About Me — Maryam Ismail
I guess you can tell from my picture that I am …… fill in the blanks. It’s ok, I don’t mind. Now, let me tell you the real deal.
I didn’t drink coffee until I was 26 years old and I’m a mother of two girls and two boys, I love all things Turkish, some things Arabic, give me any language and I will try it.
Oh, and, I am Muslim, all day ev’ry day.
Also, I am a journalist and used to write for the National Newspaper in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, you can read my 60 articles there also, at the Khaleej Times, the Clarion, out of Hyderabad, India. I get around.
No. I am not Arab. I am African American, born and raised from Newark, New Jersey. My family has three centuries of history in the United States.
I have a MA in Sociology and Historical studies from the Graduate Faculty at the New School, formally, the New School for Social Research. There, I had the privilege of working with a group of stellar scholars.
Please standby, for some showoffy, name dropping.
Without this group of thinkers, I probably wouldn’t be writing this About me.
It was Terry Williams, esteemed urban sociologist, who first coined the term Hip Hop culture and who always said me, “You gotta write this stuff down,” during our chats.
I also made one special friend, the renowned scholar, E. J. Hobsbawm. Yes, that Hobsbawm. He was a living, breathing, encyclopedia of knowledge and so lovely, there are no words to describe how much I love him. He was like my grandpa, he was my motivation and my inspiration.
The New School, also taught me, that being a mom, and a professional was definitely doable. There was mom of four, Janet Abu Lughod, who wrote a thousand year history of Cairo, and Diane Davis, who at the time, had a newborn, yet, still managed to teach us and do research.
I was awarded Diamond Fellowship and spent a summer, doing and ethnography on the Father Divine Peace Mission Movement, in Philadelphia. I studied the community’s history, lifestyle, habits, and mores. It was fun and a bit creepy.
Tripping the Light Fantastic
After graduating, I moved from New Jersey, to Turkey. My friends, were in shock and said to me, “Only Maya Angelou does this.”
Still. I left and never looked back.
I packed and mailed books to my new job’s address. The rest, I stuffed in four red-white-and-blue plastic laundry bags and got on a plane. Of course, I dragged my son with me.
Silly me, I had no clue they’d just had a military coup the year before; so, I lived through a sort of chaotic, quiet, terror. It was very much 1984 like.
After a devastating earthquake, I ran outta there. Windows popping and floors that feel like waterbeds, worked my nerves too much. I then moved to the UAE aka Dubai, and have been there since.
I write, instead of shouting and throwing things.
Back in 2003, I read an article in my local paper celebrating the defeat of something called a latte tax, aimed at providing money for daycare afterschool programs. As a former public school teacher, I’ve seen how kids and their families suffered from the lack of these services; so I had to tell the world how depriving them a few cents per cup was wrong.
As a result, I became a freelancer writing op-eds and columns for the Khaleej Times in Dubai and The National in Abu Dhabi. I did that for almost ten years. Then, I had to get serious with homeschooling and get my kids ready for university.
Of course, I still itched to write, so, I re-started my Medium page. I had one many versions ago, when it was okay to have a few typos and rant. Now, it’s all fancy, schmancy, which is great.
What else? Uhm, oh yeah. At the moment I am writing about Black life, Islam, Culture and Society and and random poem now and then.
You can read my work on my page and at these publications: Illumination, Writers and Editors of Color, Coffee Times, Art Tales, and others.
Pop over and check me out.
Wanna know anything else?
Just ask.
