Category: Poiesis

by jad

Welcome to Lebanon

After something like five and a half years and twenty-four hours of travel, I’m back. My luggage isn’t though, so here’s a liminal space for this liminal time as we wait to hear about the fate of half the aircraft’s baggage that also didn’t make it. “We had more solidarity with random strangers in one hour than on most days in Canada,”” said a young traveler to their mother, with admirable optimism. “Welcome to Lebanon,” their mother had told us while we scrambled to figure out what was going on. We laughed and said: “We’re going to hear that a … Continue reading “Welcome to Lebanon” →

by jad

Father of my Father

I woke up to a surprise this morning; my dad had sent me a photo his brother had sent him after their other brother had shown him an old family album that none of us had ever seen. In fact, this is the first time I’ve ever seen my grandfather. It’s fitting and bittersweet to see his face and my dad’s chubby smile today. I’m heading back home for the first time in five years tomorrow—the first time since I arrived here, and the first time since becoming American. It’s fitting and bittersweet because my heritage is as complicated as … Continue reading “Father of my Father” →

by jad

Romanticize Your Errands

According to Instagram, this is the sort of space to be at and be seen in if you’re serious about photography—especially the good stuff i.e. film. It’s also pretty convenient when you’ve got a bunch of heavy duty laundry to do but your building’s dryers are on the fritz. But that’s a bonus. Pros will time this errand for maximum halation effect. see also: x x x x x x x

by jad

Saints in the Mirror

This one killed it last night, and those aren’t even my words; it’s what so many who were there at her “Saints in the Mirror” exhibit have been telling me all day. I know how hard she’s been and still is working on this project, and I couldn’t be prouder. Two of the twelve pieces from @christine.bingham.art‘s “Saints in the Mirror” exhibit at Epiphany yesterday, depicting Sor Juana and Saint Rose of Lima. You should ask Christine about her collaborative process with our cat. I was so happy to see so many of you there to support Christine! It was … Continue reading “Saints in the Mirror” →

by jad

Nuclear Vancouver

We packed a lot into our very short time in Vancouver, but my favorite stop was the opportunity to visit and hang out with atomic photographer, filmmaker, and sole @uraniumfilm festival coordinator in Canada for the 2024 tour, Jesse Andrewartha, in his East Van home. Here we are in his darkroom. And here he is displaying the radioactive properties of his prized slice of polished uranium ore. Let me tell you: that crackling of the Geiger counter is an eerie basement sound! Jesse Andrewartha is a Canadian filmmaker, photographer, and visual effects artist specializing in historical & obscure darkroom techniques … Continue reading “Nuclear Vancouver” →

by jad

Soon it will be Christmas Day

“City sidewalks, busy sidewalksdressed in holiday style.In the air there’sa feeling of Christmas.” I’m going back home for Christmas for the first time in five years. My mother asked if I’d be upset to see our old place decorated; she knows how I’ve been feeling for the past month or so, and even Bethlehem is canceling the festivities. I told her no, quite the opposite. Christmas joy is what keeps my hope alive. The last time the festive season found me this blue-tinged, we were in the depths of the pandemic, and now that feeling always reminds me of this … Continue reading “Soon it will be Christmas Day” →

by jad

Thanksgiving in Canada

Thankful in an Alanis Morissette kind of way to be alive and well in the belly of the beast learning how to make friends with the antibiotics. Thank you terror.Thank you disillusionment.Thank you, thank you silence. We had fun turning our road trip into a deconstructed feast of an extended thanksgiving spread. This was the second bite of esquites after a breakfast of fry bread “mcmuffins” using what was left of a batch that Christine had made with her students for Native American Heritage Month. It’s all so very meta but mostly delish. This trip was mostly an elaborate excuse … Continue reading “Thanksgiving in Canada” →

by jad

Infra-Politics & Photography

The thing about infrastructure is that it never just does what it’s supposedly designed to do. Infrastructure congeals and conceals social interest. It’s “inevitably imbued with biased struggles for social, economic, ecological, and political power to benefit from connecting (more or less) distant times and places” (Graham and Marvin, 2001). In other words, “one person’s infrastructure is another’s difficulty” (Starr, 1999). Highways, dams, and pipelines have always been flashpoints of protest when they displace and disrupt lifeways and communities; they leverage the same logic as that of nuclear “sacrifice zones” – those spectacular feats of dispossession for the national good, … Continue reading “Infra-Politics & Photography” →

by jad

Nuclear History is in the Present Tense

In “By the Bomb’s Early Light,” Paul Boyer writes about the ebbs and flows of nuclear criticism as atomic dreams and radioactive nightmares danced across this nation’s psyche throughout the Cold War. He wrote his book during such a peak and prefaced his second edition with a question about the next peak to come, as the Cold War had been called off by then. In the intervening years, there have been blips of renewed interest, especially around the time of the radioactive catastrophe at Fukushima, but with rising geopolitical tensions and increased climate emergency, it seems like we’re re-entering another … Continue reading “Nuclear History is in the Present Tense” →