50

Passing: An Elegy in VIII Parts

As a child, you hate sticking out the way you do: weird house, weird family, weird language. But your father calls you a princess, claims his uncle had sworn to royal blood even on his dying day. Regardless of …

Tohid

50, Art by Anonymous

I’ve been scrolling through twitter for hours, watching my countries revolution through social media. It’s overwhelming. Can I hope? Hope has led to heartbreak so many times. I see an image of a man in Tehran holding a sign reading …

Testing a Pattern / Replicas / Swim, Swam, Swum

50, Poetry by Jenny Sadre-Orafai

Testing a Pattern

I’ve watched someone who needed air
pitch a loose fist through her own window.
It was the second time I watched her die.

My mouth is a window open.

I hang heavy toile curtains—a scene
of a …

Hoss Kojast

50, Art by Parisa Karami

ARTIST’S STATEMENT This is a story of disappearances that cannot be assimilated. Even though the Iranian diaspora of the 1980s had managed an escape, for the majority it was not a great escape. We were largely upper middle class families …

lost in her hair (monday)

50, Art by Pegah Pasalar

My childhood was marked by documentations of a lot of firsts. My family, sharing my aunt’s lone mini-DV camcorder among their whole big group, has decided what the pivotal moments to be captured for me were. I have often asked …

Whisper My Name / 9,272.70 Miles

50, Art by Azin Seraj

Whisper My Name (2009)

Embracing the element of chance and offering symbolic interpretation, this video is a visual diary of an artist’s journey back to her childhood school in Dehkadeh, Iran. The empty rooms and their decayed elements resonate with …