The Hye-Phen

made with love ⟩⟩ for a better digital / queer / armenian / future ֍

Azadouhi & Azad

by | Sep 12, 2022 | Multimedia

Raised in San Francisco, California (aka The Ohlone Territory of Turtle Island), I support my artmaking by working as a bookkeeper. Two of my grandparents were Armenian. My grandfather was born in Palestine where his family lived for centuries. My grandmother was born in Palestine where her parents arrived as Genocide survivors from Zeytoun in the Ottoman Empire. In addition to my creative decolonizing I have my IRL decolonizing in Berkeley (The Lalime Ohlone Transfer Project on facebook and instagram). This is an example of how to decolonize our neighborhoods, even if it's one lot at a time.

As an Armenian Palestinian born and raised in California, I am striving for large scale decolonization. Like the Ottomans destroyed my family’s Armenian town and the Israelis demolished my family’s Palestinian village, the Native Americans right here have had their land desecrated with the same violent force. No more. I’ve aligned with the Ohlone land protectors, and we demand rematriation.

Azadouhi & Azad, like me, are still processing. We live in a settler society. We are refugees but with many privileges. Is there anything we can do? The answer is yes, there’s a lot.

To learn more about how we can decolonize our neighborhoods ourselves and together we just need to look around. Pay your Shuumi Land Tax, or ask your Sugar Zaddy to pay it for you. Listen to Ohlone leader Corrina Gould speak with Palestinian activist Lara Kiswani about antiimperialism on youtube. Read The Red Deal on The Red Nation’s website. And if you want more homework entertainment, just ask.

Noura Erakat spoke at Berkeley City College in the autumn of 2019. She thanked Angela Davis, sitting in the front row, for fueling their amalgamations of Black-Palestinian Solidarity toward human rights. Noura also asked for help, and placed a call for us to envision a decolonized future. Like writers who’ve written in Afro futuristic and Indigenous fantastic styles, may we design an unsettling SWANA future beside them.

Y’allah

Fylysteen
Raised in San Francisco, California (aka The Ohlone Territory of Turtle Island), I support my artmaking by working as a bookkeeper. Two of my grandparents were Armenian. My grandfather was born in Palestine where his family lived for centuries. My grandmother was born in Palestine where her parents arrived as Genocide survivors from Zeytoun in the Ottoman Empire. In addition to my creative decolonizing I have my IRL decolonizing in Berkeley (The Lalime Ohlone Transfer Project on facebook and instagram). This is an example of how to decolonize our neighborhoods, even if it's one lot at a time.