Hive! It’s been awhile. I’ve longed to get to a night that my life feels together enough that I could write without putting out one of many fires. I’ve often said that my ability to consistently blog on Hive is a reflection of where I’m at in the stability and wellness of my life because when I’m writing, I’m typically happy. It’s been a terrible two years — like, rock bottom, but I’m proud of my resilience and ability to claw out of even the darkest of holes. The Minnesota winter is all but gone and I’m facing a lot of optimism for where my story goes now. I’ve been wanting to do a magnum opus freewrite but for the time being, this’ll have a quick summary of the hits.
Where to begin? Almost a year ago I converted to Isalm. This was the best decision of my life. I was interested in Islam in 2001 but growing up in Scranton, Pennsylvania there wasn’t any Muslims; there certainly wasn’t a mosque. In 2010 when I moved to Minnesota, the first friend I made was a Palestinian Muslim girl named Isra. She told me more about the religion and the truth about the Israeli occupation of Palestine; a very determinative person that, until now, I didn’t realize how much knowing her would shape my life. A couple of weeks ago during my first Ramadan since taking Shahada, I was given the Shireen Abu Akleh award for journalism during an American Muslims for Palestine fundraising event. Surreal and an acknowledgment that goes deeper than anything I can put into words.
Palestine has tirelessly been my life for the last year and a half. Shortly after October 7th, I began working on a zine called Intifada with friends all over the world. The purpose was to introduce people to the broad strokes of the Palestinian struggle and offer a repository of resources to follow and learn from. I did some comic art for the cover and have since done three printings and send over 1000 copies across the world. After a lot of deliberation, I’ve decided I’m doing a second issue of Intifada zine with contributions by my friend Christine, a Palestinian doctor here in the cities, Willy Massay, a nurse that’s gone to Gaza several times during the genocide, and Dr. Maura Finkelstein […niece of prominent anti-Zionist Jew, Norman Finkelstein]. My longtime Lebanese friend, comic artist and guitar player in the hardcore band Pure Terror will also be doing the back over art and I just finished my art for the front cover.
Aside from the activism, I’ve been making gains in kickboxing again. I continued going throughout Ramadan, but it was really tough while fasting. Tonight some of my close friends from the community joined me at The Cellar gym for Muay Thai and it was such a great experience. Over the last year, I’ve lost a lot of friends so having the guys join me was something not to be taken for granted. I’m too old for competitive fighting but Abdullah just bought six floor mats for grappling and sparring at his place and that’s something I’ve desperately missed for over ten years. I can’t wait to get back to my chokes!
Gardening has me so excited! Last year, I was a wreck. I started planting in the spring but I was inconsistent, just trying to make sure my basic mental, emotional and spiritual needs were being met. I couldn’t take care of myself let alone a garden. Now, I feel great. I started all my plants as seeds three weeks ago and they’re just about to go into the raised beds. Also, for the first time, I have asparagus stalks coming up in my perennial garden from seeds I started four years ago! It takes that long before you get asparagus! It seriously feels like such an accomplishment and a reward for believing in a future that has finally come.
Lastly, I’ve been captured by a couple of new coffee shops. Qamaria is a Yemeni coffee shop that opened here in the Twin Cities last year. They’ve been hiring me along with a bunch of other local restaurants to shoot food and menu items. It’s wild to go from shooting dark pinup photography for over 25 years and then switch to matcha lattes and Dubai chocolate but I really like it. I don’t miss pinup at all, honestly. Qahwah House just opened as well. A competitor to Qamaria and I spent the night there sculpting ZBrush and playing God Of War. I have been coming back to Caffetto once or twice a week and man, the wall graffiti never disappoints, lol. Thanks for reading! Hopefully I’ll be back on this regularly now.