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A Different Path by Jocelyn M. Ajami Tomorrow I may become something else. I view ethnicity as a work- in- progress. Click to read Essay Profile of Author Bio of Author from ETG Essay, Late-breaking Developments Author's Comment on the ETG Experience Updated Bio Click to Purchase Send email to the author (The copyright on this essay is held by the author.  For permission to duplicate: copyright@cunepress.com)

A Different Path
According to the Tao Te Ching, "a good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving." When people look at me they are convinced that I am Italian, Greek, or even Romanian. Actually, I was born in Caracas, Venezuela of Arab parents, who were both Christian. I attended a strict Catholic school where I was surrounded by cheerful nuns. I thought of myself as Latin American until I was a teenager and realized that hummus and caraotas con arroz (black beans and rice) were not part of the same cultural banquet. I now think of myself as Hispanic, Arab, North American. Tomorrow I may become something else. I view ethnicity as a work-in-progress.

I ended up in Boston by a quirk of fate and it is here, in my most recent hometown, that I discovered Islam. I am not Muslim, but through my studies of Moorish architecture I developed a cultural appetite for all things "Islamic." My religious views, however, come from a totally different source. Growing up Catholic, I had a wonderful brush with Christianity and no reason to rebel. But I have always been spiritually greedy, and so the all-inclusiveness of the Tao Te Ching drew me to it because it accommodates all religious paths. Through the Tao, I could more deeply explore the wonders of Islam, particularly the unique aesthetic of Islamic geometric art which has influenced my own notion of abstraction. Much of my work as a painter and as a filmmaker is devoted to exposing the stereotypes of Islam in the Western press while communicating its tenets. As a writer, I take courage from the prophet’s own words: "The ink of the scholar is more precious than the blood of the martyr."

Profile
I met Jocelyn M. Ajami in 1989 at Dave’s Cafe, on Newbury Street in Boston’s Back Bay. I had just moved from Nantucket where I had spent three years gathering myself and writing fiction. The move to Boston meant a return to a business lifestyle, and I was craving the conversation of artists and writers, so accessible to me on Nantucket.

Dave’s was a small, street-side cafe, and I overheard Jocelyn talking: "The painting I’m doing is just killing me." She looked great, so I said, "Hello."

I found that, like myself, Jocelyn is an inveterate "cafeist." She finds inspiration and interchange at cafes, creative differences, and cross-fertilization. Whether she juxtaposes glass and rope in a painting, or documents on video a village where Jews and Arabs invent a way of life together, Jocelyn employs her artist’s sensibility.

Now, in 1996, Dave’s has been replaced by a Sushi bar, but Jocelyn and I remain great friends. She is still killing herself over the next project, and she still looks great.

—William J. Martin

Bio
Jocelyn M. Ajami
Place of residence: Boston.
Day jobs: Painter. Filmmaker. Teacher.
Education: B.A. in French. M.A. in studio art and art history.
Serial publication: Aramco—essays.
Awards: Leadership Foundation Fellowship, from the International Women’s Forum. Merit Finalist Award, Houston International Film Festival, for Oasis. Honorable mention, American Film and Video Festival, for Jihad.
Current project: Gypsy Heart—a film on flamenco dance.
Favorite book: Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu.
Belief: Taoist.
Craving: Bread, bread, bread.

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