I’m really excited to announce that I’ve been invited back to the State Department again this year for Secretary Clinton’s Eid al-Fitr celebration next week!

I had a wonderful time last year, and look forward to meeting up with lots of old colleagues and meeting more amazing American Muslim leaders. There are a lot of exciting things going on next week in D.C., so I’ll be sure to keep you posted!

Lisa Stone, cofounder of BlogHer and moderator for my panel two weeks ago, has written a lovely reflection on the weekend that illustrates how poignant the weekend actually was. And she talked about me!

There’s also a transcript of the entire panel here! Check it out.

I love books. And I love bookstores. And there is no better bookstore in the world than Portland’s Powell’s City of Books: it has five stories, filled from top to bottom with books! It’s like a Mecca for bibliophiles, and one of my favorite places in Oregon.

And last Thursday, I was honored to do a reading for I Speak for Myself in this very bookstore. The turnout was wonderful, and Powell’s did an extraordinary job of making me feel welcome and setting up a great space for my reading. There were lots of great questions and fantastic audience questions and comments!

Signing books at Powell's! Photo by Catalina Vlad.

Thank you to Powell’s and everyone who came out to listen to my talk and support me!

Thank you for a wonderful weekend, San Diego! Sun, fun, friends, colleagues…does it get any better?

I was in San Diego this weekend to speak on BlogHer 2011’s closing keynote panel. It was wonderful to be able to meet lots of accomplished bloggers and activists that I’ve known online for awhile, both at BlogHer ’11 and just in San Diego. I met up with the multi-talented Arturo Garcia, managing editor from Racialicious, for the first time since we’ve been blogging together. I also finally met May Alhassen, a fellow I Speak for Myself contributor and KABOBfest writer.

I was unhappy that I wasn’t able to come for the entire conference, but I had a wonderful time at BlogHer ’11 on Saturday. I really enjoyed the panel with  Reem Amr Abbas, Yoani Sanchez, and Simone Leid speaking about the wonderful work they do through their blogs on a panel about international activism. And Saturday’s lineup got better from there: Jose Antonio Vargas spoke on a panel about redefining what it means to be American later in the day.

And then, showtime! BlogHer invited me to be part of a panel including two distinguished media personalities: Ricki Lake and Carol Jenkins. We spoke about “Women Making Media,” discussing how we used media to empower women. I was honored to be onstage with these two media powerhouses. I  didn’t realize that Ricki had bankrolled a documentary about birthing choices, and will be premiering a follow-up documentary soon.

From left: me, Ricki Lake, and Carol Jenkins. Not pictured is our wonderful moderator Lisa Stone, one of the BlogHer founders. Photo by Layla Amini.

I want to thank BlogHer again for all the excitement, opportunities, and even the swag. It was a wonderful experience to be included on this panel, and to receive such fantastic audience questions, participation, and feedback: here’s a post by Angela Chee on our panel. You can see more reactions to our panel by searching for the #BH11makemedia hashtag.

I’m really excited to announce that I’ll be speaking at BlogHer this year!

I’ll be speaking on the Close Keynote panel with Ricki Lake (yes, the Ricki Lake) and the amazing Carol Jenkins. It’s an honor to be able to speak with accomplished ladies such as these, and I’m really looking forward to hear their perspectives.

I’m especially jazzed because this is my first time attending BlogHer, and disappointed I won’t be able to attend the entire conference! Looking over the schedule, I’m thinking that it’ll be the first of many years that I’ll be going to BlogHer!

If you’re at BlogHer ’11, please come say hello!

The last two weekends, I’ve done book readings and signings in Eugene and Portland. And I’m beaming to report that they went swimmingly!

My reading at the Eugene Public Library went wonderfully. I’d never been to the Eugene library before–it was a really lovely building. Scott and Miguel from the library were so helpful and kind. I owe many thanks to them for helping me put together a successful book reading and signing!

My second reading was at Bitch magazine. I interned at the magazine in the summer of 2007, and it was wonderful to visit the offices and see what had and hadn’t changed. They had originally planned to hold the reading in the lending library (Bitch has a great feminist library that lends to community members–if you’re a Portlander, you should definitely check it out), but so many people came to the reading that Bernie’s Southern Bistro, the restaurant located downstairs, was kind enough to lend us their patio.

Photo by Catalina Vlad.

It was such a great location! The Bitch staff put out some delicious treats for brunch and everyone who attended asked such wonderful questions. It was such a pleasure to be welcomed back to the offices where I’d interned just four years ago! Huge thanks to Ashley, Kjerstin, and the Bitch staff!

There may be some more readings in the works, and I’ll be sure to keep you updated as they come up. Until then, my biggest thank you to my friends, supporters, and fans in Oregon!

My reading at the Eugene Public library went great last weekend! And this weekend, I’ll be reading from I Speak for Myself: American Women on Being Muslim at Bitch Magazine headquarters in Portland tomorrow! Stop by if you’re in town!