Tag: palestine

by jad

Japan Trip: Palestine at the Expo

I must say I was very pleasantly surprised to see Palestine represented in one of the Common Halls at @expo2025japan. So much so that I didn’t really absorb how sad and spartan the booth was until I looked at my photos later. The space looks like a placeholder, making the surreality of this mega-event almost two years into a g—de even more poignant. I was swept up in the energy of the event and didn’t stop to reflect on that on the day. I was just so happy to see this flag in that space, with so many interested looking visitors … Continue reading “Japan Trip: Palestine at the Expo” →

by jad

There is No Lifeguard on Duty

“The unconscious comes before the conscious. The logic of the historic process comes before the subjective logic of the human beings who participate in the historic process.” (Rosa Luxemburg) The small sign nestled in the “FREE PALESTINE” graffiti says “no lifeguard on duty,” which, I think, is evocative of an amorphous mood many of us are feeling today; the world is spinning off its axis with decades compressed into mere weeks in true ‘Lenin Lives!’ form (these being the final days of V.I.’s centennial), and a lot of us are feeling seasick. What are we to make of it all? … Continue reading “There is No Lifeguard on Duty” →

by jad

The Horse is Dead

Whatever was on the lake,Will wash up on the shore. Too many people will have too much to say today. I was pretty sure I’d say nothing. What more is there to say, anyway? What more can be said that hasn’t already been said? The horse is dead. The horse stinks to high heaven. No one is changing their mind today. I doubt anyone’s changing their mind again. But I had to go out for a walk to keep from doom scrolling. I brought my camera with me and took these photos. I had my headphones on too; this song … Continue reading “The Horse is Dead” →

by jad

Spooky Season

It’s Holga Week, a time to celebrate crappy optics at the very worst time of year, when days are short, and light is in short supply. Isn’t tradition fun? It’s very much an exercise in film photography, but I’ve enjoyed using my Holga Lens for digital cameras in years past as well, because why not? I wouldn’t say I’m enjoying it this year. In fact, I hate it, and that’s a good thing, because there’s a lot of hatred in my heart right now. Maybe that’s coming through. Maybe these frames are as ugly as I’m feeling. Every day I … Continue reading “Spooky Season” →

by jad

Never Again for Anyone

I took this double-exposure to see if I could make a visual point about an invisible reality in the spaces I now inhabit. I think it came through. This house is one of the many dozens in this neighborhood that used to be governed by racially restricted covenants; whole blocks were redlined here, barring blacks, “asiatics,” and sometimes even “hebrews” from moving in. Some of these covenants were in place as late as the 1960s. And that’s just the topsoil of a much deeper palimpsest of dispossession in this land. Our politics today are just the latest superimposition. I’ve been … Continue reading “Never Again for Anyone” →

by jad

I Confess that Nothing was Planned

I wrote something before I went to the rally for Lebanon on Broadway. I described how a lot of people were asking me variations of a question: how are you? And when I showed up, I was still in that headspace. The one where I’d replied in the best way I could. Honestly, concisely, with equal-parts appreciation and reserve. I went to the protest out of a sense of duty, but I was feeling burnt out, and it was probably showing in my photography. I’d admitted that I’d been copy-pasting a few replies. I tried to be genuine without over-performing … Continue reading “I Confess that Nothing was Planned” →

by jad

I Am Grief

These double-exposures came about by reloading the roll that got stuck when my Ricoh point and shoot stopped working into a Nikon SLR; the frames clearly didn’t align properly, and the original frames were somehow flipped. No matter. These work well in visualizing my deep dislocation being here while Lebanon’s under attack. It’s a heavy, jumbled up feeling, but — irony of ironies — it’s far from unfamiliar. This slow, rolling rumble of indignation; I’ve felt it before. This gnaw of fear; I’m used to the feeling. These pangs of guilt; they’re always there. It’s all second nature, at this … Continue reading “I Am Grief” →

by jad

Where Gaza Goes…

We found ourselves hanging out with Dr. Jill Stein, Prof. Butch Ware, and some two dozen or more Greens and other Stein-Ware supporters in the Secret Garden at Pike Place today. Their visit was very last minute and motivated by the machinist strike at Boeing, so it was a super low-key opportunity to connect with the campaign. I’ve only been a citizen of this Empire for two years, and I use those words carefully; I am a citizen here the way that St. Paul was a citizen of Rome. I exercise my rights and privileges as an act of defiance. … Continue reading “Where Gaza Goes…” →

by jad

Costa Rica: Day 1

We have a very long layover in Dallas after a sleepless red eye, so here I posting digi-captures on the airport Wi-Fi while Christine takes a cat nap next to me. Someone on the PA keeps inviting us to a prayer service in the chapel by Gate D40. I saw someone in a Trump-Vance t-shirt. Airport ethnography is fun. I left my higher-res digital camera at home to force myself to take more with film on this trip. But I do enjoy having this Powershot on me; I’m literally posting these shots while sitting across the same window in the … Continue reading “Costa Rica: Day 1” →

by jad

Folklife 2024

It’s difficult to be cynical about post-Expo spaces like the Seattle Center when they’re so successfully integrated in and activated by the urban fabric, especially when you compare them to the legacies of Expos like Montreal’s. And Folklife itself is an admittedly impressive enmeshment of the very best of Northwest granola culture with the most humanizing of atomic age modernism. I almost can’t stand admitting this. It’s hard to believe that this thing has been going on for 53 years. And this was my first time here. It was especially impressive to me how formally Folklife embraced the Palestinian cause. … Continue reading “Folklife 2024” →