25 Jun, 2017

chand raat in little bangladesh…

25 Jun, 2017

My friend’s daughter getting her hand decorated with mehndi/henna on Chand Raat On Chand Raat, I team up with my friend Shaista, and we drive our daughters to Virgil Middle School in Los Angeles’ Little Bangladesh in east Hollywood. Though we arrive after 9:30 pm, the courtyard is packed...

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22 Jun, 2017

reconnecting circles in a backyard…

Sehba Sarwar
22 Jun, 2017

November 2009: Audience members in my Houston backyard at a production I created, Honoring Dissent/Descent, to honor my father Dr. Mohammad Sarwar, and living activist Daniel Bustamante; photo by Eric Hester A decade ago, I met Lauren Eggert-Crowe in Atlanta at the Association for Writers and Writing Programs (AWP)...

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18 Jun, 2017

cricket in pasadena, california…

Sehba Sarwar
18 Jun, 2017

Each Saturday, I walk past soccer and baseball fields to reach the nearby farmer’s market. This morning, as I cross the main road and enter the park, I stop in my tracks. In the field where children usually practice baseball, I see a sight that I haven’t encountered in...

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07 May, 2017

assumptions…

07 May, 2017

I stand in the security line at Houston’s Hobby Airport behind a desi man, who is shorter than I am and wears glasses. As always, people are trying to move through security lines as quickly as possible. A guard tries to expedite the process by guiding passengers to different...

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04 May, 2017

borderlines book launch…

Seaba Sarwar
04 May, 2017

photo by Jimmy Castillo I spend a fleeting two days in Houston to kick off Voices Breaking Boundaries’ latest publication, Borderlines Volume Three. The publication, co-edited by Margot Backus PhD and Maria Gonzalez PhD and designed by Joshua Turner, contains essays, poems, interviews, and visual art by contributors along...

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27 Apr, 2017

finding refuge in a garden…

Sehbar Sarwar
27 Apr, 2017

foliage at the The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens’ front entrance   This week, I camped out at Huntington Garden’s café to complete a short story. To take a break, I strolled in the gardens, inhaling fragrance from the rose garden and savoring the foliage.   26...

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05 Apr, 2017

patti smith: use your voice!

Sehba Sarwar
05 Apr, 2017

2010: Patti Smith with me at KPFT Pacifica Radio 90.1 FM; photo by Burnell McCray. Listen to interview here “I was on my way to Australia,” Patti Smith tells her fans, assembled at Los Angeles’ Teregram club. “And I thought, why not stop in LA? I hate long flights.”...

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03 Apr, 2017

food truck galore…

Sehba Sarwar
03 Apr, 2017

smorgusburg print on a wooden table Today, we meandered into downtown LA to explore Smorgasburg, an initiative that sprung up last summer. Since then, every Sunday, gourmet restaurants park their food trucks in a warehouse parking lot, offering an array of dishes including paratha-tacos, drunken noodles, gourmet pizza, ice-cream,...

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27 Mar, 2017

no borders, no walls….

Sehbar Sarwar
27 Mar, 2017

a fence dividing two nations To celebrate spring break, the family and I drive down the coastline to visit San Diego. On our last morning, we dip down to San Ysidro to catch a glimpse of the US-Mexico fence behind which lurks Tijuana. Around us, men and women of...

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28 Feb, 2017

the movement, a mural and a tent…

Sehbar Sarwar
28 Feb, 2017

a mural in front of Los Angeles’ Greyhound Station Almost a week has passed since the last round of protesters at Standing Rock were pushed out or arrested. The Guardian reports: “Amid the anger and sadness over the eviction of the camp, however, water protectors expressed determination to keep...

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19 Feb, 2017

all in a day…

Sehbar Sarwar
19 Feb, 2017

“That’s Andy Warhol’s Rolls Royce,” says a man at the entrance, pointing to the burgundy 1974 Rolls Royce with a New York license plate reading “WARHOL” that greets visitors upon entering the Revolver gallery in Santa Monica. As we talk, I learn that I’m talking to Ron Rivlin an...

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12 Feb, 2017

the invasion of plastic…

Sehbar Sarwar
12 Feb, 2017

Today, before heading out to Karachi Literature Festival at the Beach Luxury Hotel, filmmaker Tehmina Ahmed and I carve out time to visit Khajoor Bazaar. Located in old Karachi, the bazaar offers walking lanes lined with open stalls selling dates from around Pakistan as well as imported from the...

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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.