She would roll petite cigarettes, petite like her

by :ola el khalidi

The first in a series of books on smoking dedicated to Shahenda, my great grandmother, whose father used to leave the end of his rolled cigarette burning in the ashtray and leave the room. Some family rumors say that she started smoking at the age of either five or twelve. She would roll petite cigarettes is an invitation to 17 artists, curators and cultural workers to talk about smoking as an act of pleasure and resistance and a multi-layered investigation about the political and economic conditions that govern our smoking habits today.

This book celebrates life and pleasure; it presents the complexities of habit-forming relationships through different histories of its participants. In this intimate and personal collection, through imagined futures, poetry, confessions and imagery, the pieces tell of addiction, travel, illness, death, dreams, monogamy and friendships. - Ola El-Khalidi