, 2:30-4pm. This event is free and open to the public. See you in beautiful Montauk, the eastern-most tip of Long Island.
Ready for a post screening discussion and Q&A this morning at 8:30am, following a screening of A Thin Wall at @theblackholeislamabad where it was 6:30pm. Great convo with Osama Malik, who made this event happen, followed by brilliant questions from the audience. They had to do with nation states, porous borders, the imagining of alternative futures, and my own personal views about the partition. TBH is a non-profit that strives to be an open-to-all educational and cultural space in Islamabad. Such a pleasure to connect with incredible people and places in Pakistan
Forgot to take a screenshot when on Zoom, but here is the YouTube video
with our daughter in nyc: tacombi (amazing fish tacos) last night, la parisienne (meh) this morning, followed by a walk around FiDi. this evening, a play at james chapel and then thai food with lovely friends <3
tomorrow lunch with the kids at @bkjani’s in brooklyn before heading back to long island
As we watch daily war crimes unfold in Gaza, it’s sometimes hard not to feel helpless – not to be able to stop the atrocities or help people on the ground in a direct way. Here is one such opportunity. I have been posting poems by Palestinian poets every other day since December. One of those beautiful poems, Whispers of Resistance, was written by Gaza poet and writer Nadine Murtaja when she was 18 years old. It was read by my friend Zoe Lawlor. Nadine is 20 years old now. She was studying at the school of dental medicine in Gaza when everything turned to dust last October. She wants desperately to leave Gaza and continue her studies in Egypt. She has put together this gofundme campaign while living in hell and under constant attack. Pls consider donating anything you can and share widely. It’s a way to intercede directly, assure her safety, and make her dreams come true.
my dear uncle razi has passed away. verily we belong to god and to god we return.
he was my friend saba’s father. when i was studying at university in karachi, saba’s family was like my own family. i stayed with them often and learned consistently from saba’s wise and compassionate parents.
he was the embodiment of what we call a strong pillar of the community. in many ways, his story as a young man tracked the story of pakistan.
he was barely 15 at the time of partition, when his family left everything behind in india and settled in karachi, pakistan. he joined the navy and since every institution in the newly created state of pakistan had to be built from scratch, he was sent to england to train with the british navy. he was 17 when he left his family and headed for an entirely new country, culture, and language. he was a midshipman when elizabeth II was crowned in 1953. he remembered the naval review at spithead that accompanied the coronation.
in 2019, he did us the great honor of visiting us in rochester. i got to spend time with him and wrote about the remarkable stories he shared with me.
we ate out, went for a walk on the bridge by high falls, saw a film at the dryden theatre, went to canandaigua lake for a day. it was magical. my favorite part was sitting at the kitchen table and listening to him.
last year, i was able to visit karachi after some 16 years, and i got to see uncle razi again. saba and i had tea at his beautiful house. he received us at the door, smiling as always, impeccably dressed, with all the formalities and lavish treats pakistani tea aspires to. he had created a new group of friends and acquaintances, all over 80, who would meet regularly and enjoy one another’s company. he organized presentations on pressing medical needs, financial management, wills and real estate planning for the elderly. he was a force. unanimously admired and loved. a role model. something rare in this day and age.
u will be sorely missed by many dear uncle razi. still cannot believe u are no longer here. may u continue to excel and bring people together in heaven. inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un.
Spotlight on issue 12 featured artist Mara Ahmed. “My art practice focuses on crossing borders and dismantling political and cultural boundaries. I work in multiple disciplines and narrative formats to tell marginalized stories and build community. The personal and political are intertwined in my practice. For example, the experimental short film, Le Mot Juste (2021), which was selected for an exhibition by Chicago’s South Asia Institute, is a fusion of autobiography, film, and dance. It spotlights three languages: Urdu, French, and English. In the analog and digital collage series, This Heirloom (2012-2014) which has been widely exhibited in New York and California, I recreated my own history by using old black and white photographs sourced from my family archive. In conjunction with my NYSCA-funded film, Return to Sender: Women of Color in Colonial Postcards & the Politics of Representation (2023), I created three collages that subvert the colonial male gaze in found postcards from the British Raj (early 1900s). My aim was to rewrite history by relocating South Asian women from derelict studios, where they had been subjected to Orientalist fantasies, and reconnecting them to their roots. I placed the women in their native cities, adorned with architectural details and built with Indian textiles.”
From Mariam Sandhu: My dear friend, fellow artist, activist, filmmaker and humanitarian Mara Ahmed has expanded a project started in 2020 entitled “Warp & Weft” to highlight the voices of the Palestinian people and the horrific situation that is unfolding in front of the entire world’s eyes. It is a compilation of Palestinian poems given voice by fellow activists and artists. I am just one ordinary human asked to participate – join us in raising the voices of the Palestinian people by following her IG account @Warpandweftarchive
