"What do you keep when you go?" is a testament to the impact of history on the future. The images across the work are of seven generations of my matrilineal line— me, my mom, my grandmother, my great grandmother, my great great grandmother, my great great great grandmother, and my great great great great grandmother. The arrangement of the photographs overlaps faces and features from these seven women, demonstrating the strength of influence across so many generations.

The question, "What do you keep when you go?," alludes to many things—homeland, migration, death, faith— that were experienced in states of transition. With each generation, comforts of safety, education, equality, and agency are expanded upon but the realities of the past continue to impact the future.

I grew up on stories of my great great grandmother's rose water farm in Iran, my great grandmother's perfect cooking in Yemen, my grandmother's schooling in England, my mom's time working in Peru and Kenya. These vastly different lives come from a willingness to transition and a recognition that despite the difficulties that might follow, change happens for the better.

My family has not been able to go back to Iran since the revolution in the 1970s but through the distance, we have retained components of the culture, while transforming them in assimilation and the expansion of choice. The stylization of the text follows that cultural hybridity— the bottom line is legible if you speak and read Persian, the middle line is legible if you speak and read English, but the top line is only legible if you speak and read both languages, as it's written in English using the Persian alphabet. The blue is that of a rare stone found in Yemen. My mom and grandmother wear rings of that stone engraved with a symbol of the Baha'i Faith.

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