dismantling helmut’s designer coffee table…

Sehba Sarwar

Packing and dismantling objects that we have collected for decades is more exhausting than I envisioned. In the past, I have either packed a suitcase and flown, or thrown my belongings in a car and driven – though the last time René and I moved within Houston, we had...

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two random conversations…

The flight that Minal and I take from LAX to Houston Hobby is delayed and lands at two in the morning. After collecting our baggage, we walk out into the steamy night to catch a taxi – I haven’t asked any friends to pick us up in the middle...

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30 Jun, 2016

bumping into art and friends at airports…

Sehba Sarwar
30 Jun, 2016

At Houston’s Hobby Airport, as René, Minal and I walk toward our gate, I catch sight of glass art that has been installed along the tunnel between the gates and security entrance. Fuchsia glass streaked with yellow and purple stands out as sun rays pour through the west. I...

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11 Jun, 2016

my narration of azeb’s story appears in NYT magazine…

11 Jun, 2016

Since I met Azeb in October 2015, I have enjoyed her ability to share stories and make us laugh. Last fall, we sat over several delicious meals at Lucy’s Ethiopian Restaurant as I collected material for a story that appears in the New York Times Magazine’s Lives column: “A...

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29 May, 2016

since 1947…

Sehba Sarwar
29 May, 2016

I’ve been using this aluminum foil for many years. Today, as the box catches light on the kitchen table, I stop chopping onions to stare at the slogan since 1947. I am struck by how reference to that year – 1947 – can have only one meaning for those...

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28 May, 2016

after another storm…

Sehba Sarwar
28 May, 2016

Another storm strikes the city, and many nearby parts of the state receive as many as 16 inches of rain over a two hour period. But in Houston, shortly after sunset, the sun breaks out once the deluge ends. Braving high water, we head toward Uchi’s to celebrate the...

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22 Apr, 2016

can flooding be defined and prevented?

Sehba Sarwar
22 Apr, 2016

Above: a swollen Buffalo Bayou two days after another “100 Year Flood” Four days after another “100 Year Flood” hit Houston, city residents are questioning the definition of 100 Year Floods and 500 Year Floods, especially since flooding occurs every few years. In his 2015 Texas Monthly essay The...

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16 Apr, 2016

a live mural installation…

Sehba Sarwar
16 Apr, 2016

Yesterday I stopped by the University of Houston to witness eL Seed work on his mural installation as part of the Mitchell Center’s CounterCurrent festival. As he worked high above ground, students performed dance in front of the Social Work building. Two years ago when eL Seed flew to...

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11 Mar, 2016

ammunition stores and minal’s project…

Sehba Sarwar
11 Mar, 2016

An ammunition store in Houston’s Oak Forest neighborhood Since I’ve been back in Houston, Minal and three of her classmates have been working on an International Baccalaureate (IB) project called Guns Be Gone. The project is in response to a recently-passed Texas law that allows individuals to openly carry...

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10 Feb, 2016

i am karachi wall project…

Sehba Sarwar
10 Feb, 2016

Two images from a wall created by VASL, a Karachi-based arts collective, for a project called I Am Karachi. The project’s Walls for Peace initiative aims to replace “negative and politically charged graffiti covered walls with visual images and messages that illustrate positive values such as peace, tolerance and...

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06 Feb, 2016

karachi literature festival…

Sehba Sarwar
06 Feb, 2016

Borderlines panel – participants from left to right: moderator Ghazi Salahuddin, Sehba Sarwar, Noor Zaheer, Naila Mahmood, and Tehmina Ahmed; photo by Akbar Baloch Back in 2010, I participated in the first Karachi Literature Festival (KLF), and this year, I am back for the seventh annual festival that has...

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30 Dec, 2015

exploring los angeles…

Sehba Sarwar
30 Dec, 2015

Watts Towers; photo by Minal René, Minal and I make a trek to Watts, one of LA’s oldest neighborhoods, where we manage to catch sunset at Watts Towers (Simon Rodia, the artist who created the structure, called the work “Nuestro Pueblo”). Though the towers are lower than they appear...

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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.