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Leafages

leaf·ages noun ˈlē-fijs : a mixed media art form created by Hazel Kahan Leafages are made from real leaves, vines and tendrils interwoven with calligraphy, decorative pen and ink flourishes and imaginary Latin botanical names. They are best framed and hung on walls or given to friends.

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NEW NEWS!!!

It’s been a long time coming but I’m delighted to announce that my memoir A HOUSE IN LAHORE Growing up Jewish in Pakistan by Hazel Selzer Kahan is now available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle versions.

For more information, please contact me or check this page which will be updated as soon as there’s something new to say!

Here’s what reviewers are saying:

Kahan’s beautiful, noble quest gives the reader a vertiginous sense of life’s fragility — of just how swiftly all that one relies upon can be shattered by prejudice and political upheaval. Yet for all that goes wrong — is wrong — light emerges, manifest in language, letters and longing, in love and dignity among the ruins. The life explored here — tenderly considered — offers proof that humanity may yet defeat the inhumane.

–Joseph Mackin, author of the novel Pretend All Your Life

Because my special empathy with Hazel Kahan’s narrative comes from also being interned during WWII, growing up neither European nor Asian in China, and revisiting my Asian roots much later in life, I find the account of her return to Lahore enchanting. Despite the book’s title, the reader will decide whether Pakistan was ever truly her “home.” What a story!

–Tom Scovel, author of The Year China Changed 

In this fascinating memoir, we learn about the full, rich, interesting lives of Hazel Kahan and her incredible family. As readers, we are the beneficiaries of her willingness to reflect on struggles that many might rather avoid, helping us to discover how international persecution and internment shape personal and familial  lives, and how false preconceptions and stereotypes can be.

—Nora Kramer, founder of Youth Empowered Action (YEA) Camp

Decades later, Hazel Kahan makes a highly evocative pilgrimage back to a very different Pakistan from the emerging country she left in 1971. This is a complex and important piece of history, well told. Her story and mine came together first at Woodstock School in India, and now at WPKN in Bridgeport—where as probing interviewer on air Hazel displays the same abundant investigative talent that’s on every page of this timely new book.

–Jim Motavalli, author and WPKN-FM host

More Reviews!

A House in Lahore: Growing Up Jewish in Pakistan
Hazel Selzer with her mother and brother, circa 1947

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About Hazel

Born to German Jewish refugee physicians in Lahore (now Pakistan, then British India) Hazel has lived, studied and worked in many places–India, England, Australia, Israel and the United States. She makes her home in the woods of the eastern end of Long Island, New York where she produces the art of leafages, the radio sounds of Tidings and writes about growing up Jewish in Lahore. Read more about Hazel…

About Leafages

"Credo" statement

Leafages by Hazel Kahan are made from real leaves, vines and tendrils interwoven with calligraphy, decorative pen and ink flourishes and imaginary Latin botanical names. Leafages contain a philosophical or inspirational thought, quotation or verse from sages, poets or religious texts. Some leafages are specially created for an individual, a couple or a family with words or leaves reflecting their personal narrative. They are available on the Leafages shop on Etsy although the supply is low right now, all my energies having been absorbed by the book I’ve been writing. Do come back soon when the shop will be full of new leafage abundance or contact me.