Category: misc/personal

My workouts

wanted to give a shout-out to my trainer Julie Zobel. with all the changes in my life – leaving a community that’s home to me, trying to settle in long island in the midst of a pandemic, being in a small space with all the books/objects that provide continuity, familiarity stored elsewhere, getting used to a different rhythm, pace, place, people and accent (!!!) – the one thing i’ve counted on are my workouts. we do them in a smallish space in my bedroom, but they’re still challenging, designed for me specifically, and never boring. all i use is a mat.

i trained with julie at a gym for a long time, and the transition to virtual workouts has been seamless.

it’s safer to exercise at home. message Julie Zobel to get more info.

Nothing we do is unplaced

Whatever is true for space and time, this much is true for place: we are immersed in it and could not do without it. To be at all—to exist in any way— is to be somewhere, and to be somewhere is to be in some kind of place. Place is as requisite as the air we breathe, the ground on which we stand, the bodies we have. We are surrounded by places. We walk over and through them. We live in places, relate to others in them, die in them. Nothing we do is unplaced.

Human development professor dies following brief illness

two year ago, in november 2018, i was invited to screen ‘a thin wall’ at a conference on ‘weaponizing people: militarization and armed conflict in asia’ at SUNY Binghamton. lubna chaudhry was one of the organizers and my primary contact there. she invited me to a literary evening the night before the screening, where i met the brilliant Shane Carreon. we all went out to dinner at a wonderful thai place afterwards. she was kind and generous but a strong presence in that space. i could feel it. she was loved by her students. that too was obvious. originally from pakistan. only 54. may she rest in power.

“I admired Lubna as a scholar, but her activism inspired me,” Denise Yull said. “Lubna was a founding member of FARAB, a faculty collective composed of people of color from across the University who assembled to protest a climate of racism and indifference experienced by both students and faculty of color at Binghamton University. Lubna stood at the frontline against racial injustice at [BU], standing shoulder to shoulder with students and faculty of color. To honor Lubna, we have to continue standing up against systemic racism.” More here.