breakfast at amberly’s eatery this morning with friends doing wonderful things in the world (love u debora, amanda and rachel), color grading and post production on my new film with the brilliant rajesh (we forgot to take a picture), and then dinner in pittsford with more beautiful friends <3
akimbo bookshop’s soft opening at 714 university ave (its new location) today. so proud of my dear friend rachel and the spaces and connections she creates in our community. just amazing! went to the opening with my lovely friend roberta. later in the evening, was delighted to attend a dholki for a beautiful young lady. congrats dear mariam, fazeelah, uncle akram and aunty bushra. how i love being in rochester <3
a wonderful memorial service at the university of rochester’s interfaith chapel today, for the larger-than-life professor and human extraordinaire, russell peck. a fitting tribute with reminiscences from his children and colleagues and wonderful music and readings by his grandchildren. meant so much to me to see ruth again after many years and meet some of their family. russell’s love for literature, scholarship, innovation, performance, gardening, nature, and the outdoors, emanated from the beauty and music inside of him, everyone said. he fell in love with ruth and married her in paris, where she was studying at the sorbonne, after he saw her play rachmaninoff. what could be more beautiful. one of his students said, “he saw me.” i think that’s how i feel too. as i sat quietly in their living room waiting for my kids to finish their piano lessons with ruth, year after year, he saw me. he would discuss plays with me. he insisted i join them for their theatre in london course. he also urged me to put a book together with all of my artwork. that thought is still with me. as many said, he knew what u were meant to do, before u knew it yourself. an astounding legacy. thank u russell <3
at @roco137 where i met bleu cease and got to see some of the artwork for ‘as i recall her: artists expand the legacy of the douglass women,’ a visit to erica bryant’s light-filled studio to see more of her work, and then dinner at fiamma centro (in the neighborhood of the arts) with my dear friend sarita arden — best pizza since my time in naples:)
at home in rochester, hanging out with beautiful friends. highland park is gorgeous (as always) and dinner was delicious.
roc fam, i will be in rochester for a few days starting april 27th. it’s been a while so i would love to see u all. pls let me know if u’d like to meet. spot coffee is usually my office where i will be happy to welcome u:) or we can have lunch or go for a walk. looking forward!
it’s difficult to leave pakistan. to leave family and friends and their extraordinary warmth and generosity. people have hard lives in pakistan. it’s not an easy place to navigate or survive. yet it’s saturated with vibrant colors, sounds, textures, tastes, smells, stories, music, poetry, languages, complicated histories, legacies, and constant human contact. the air is filled with this polyphonic mishmash and emotion. it’s something one lives and breathes. returning to the west feels like being stripped of rich human drama, a thick sensorial ether, the full-throated experience of life’s ebb and flow. everything uncluttered, systemized and scrubbed, but lacking soul and connection. antiseptic. oh, i know pakistan can drive one crazy. i know i will get used to the ease and conveniences of the west again. but right now, i feel loss.
at the daachi foundation’s arts & crafts show this morning where my daughter and i wanted to buy everything, tea with uncle zafar, and dinner at good old salt & pepper, still one of my favorite burger joints in lahore.
look who we found at the daachi arts & crafts show in lahore today – my dearest friend abeela from rochester and her sister!!! what are the chances? amazing
yesterday pakistani art at artsoch contemporary and ejaz gallery and then a delicious lunch at cafe beirut in gulberg. we had mutabal (an eggplant dip with a smoky flavor, sprinkled with pomegranate seeds), arayes (grilled pita stuffed with spiced ground beef, onions and parsley, a street food), and om ali, which i fell in love with in oman (it means mother of ali, a traditional egyptian bread pudding, layered with puff pastry, milk, and cream, flavored with rose water and sprinkled with lots of nuts). in the evening i took my parents and daughter to see a play at alhamra. more about that later.
breakfast with the fabulous saira and her mom, tea with junaid bhai and farida apa, dinner with fazilat aunty, and another wonderful dinner with anjum mamoon, fauzia mami and ismail <3
patterns are life <3
badshahi mosque, lahore fort, and lunch at cooco’s den in old lahore with my bacha. the mosque is so beautiful it moved me to tears. commissioned by mughal emperor aurangzeb. built between 1671 and 1673. majestic. grand. but in constant dialogue with its surroundings. every arch a different framing of the mosque and courtyard. the proportions perfection. the artistic taste level divine. breathtaking beauty.
breakfast at sweet affairs with the beautiful aroosha 🙂
breakfast at lahore gymkhana with the amazing anjum (my dear friend from high school), a photo shoot with my daughter, and then high tea with my husband’s nephew hassan and his lovely wife.
