received a warm welcome at the First Unitarian Church of Rochester where i gave a multimedia presentation on ‘islamophobia is racism.’ thank u to Barbara de Leeuw for organizing and to Pamela Kim for introducing me. thank u to all who came out on this cold winter day and added to the discussion.
lovely meeting Rachel Y. DeGuzman today in this beautiful space: woc art collective WOC?Art #rochesterny
with Iman Abid and Allyson Perkins this morning at @starrynitescafe. perhaps my favorite thing about activism is to get to know strong, courageous and brilliant young women who want to change the world and are doing that hard work – it reassures me, for we are in good hands. love u both <3
with these gorgeous ladies. thank u Abeela for a perfect evening of delicious food, warm hospitality and non-stop laughter 🙂
with the beautiful Elisabetta Sanino D’Amanda at Village Bakery & Cafe today – we talked about assimilation into whiteness and the loss of radical left politics, language as a political construction that buttresses ideas of a strong unified nation and subjects languages/dialects from economically marginalized regions to a linguistic/cultural hegemony, and how homes can be living, breathing, organic repositories of memories and histories and dismantling them involves a kind of grieving… such deep rich conversations elisabetta – will miss u amica.
I will be presenting at First Unitarian Church of Rochester on Thursday Feb 6, 7-9 pm. The topic will be ‘Islamophobia is Racism’ (part of the ‘Race, Racism and Relationship’ series at First Unitarian Church).
As white supremacy becomes emboldened in America, overt racism has re-entered civil discourse and there has been a corresponding surge in Islamophobia. The word Islamophobia is used frequently by mainstream media, yet few understand its social construction, historical context, or operation in everyday life.
This interactive, multimedia workshop will help explicate the term, locate it in history, and clarify its overlap with racism. The presentation will be followed by group activities and an open discussion. Thank you Barbara De Leeuw for organizing this before our move. Looking forward.
on a panel with these brilliant friends to talk about art and activism <3
with the fabulous Muna Najib today – we talked about the western binary of emotion vs rationality and whether women could be empowered by means other than sex (made me think of saba mahmood’s work on the women’s mosque movement in cairo) – fascinating stuff 🙂 will miss u habibti.
excited to be on this panel and talk about art and activism, at the University of Rochester on jan 30th. the discussion will be moderated by Missy Pfohl Smith.
with the brilliant Darien Lamen. more farewells, more goodbyes…
thank u Fabeha for ur beautiful hospitality and for inviting so many friends i love – my rochester community <3
with the beautiful Fazeelah Chappell one of my first close friends here in #rochesterny
someone i care about broke my heart this morning. she’s a young woman in her mid thirties, divorced, with young kids. she lives with a boyfriend who seems to be abusive. she works at two jobs to make ends meet. she told me she makes $20,000 a year. she cannot afford to leave her boyfriend. her family doesn’t help. the tears began to flow as she shared all of this with me. how is one supposed to survive on $20,000? what kind of society would think that it’s ok to pay someone such a pittance? the inequality in our country, in our world, is nothing less than gross. those who have, are told they are entitled to it because they are better than others (smarter, more hardworking, more entrepreneurial) but in truth, they were just lucky at some point in their lives (mostly at birth) and might not have been able to hack it under different circumstances. everyone’s work is valuable. it’s what makes our community strong, stimulating, and simply functional. there is no justification for such disparities. this is just one story. there are many worse. we have to do better.
lunch with Johannes Bockwoldt, who’s still struggling to convince me that ‘citizen kane’ is the greatest movie ever. we both like ‘parasite’ though 🙂 saying goodbye to all my dear friends.
the incredible luticha doucette <3
Noelle C. Evans: Luticha Doucette is the equity coordinator at Rochester City Hall. Currently, she’s working on the Race Equity and Leadership Initiative (REAL) for city government. REAL is part of a program with the National League of Cities aimed to address structural racism through policy and civic engagement.
She says that while there are conversations in Rochester around racial equity, like REAL, there isn’t as much visibility for disabilities.
“Disability is often put to the wayside. And you can’t separate the two. I’m not disabled on a Sunday, right? I’m disabled 24/7 just like I’m black 24/7,” she says.
For Doucette, she says a mix of sexism, racism, and ableism — which is discrimination against those with disabilities — put her in a life-threatening situation a few years ago when she was having health complications. More here.
