My friend Keith Anwar died on Monday, July 5, 2010.

I’ve known Keith since 1982 as a brave steelworker, historian, socialist, technician with the Chicago Transit Authority, and playwright. His play, Kabulitis won the Dionysos Cup in the Polarity Ensemble’s New Plays competition this past May. It was read at the Josephenium, while I was performing From a Fading Light at the St. Paul’s Cultural Center. I missed the reading but ran into Keith and his wife Connie then. He was looking fine. We had a brief chat before we hurried off to our respective performances, not knowing that would be the last time we’d see each other. A few years earlier, I had the honor of reading the part of one of the play’s main character at the Oak Park Public Library.

Kabulitis is based on the lives of Keith’s parents who lived in Afghanistan. Keith wrote the afterword to his father’s book, Memories of Afghanistan, published by in 2004.