“My name is Iman. I’m fifty-two. I’m a massage therapist.”
“Where are you from?”
“I’m from Philly.”
“Where in Philly?”
“I’m from Germantown.”
“What is the favorite thing you have on right now?”
“Well these because I just bought them today. I love these.” (motions to glasses lanyard around neck)
“The glasses? Or the whole thing?”
“The whole thing. It was a good price. Other than that … lemme see.”
“What’s your current obsession?”
“My obsession for years has been spirituality. I study Buddhism. I was a Muslim for fifteen years. Currently I’m part of a Fusi organization.”
“And then with massage therapy do you get into any … ?”
“I do Thai massage. Very beautiful, spiritual massage.”
“Sounds really good just thinking about it.”
“Yes. Like rocks, and like, nurturing. It’s like — it’s called assisted yoga. So, you don’t have to do the yoga. Somebody does it for you. So it’s kinda nice.”
“Sounds great.”
“Yeah. Sometimes I like to mess with Tibetan cymbals, stuff like that. And uh, this (motions back to the Public Health Center), I just do to keep the roof over my head.”
“When you get dressed in the morning, is there any specific goal when you’re about to put on clothes, and you’re like … how should I, how do I wanna look today … or something like that?”
“Nope. The only goal is to get that bus. (laughs) “That’s the only goal.”
“This is sort of — hold on — I was gonna ask if you have anything to say about SEPTA, but usually I ask do you have anything to say about other Philadelphians and how they look or dress, or things that you like, things that you wish people did or …”
“The only — my favorite city — and after I’ve been a whole lotta other places, cause the places I have been, like New York and Texas… And, you know, it’s not like Philly. And [totally unintelligible due to combined bus noises and wind blowing argh!] … creative people in Philly, and beautiful places, trees, and …”
“Is there a favorite place you want to shout out?”
“The woods. Shout out for the woods. Yeah. Up in Livezey Lane, in the Wissahickon … Kitchens Lane … very beautiful places.”
“Yeah, sometimes I ride up Kelly Drive on the Schuylkill trail…”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, and finally, do you have anything you wanna say to Philadelphia? Or anything you wanna add on top of all this?”
“Hm. No, I just wish that somebody would help all the young people that don’t have mothers and fathers, cause there’s a lot of em in Philly. And I can’t do it all.”
Now if I did my job, you can pick up on some of miss Iman’s calm vibe in her stance and her words, and certainly her dress. Her pin, which says “peace” in Japanese, is what caught my eye at first. Then I stopped for the pattern of her jacket and rich colors (headwrap and scarf) mixed with more subdued earth tones, all casually standing outside holding a newspaper and enjoying the spring breeze.
And speaking of the woods, it may be a rainy spring day today, but don’t forget to go out to all those places in Fairmount Park where the trees are beginning to blossom and bloom. Sakura (cherry blossoms) will be everywhere along Kelly Drive very soon!
great find. she’s beautiful.
This is exactly the image I had in my head when someone you interviewed mentioned there any unique hair styles, fabrics and head wraps like huh in Philly!:)
And perhaps that my circle as well.
chinese words? is the badge means peace? so cool