Feb. 11 Talk + Solo Screening of Video Work at the Highline (NYC) until early March

Bismillah. We begin everything with the name of Allah. We recite Bismillah to initiate an act, acknowledging the intention and ethics that follow.

☺️ Hello!

I. Video Works up at Highline Art + February 11 Event

A more thorough newsletter is in the works, but in the interim, I wanted to share some exciting news: In early January, I opened a solo screening of some of my video works at Highline Art in New York City!

Join me on Wednesday, February 11th, at 6:30 pm for a discussion with Taylor Zakarin. I would love to see you! Get tickets here!

On view are: keeping count, annotated (2021-2023); interlude (2026); and disorganize the spirit, i (2025), which is currently included in my solo exhibition, we leak, we exceed, at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle, Washington. Thank you to UCROSS for providing me the two weeks of quiet, rest, and delicious meals as I finished disorganize the spirit, i (2025).

Stills for disorganize the spirit, i (2025), scored by Th&o. | 00:06:25

Stills for keeping count, annotated (2021-2023), scored by Th&o. | 00:09:38

Stills for interlude (2026), silent | 00:01:05

When I started making video work a few years ago, I did not expect it to consume me. But over a dozen works later, and here I am. I am immensely thankful to my brother, Thando, for the beautiful scores he has produced for my work and all the feedback along the way. Making video and film work feels like a deeply sculptural and spiritual process. I love collaborating with Thando, and one of my greatest joys in the past few months has been tinkering in Premiere Pro and scanning in film. I can lock in for 18 hours editing a 30-second clip, building 72 layers of varying tones, text, and movement. I appreciate the obsessive quality of this. More than anything, I like the process of collecting, sequencing, layering, and folding over time.

II. Quick Check-in

I am writing you from Santa Clarita, the home of the California Institute of the Arts, where I am the inaugural Charles Gaines Faculty Chair through 2027. I am in town for the start of the semester, and I always book the same hotel: a cute, tucked-away spot near the train station and a freeway. I find the sound of mechanical motion really relaxing, and I simply love trains. This was my first time flying in two months, after flying nearly every week through 2025. It was nice to settle back into this routine and learn that, while flying terrifies me because of my near-death experience in 2022 (and because I just started rewatching Lost, Yellowjackets, and diving into Hijack), it also excites me because it is teaching me to sit with turbulence. The flight into Salt Lake City was rough. I made dua, closed my eyes, sat forward, and held steady.

I created an animation of a dancing serif A to calm myself:

I deplanned with considerable pride. It seems like a small thing, but I realized I was not proud of not having a panic attack on the plane; I was proud that I did a body scan, assessed the situation, and regulated. I discussed interoception in my last newsletter and my commitment to slowing down and listening to my bodily cues, rather than being on autopilot and plowing through my feelings. The last few months have been hectic — lots of conflict and uncertainty. I have felt the pangs of anxiety deep in my belly. I have lost hair (she is growing back!). I have sat quietly in a dark room without a solution, but here we are.

Thank you for reading. All the best, always,

Kameelah 👽

Finally, while I don’t organize my finances around paid newsletter subscriptions, wouldn’t it be cool if this little newsletter let me take quarterly self-imposed writing retreats? Consider getting a one-year membership at USD 70 :)

How to cite this newsletter: Rasheed, K. (Year, Month Day). Newsletter Title. I Will (?) Figure This All Out Later. URL