29 Dec, 2015

braving the lines…

Sehba Sarwar
29 Dec, 2015

On our second day in Los Angeles, René, Minal and I wake up early, so we can get to Disneyland before a crowd builds up. However, the battle to enter the amusement park without struggle is a lost cause. We have long waits at the entrance tunnel, at the...

Read more
05 Dec, 2015

another conversation…

05 Dec, 2015

As the bank teller processes my check, she asks: “You have a show tomorrow, don’t you?” I look up from my phone, noticing her face for the first time. “Yes. We do. Are you on VBB’s mailing list?” She nods. “I came to the show you did on the...

Read more
03 Dec, 2015

a feast…

03 Dec, 2015

Today, I finally eat lunch at Lucy’s Ethiopian Restaurant, and I understand why I have heard so many rave reviews. The two platters I share with a friend contain four different kinds of meats and four different vegetables, accompanied by injera. Each bite is delicious.

Read more
22 Nov, 2015

sharing stories with each other and a larger public…

22 Nov, 2015

installation of blog interviews with Zeba Shah and Shireen Hermann Last month, I led a storytelling workshop for women, where we talked, ate, and shared narratives about issues of displacement, the state of being transnational, and the loss one faces when attempting to come to terms with being in-between....

Read more
21 Nov, 2015

cycles of violence…

21 Nov, 2015

Once again, just a week after the bombings in Lebanon and Paris, the anti-refugee and anti-Muslim hype in Europe and the US is escalating. In the meantime, Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! radio show announced the premier of a new documentary, Drone, and she interviewed four US army veterans who...

Read more
10 Nov, 2015

rituals…

Sehba Sarwar
10 Nov, 2015

Oskar and René at TC drag show When I first told Minal that our friends Oskar and René were getting married and that Oskar invited me to serve as his Best Wo-Man, her first response was: “What’s the big deal?” I had to spell it out to her that...

Read more
07 Nov, 2015

a passing conversation…

07 Nov, 2015

I don’t go to Home Depot very often, but I dropped by today to exchange a toilet seat. As the woman behind the counter processed my exchange, she threw out a comment to another woman working behind her: “I heard they closed down Planned Parenthood!” “Really?” responded the other...

Read more
27 Oct, 2015

a bachelor party..

Sehba Sarwar
27 Oct, 2015

MC Alexis Nicole Whitney Despite my years of being entrenched in Houston’s Montrose neighborhood, I’ve never attended a drag show. But last night – even as I received flash flood alerts – a small group of us assembled at our friend Jaspal’s Montrose home, for a bachelor party that...

Read more
08 Sep, 2015

transported…

Sehba Sarwar
08 Sep, 2015

Yesterday, my mother, Minal and I drove to my friend Yaksha’s house where more friends joined us. After tea and a short visit, we piled into two cars to head toward BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, so we could experience a new space. Once we parked and began walking along...

Read more
31 Aug, 2015

Minal-ism…

31 Aug, 2015

As we drive to school, Minal, who will be 11 in just a few weeks, says to me: “Children are more honest and peaceful than grown-ups.” “What do you mean?” I ask. “Children are honest. If they do something wrong, they own up to what they did, and they...

Read more
04 Aug, 2015

cadillac ranch…

04 Aug, 2015

On our drive from Santa Fe to Houston, we take a short detour to experience Cadillac Ranch. The cars remind me of Pakistani truck art and Houston’s Orange Show’s annual Art Car Parade crunched into mud.

Read more
03 Jul, 2015

from sydney…

Sehba Sarwar
03 Jul, 2015

Dr. Ruqaiya Hasan, Hong Kong, Feb 2015; photo by Lexie Don When our flight lands in Auckland, I turn on my phone to find messages from my sister, who is in Sydney helping with my aunt’s cancer emergency — informing me that my aunt is in critical condition. Prepare...

Read more

I was inspired to begin my blog when I visited the library at my alma mater, Mount Holyoke College, and saw a framed photograph of my friends and me calling for divestment of funds from South Africa.

In 2007,  I began a blog when I visited my alma mater and saw a framed photograph of my friends and me calling for divestment of funds from South Africa. I use the blog to document my movement between spaces, Houston, Karachi, Delhi, Dhaka, Los Angeles and elsewhere, recording observations, images and conversations. Here, I document the multiple realities that I inhabit – writer, artist, mother, activist, educator, and transnational. Interviews from my blog were exhibited at Houston’s Baker Ripley Community Center (2014) and at Houston Public Library in downtown (2015). My papers are archived at the University of Houston’s library.