As we approach the end of 2024, a big shout-out to @pyaari_azaadi and her brilliant Hicksville-based project (supported by a fellowship from @huntingtonarts) which hopes to bring South Asian feminist creatives together on Long Island. It’s a powerful idea about solidarity, kinship, art, politics, language, and intent. Honored to be on this journey together – look forward to collabs and lots of fun. Here we are in Pyaari’s enchanted sunroom earlier in December <3
A couple of weeks ago I saw Elizabeth Catlett’s work at the Brooklyn Museum. I had already seen ‘Target’ as part of the exhibition ‘We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85’ in Buffalo, in 2018. It’s a beautiful bronze bust of a Black man, his distinguished face seen through the crosshairs of a rifle scope made of metal and drilled roughly into the wood block that holds the sculpture. Fierce.
‘Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012) was an avowed feminist, a lifelong activist, and an astutely observant artist. Spanning 75 years of diverse production, Catlett’s career was guided by her bold creative artistry, rigorous practice, and deep commitment to social justice and political activism.’
The first thing one sees in Brooklyn, as one enters the exhibition, is an exquisite terra cotta sculpture of a woman’s head. I was completely overcome by the delicate beauty of the piece.
In 1946, Catlett moved to Mexico as a guest artist at the printmaking collective, Taller de Grafica Popular. It was in Mexico City that she learned the terra cotta technique she later employed in her work (building a hollow shape from coils of clay) from the artist Francisco Zuniga. This indigenous technique, which allows the gentle definition of features, was in use long before the Spanish invaded and colonized. ‘Tired’ which depicts a physically depleted Black woman claiming a moment of respite and ‘Mother and Child,’ a smaller piece which brims with tenderness and the sense of safety we should all be allowed to feel in our parent’s arms, are stunning. The mother’s muscular legs seem to be rooted in the soil beneath her and reminded me of Soviet monuments and Diego Rivera’s murals.
‘While ultimately becoming a Mexican citizen, Catlett never lost sight of the Black liberation struggle in the United States. She embraced a political radicalism that merged the goals of the Black Left in the United States with the lessons of the Mexican Revolution and international feminist movements. Her transnational identity fueled a critical understanding that Black Americans and Mexicans were linked with other oppressed people around the world in a struggle against poverty, racism, and imperialism. As a result, she developed a rich visual language through which she articulated her solidarity politics across various media.’
Her sketches, lithographs, woodcuts, lino prints, watercolors, and sculptures bridge the gap between aesthetics and politics.
Catlett’s work will be on display at the Brooklyn Museum until Jan 19, 2025.
So happy to attend NEW QUEER CINEMA FROM LONG ISLAND yesterday evening, a celebration of independent queer cinema at @cinema_arts. Three genre-defying short films created by three filmmakers of color from Long Island (Grace Zhang, Jard Lerebours, and Devon Narine-Singh), curated by the wonderful Grace Zhang, and supported by Huntington Arts. More of this on Long Island pls!
psyched to welcome the iconic shawn dunwoody and his beautiful wife bella to our home this morning! equally psyched to announce that we are working on a project together which will include an art exhibition and a film screening – coming up in jan and april 2025. loved how shawn asked me some provocative questions that helped define the contours of the exhibit and its central themes. an extraordinary artist and curator. thank u so much shawn and bella <3
ice skating at brookfield place with my daughter last night (so grateful that it always comes back to me), dinner at PJ clarke’s, and then breakfast with rachel (my rochester fam) at two hands this morning followed by a short visit to codex, a wonderful little bookstore rachel took me to on bleecker street. i went to two museums – the national museum of the american indian which is minutes from my daughter’s apt and the brooklyn museum where i saw elizabeth catlett’s stunning work – more about that later.
in nyc with my kids trying belgian waffles and mexican empanadas (opted for cheese and guava) at the xmas market in bryant park
was in nyc for just one day but got to see ‘walden’ with emmy rossum at the second stage theater, had dinner with arseniy (a dear friend from back home in rochester), spent time with my daughter, walked around battery park, and had palestinian food at ayat (the new location in manhattan) where the muhammarah is simply out of this world. walden is a play about the future, a time when climate catastrophe is being used as an excuse to colonize other planets and EAs (earth advocates) are seen as these bizarre people who continue to be invested in planet earth, oppose colonization and the destruction of indigenous life, suspect technology, stay away from screens, and are committed as a community to reducing their carbon footprint. there is a love triangle in the forefront of the story but the backdrop is hyper pertinent. out of all the emotions i felt throughout the play, the one that hit me hardest was when we witness some kind of dangerous geomagnetic storm that can damage humans, animals and plants. it felt too close. it was frightening.
what a beautiful wedding for a beautiful girl! hempstead house located in the sands point preserve on a lovely autumn (yes, still going) day. so grateful for amazing friends <3
with my brilliant neighbors yesterday, who filled the house with laughter and flowers. so grateful for women friends <3
Last Friday I had the honor of spending some time with the brilliant (and extremely generous) @briannalhb who gave me a private tour of “Reclaiming Death: Art, Ritual, and Advocacy at End of Life, a group exhibition featuring Jeremy Dennis, Jenie Gao, Brianna L. Hernandez, Jonathan Herrera Soto, Resham Mantri, mk, Nirmal Raja, Denise Silva-Dennis, Adrienne Terry, and A young Yu in collaboration with Nicholas Oh. Each participating artist presents personal and culturally significant methods of relating to grief and death in ways that are healing and connected to heritage.” The exhibition challenges western ideas of death and mourning. In Brianna’s words, as the exhibition’s curator: “In a social atmosphere where death is primarily avoided or otherwise presented through platitudes and euphemisms, translating death from heritage and lived experiences is vital in honoring the vastness of end-of-life practices and our inextricably tied humanity.” Reclaiming death can be seen until November 30. Pls contact the venue to arrange a viewing. It’s at Ma’s House & BIPOC Art Studio, a communal art space led by Indigenous artist Jeremy Dennis and based on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation in Southampton. Here are a few images but one truly needs to be immersed in this important exhibit.
frank melville memorial park never disappoints. fall – comforting, mellow <3
we did early voting today and voted for the green party. it’s not on the ballot in ny, but one can fill in the bubble for a write-in vote, and write “jill stein/rudolph ware” in that box. i’m sharing this information for a number of reasons. 1) voting for a genocidaire, a sitting vice president who has greenlit a holocaust to which she continues to be committed (“let me be clear, i will always stand up for israel’s right to defend itself”), is not possible. 2) the electoral system/ politicians will not save us, we will have to do that work ourselves. but a multi-pronged approach has been effective in the history of social activism. 3) the two party system is a joke. it’s a gun-toting, earth-poisoning, sadistic, imperialist, one party system that will not stop until it eats itself. if stein gets 130,000 votes in ny, the green party will have ballot access for the next 2 yrs. break the two party system. 4) those who believe in the lesser-of-two-evilism theory, pls stick to facts, not imaginary outcomes. trump did not commit a holocaust of this magnitude – nothing is worse than mass slaughter. if u are worried about immigration, harris is competing with trump to be more xenophobic – a greater lover of militarized borders and walls. if u are concerned about women’s health and reproductive rights, read the lancet: “our colleagues in gaza, local physicians who face the horrors of this large-scale violence daily, report an unprecedented rise in maternal deaths, miscarriages, and stillbirths. the malnutrition that many pregnant women endure only exacerbates these outcomes…” if ur reaction is: “but that’s over there, not here,” pls look into ur stunning ability to otherize non-american, non-white, non-english speaking women. what does that say about your intersectional feminism? 5) american voters seem to opt for style over substance. consider reagan (elevated to the rank of american icon because as an actor, he could play the president quite well), clinton (who could exude southern charm and everyday greasiness while he dismantled welfare, introduced a devastating crime bill and pushed thru NAFTA) or obama (the drone president who dropped 26,000 bombs in 2016 alone and killed a ton of poor people but, hey, he was black and good at speeches). the distaste for trump is partly that – the inability of american liberals to digest his cartoonish presence. 6) i know that the words ‘crossing a red line’ have become meaningless, since so many lines have been breached in gaza. doesn’t change the fact that there should be limits (legal, political, social) to what is considered acceptable or bearable. whether one calls it morality or ethics, whatever the panorama of what one considers good or evil, some rules can never be violated. killing and torturing children, siccing dogs on the elderly and those with disabilities, gang rape, assassinating journalists, doctors and academics, starving 2 million people to death – the list is endless, israeli depravities unimaginable, and biden-harris 100% responsible. register your break from these war crimes and vote for a third party.
not interested in debating. sharing my thoughts with those who care to read.
Yesterday I attended a wonderful event at Stony Brook University: ‘Dissent, Democracy & Higher Education Under Attack’ with Tariq Habash (former DOE employee and first person to resign from Biden administration to protest the US’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza), Rana Jaleel (Associate Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies and Asian American Studies and Chair of the American Association of University Professors’ Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure), Danny Shaw (Latin American & Caribbean Studies Professor & Ethnographer who was doxed, harassed, fired from CUNY, and detained and interrogated by the FBI and DHS for his pro-Palestine activism) and Jonathan Wallace (longtime movement lawyer based in New York doing pro bono work to support faculty and students attacked for their support of Palestinian liberation). Good information about what’s going on and what tools we can use to resist but also a much needed space to feel collective power and solidarity. Congrats to the organizers
Two pro-genocide Z…… at the entrance passing out sheets of paper. I grabbed the sheet instinctively as it was aggressively handed to me but then I asked what it was. “More information so u can learn both sides of the story.” I gave it back and said no thanks. “It’s just so you have all the data” to which I replied I had all the data already. Then a pin to end all hate. “All hate,” they repeated. Reminded me of the Levine Center to End Hate in Rochester, NY, which is an extension of the Jewish Federation and uses this meaningless language (similar to All Lives Matter) to enter activist spaces and have known activists (many of them POCs) on their board. I said no thanks and walked in. We don’t have to engage just to be polite.
it’s been a busy weekend. with the premiere of ‘being black in america’ by @voicesproj @jackiephotographyroc at the voices rising film festival @lovewinsfilms in islip on saturday and a lovely get together/lunch at our house followed by a walk at the beach with our rochester fam on sunday. so good to see u @jackiemcgriff @bycocoarae and @taurussavant
it’s been a busy weekend. a dholki on friday and a beautiful shaadi on saturday – the kind of wedding where everything is planned to perfection and the bride and groom’s love for each other seems to fill the air with poetry
