Dasht-e-Tanhai (The Desert of my Solitude) by Faiz Ahmed Faiz
Translated from the Urdu and read by Mara Ahmed 
Sound Design by Darien Lamen 
Photograph by Rabah Al Shammary
...
Dasht-e-tanhai main ai jaan-e-jahaan larzaan hai
Teri aavaaz kay saaey, teray honton kay saraab

Dasht-e-tanhai main dooree kay khas-o-khaak talay
Khil rahay hain teray pehloo kay saman or gulaab

Uth rahee hai kaheen qurbat say teri saans kee aanch
Apnee khushboo main sulagti hooee madham madham

Door ufaq paar chamaktee hooee qatra qatra
Gir rahee hai teri dildaar nazar kee shabnam

Is qadar payaar say ai jaan-e-jahaan rakha hai
Dil kay rukhsaar pay is waqt teri yaad nain haath

Yoon gumaan hota hai gerchay hai abhee subh-e-firaaq
Dhal gaya hijr ka din aa bhi gaee wasl ki raat.

…
In the desert of my solitude, my love, quiver
the shadows of your voice,
the mirage of your lips

In the desert of my solitude,
from the arid dust of our parting,
bloom the jasmine, the roses of your touch

From somewhere nearby
rises the warmth of your breath
it smolders in its own perfume – gently, languorously

Far away, on the horizon, glistens
drop by drop,
the dew of your beguiling glance

With such tenderness, my love,
your memory has placed its hand
on the contours of my heart

Even though this is the dawn of our farewell,
it feels like the sun has set on our separation
and the night of our union is at hand

Dasht-e-Tanhai (The Desert of my Solitude)

Black Agenda Radio for Week of March 27, 2017
U.S. Becomes Ungovernable, Elites Blame it on Russians
U.S. rulers are experiencing a “crisis of political governance, a meltdown of the political system,” due to the “collapse of the parties of the duopoly,” said Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the Philadelphia-based Duboisian scholar. The policies and practice of both parties “became antagonistic to the minimal expectations of the masses. ”The elite didn’t see it coming,” said Monteiro. “In order to reestablish their legitimacy, they have to say that the Russians hacked the election and are threatening western ‘democracy,’ itself.” The real crisis is “their inability to govern the country.”
Washington’s “Humanitarian” Military Doctrine Based on a Lie
It is a crime in Rwanda to point out that Hutus were massacred by Tutsis, as well as the reverse, during the bloodbath of 1994, or even to refer to the events as the “Rwandan genocide,” explained Ann Garrison, an Oakland, California-based journalist and frequent contributor to Black Agenda Report. The United States backs the regime’s narrative, that it was a one-sided genocide against Tutsis, because “the ideological infrastructure of ‘humanitarian war’ is that” the U.S. failed to intervene in Rwanda, and “therefore we have to bomb Syria, Libya, etc,” said Garrison. However, the U.S. did intervene in Rwanda in 1994 -- to prevent international efforts to halt the violence, in order to insure that the U.S. favorite, the Tutsi warlord Paul Kagame, would win the war.
“There is a Storm a’Coming: Repression Breeds Revolutionary Resistance”
That’s the title of an essay by Khalfani Malik Khaldun, published by Prison Radio. Khaldun is an inmate of Wabash Valley prison in southern Indiana, and an activist in the prison abolition movement. “The condition of imprisonment is tantamount to enslavement,” he writes. “When prison crafts start walking off their jobs, or refuse to be agents of prison exploitation, the movement is winning. When we can improve our lines of communication from state prison to federal prison, to move as one, we are winning.” And, “when social media can be taken advantage of to promote a prison wide national protest, we are winning.”
Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:00am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.

Black Agenda Radio 20170327

Produced for WXIR 100.9 FM Rochester, NY.
Sapato Novo debuted in Rochester February 10, 2019. I sat with with the band to discuss their first performance.

Sapato Novo - A Night of Brazilian Music

Produced for WXIR 100.9 FM Rochester, NY 
An afternoon at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center with Artist Cory Card. His exhibit, "Sweepings", runs February 1st, 2019 to March 16th, 2019. Link below.
http://www.rochestercontemporary.org/exhibitions/sweepings-by-cory-card/

"Sweepings" - Exploring Detritus with Cory Card

Produced for WXIR 100.9 FM Rochester, NY.
For the next two months, Art Blooms with be focusing on Current Seen, the small-venue biennial. To kick off the series, I sat with Bleu Cease, Executive Director of the Rochester Contemporary Art Center and Lead Organizer of Current Seen, to get an overview of the project and some of the exhibitions featured.

Current Seen: Chapter 1 - An Overview of Rochester's Art Biennial

Produced for WXIR 100.9 FM Rochester, NY.
An old movie theater has become a venue for thought-provoking public art. The project currently on display was pieced together by two local professors.

D(ov)etail: Pieces of the Past Bring Life to an Abandoned Theater

Produced for WXIR 100.9 FM Rochester, NY.
A multilingual audio project redefines the boundaries of archival work and aims to balance the narrative. This project launches March 4th in partnership with the Rochester Contemporary Art Center. I spoke with the project’s curator to find out more.
Original Air Date: 02/26/2021

"The Warp and Weft" Weaves Stories Reflecting on an Unprecedented Year

Reclaiming the Narrative began in 2018 as a weekly news radio program produced by community journalists for WXIR 100.9 FM and rebroadcast on WAYO 104.3 in Rochester NY. We cover the stories, movements, and events that matter to local urban communities, while also providing training and experience for grassroots journalists.

Visit our website at reclaimingthenarrative.org
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Dasht-e-Tanhai (The Desert of my Solitude)

Reclaiming the Narrative

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