My work tackles displacement, migration, and women’s issues, and I am the author of Black Wings (2nd Edition, Veliz Books, 2019). My essays and poems have appeared in publications including Asia: Magazine of Asian Literature, Poetry in English from Pakistan, Callaloo, Creative Time, Poets.org, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, while my short stories have been anthologized by Feminist Press, Akashic Books, and HarperCollins India. I have performed and created site-specific installations in Los Angeles, Houston, Karachi, and other cities.

In 2000, while living in Houston, I founded Voices Breaking Boundaries (VBB), an alternative arts organization that tackled social justice issues at a local and global level, that I directed for 16 years before moving to Los Angeles. I’ve received awards through California Arts Council (2026) the City of Los Angeles’s Independent Master Artist Project grant (2023-24), the City of Pasadena’s Independent Artist grant (2019), Mid-America Arts Alliance’s Artistic Innovations grant (2015) amidst others, and my papers are archived at the University of Houston.

I served as Altadena’s Poet Laureate for Community Affairs (2024-26) and was awarded the Academy of American 2025 Poets Laureate Fellowship.

VISIT BLACK WINGS | MY LA PERFORMANCE | ON BELONGING 

A member of Macondo Writers Workshop and American Leadership Forum, I also co-hosted a weekly show at Houston’s Pacifica Radio Station KPFT 90.1 FM, where I interviewed Houston-based artists as well as international celebrities including Patti Smith.

Klieman’s students interviewed me as well as Voices Breaking Boundaries’ board, participating artists, and community members. Based on research material that Klieman’s students gathered, the University of Houston’s Friends of Women’s Studies acknowledged the impact of my work by creating permanent ongoing archives of my writings and VBB’s history in its Special Collections. The archives feature my artistic career and VBB’s extensive, multi-sensory history, and were made available to the public in fall 2016.