HEARTISTRY TALK SHOW

Suhani Parikh

Suhani Parikh is a mom of three and entrepreneur based in Charlotte, NC. Her experience growing up as a second-generation Indian American girl with alopecia areata and a love of books, led her to write her debut children’s book “Shreya’s Very Own Style” and launch her publishing company Modern Marigold Books. Now a traditional independent publisher, Suhani helps other authors tell their stories by creating own-voice, realistic-fiction children’s literature to help shape a generation that celebrates diversity and embodies inclusion.

Sahasra Sambamoorthi 

Sahasra Sambamoorthi  is co-founder and CEO of Navatman, one of the largest Indian performing arts institutes in the world. Her knowledge in bharatanatyam started at 9 from guru Ramya Ramnarayan, and she currently trains in kathak under Prashant Shah. With her main training in these two styles, she also trains in odissi, kuchipudi, and kalaripayattu when the opportunity arises.

Dheepa Chari 

Dheepa Chari Indian-American and NYC-based singer, delivering a range from velvety softness to sultry blues, jazz, and soul, plumbing the depths of human emotion. A beauty both in appearance and in her musical gifts, Dheepa has graced the East Coast jazz scene with her dazzling versatility and range and corralled praise from some of the genre’s guiding lights such as All About Jazz, Jazz Corner, and Jazz Times. Dheepa’s upcoming release of her new album "Good Intentions" in January 2022, is somewhat of a departure from her earlier recordings and embraces a more contemporary and soulful feel, collaborating with renowned Brazilian producer and guitarist Sandro Albert and having assembled a band of top New York session musicians to bring her many original compositions to life. 

Sima Belmar, Pramit Baul & Andrea Spearman

Sima Belmar, Pramit Baul, Andrea Spearman are each connected to dance as dance writers, artists, choreographers, former practitioners, or students, AND each also has their own podcast, often focusing on dance and dance artists.

Sima Belmar, Ph.D. is a Lecturer in the Department of Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the ODC Writer in Residence and host of the new podcast Dance Cast. She has been writing the “In Practice” column for Dancers Group's In Dance since 2017.
Pramit Baul is the host of The Kathak Podcast which has weekly episodes featuring conversations with Kathak Practitioners across the globe. 

Andréa Spearman has been a student, teacher, choreographer, and performer of a variety of modern-based movement in the San Francisco Bay Area and is the host The Black Landscape - a podcast featuring a series of conversations with Black leaders in a variety of industries all in the San Francisco Bay Area

Channdika Thayver

Channdika Thayver is a Tamil woman who was born in Singapore with ancestral roots in Tamil Nadu, India. She is a settler on the stolen lands of the Katzie Nation in colonial Canada.

Channdika is a Life & Wellness Coach who is committed to lifelong learning and unlearning in her efforts to show up as the best Co-Conspirator she can be in the creation of equity for all marginalized peoples.

She believes that the creation of equity is birthed through the disruption and dismantling of systemic oppressions. This requires deep introspection and active disruption of her respective privileges, daily.

Gayatri Patel Bahl

Gayatri Patel Bahl is a multi-disciplinary artist: actress, Indian classical dancer and award-winning filmmaker. On TV, Gayatri, who will next be seen in Netflix's Partner Track, has been in Mr. Robot, Showtime's The Loudest Voice, HBO's Vinyl, Law & Order SVU, the Hindi Film Let’s Dance, and Yash Raj's Rishta.com (Netflix). As an Indian classical dancer, Gayatri was featured by Elle Magazine's Movement Series and has performed with Sa Dance Company at Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theatre, NYC’s SummerStage, & NJPAC. Her award-winning short film, TINA, has been screened at 30 festivals worldwide.

Sana Hoda 

Sana was born in India, raised in the US. After 27 years in Washington DC, Sana decided to move back to India to do more than her 9-5. It was in Delhi that she launched a startup with her husband in consumer tech - HappyShappy - evolving the venture over the 4 years they were there. While in India, Sana also worked alongside her father on his foundation, the Hikmat Foundation, with a focus to educate girls in the most impoverished parts of India. Sana is also the author of Diwali: A Cultural Adventure. An entrepreneur, a writer, a creative, a mother, and a self proclaimed black sheep.

Joti Singh

Joti Singh is a dance creator, sprung from the U.S. American south to parents from northern India. She is the Co- Artistic Director of Duniya Dance and Drum Company. Joti began her dance training in Punjabi circles, carrying through her body the culture that’s in her blood and memory. As an adult, West African dance entered Joti’s purview, transforming her body’s imagination. Through this multilingual body, Joti explores where history intertwines with contemporary continuities of celebration and injustice. She created the performance “Half and Halves,” about the Punjabi-Mexican communities of California with collaborator Zenon Barron. Joti has received support from the Creative Work Fund, the San Francisco Arts Commission, California Arts Council, the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, and more. Currently, Joti is creating the piece “Ghadar Geet: Blood and Ink,” about her great grandfather, Bhagwan Singh Gyanee's role in the Ghadar Party, based in San Francisco in the early 20th century, fighting for India’s independence from Britain. She teaches Bhangra all over the SF Bay Area, including at Dance Mission Theater. Joti founded the World Dance program at the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts in 2016. She holds an MA in South Asian Studies from UC Berkeley and a BA in English from Reed College.

Priya Shah 

Priya Shah is triggering social consciousness to challenge barriers and empower communities from the inside out.  As a Chicago creative and entrepreneur, she has built a network of artists and collaborators dedicated to igniting social awareness and change through art and imagination. Shah began volunteering in developing countries at a young age, which inspired her to fill the gap between business and the social sector. She went on to earn degrees in both Accounting & Finance from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, using her studies as an opportunity to deepen her understanding of diverse cultures and perspectives through international travel. After graduating she went on to work at Big Four Accounting firm, Ernst & Young, and finally Groupon, leading strategic planning in Operations. 

Rianjali 

Rianjali is a South Asian American, singer-songwriter/composer from Queens, NY. A former domestic violence case worker, Ria was Hindustani classically trained as a child, and learned Western vocals after being admitted to the prestigious La Guardia High school for the Performing Arts (the "FAME" school). Since trying her hand in the music industry she has steadily built a resume of notable work, including multiple projects under Oscar winning composer, A.R. Rahman’s direction. Over the past few years, she’s gathered a collection of notable credits including performing with U2, A.R. Rahman, music supervising a Netflix Documentary, being Oscar-shortlisted for best Original Song, performing with Shawn Mendes at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, being the first South Asian american to sing for the Nets at the Barclay’s Center and more. She is currently composing for a new musical in production in NYC, “Bollywood Kitchen '' and continues to release her own original music.

Sonali Fiske 

Sonali Fiske, host of Revolutionary Voices on Rukus Avenue Radio is a Sri Lankan-born, California-grown leadership mentor, spoken word artist, writer, international speaker, and mama to one teenaged-son. Her everyday work is to fortify and amplify revolutionary BIPoC* voices in a collapsing white-dominant, colonized landscape. Her other devotions are centering racial justice and social change on her show, writing to heal, ocean talk as soul survival & her mother’s rice & curry.

Anjali Rao and 

Monique Wright-Gory

In 2020, yoga practitioners Monique Wright-Gory and Anjali Rao came together to host “Mindfully Just: Integrating Social Justice, Yoga, and Collective Transformation”, and are back with another 4 week series in October of 2021. Now more than ever, there is an imperative for us to reflect within and act with courage on the ways in which we show up in the world around us, to co-create an anti-racist and equitable world. Change begins within us and ripples out to the world around us. This is an offering integrating Yoga and Social Justice, bringing together diverse perspectives and voices. The course will have relevant tenets from Yoga philosophy, reflection prompts, centering practices and readings to support your own path.

Priya Parikh 

Growing up, Bharatnatyam played an important role in Priya Parikh's life. Training as a Bharatanatyam dancer for more than a decade, she completed her Arangetram, a debut performance of her formal dance training, in 2009. Priya's hobbies also include creative writing and singing. She believes that creative expression is vital in the building of an inclusive world, and allowing us to appreciate diversity.

When she's not dancing and writing, Priya is a public health professional, working to improve access to healthcare services globally. Priya holds a Bachelors in Public Health from Rutgers University and a Masters in Public Administration from Columbia University's School of International Public Affairs.

Rupy C. Tut 

Rupy C. Tut is an Oakland based painter dissecting historical and contemporary displacement narratives around identity, belonging, and gender. As a descendant of refugees and a first generation immigrant, Rupy’s family narrative of movement, loss, and resilience is foundational to her creative inquiries. Her work engages in strict practice of traditional materials and methodology associated with Indian miniature painting as she continues to add contemporary images and characters to a centuries old visual language.

Rupy’s work has been most recently highlighted through exhibitions at the deYoung Museum (San Francisco) in 2020 and Headlands Center for the Arts (Sausalito) in 2021.

Cindu Thomas-George 

Cindu Thomas-George is the Founder and Principal Trainer of Shakti Diversity and Equity Training. As a DEI practitioner, she designs and facilitates professional development experiences that promote equity, inclusion, anti-racism, and intercultural competence. Cindu is also an award winning tenured professor of Communication Studies at the College of Lake County. In her seventeen years of working as a diversity educator, she has developed a mastery of creating and facilitating impactful learning experiences that equip individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to be advocates of diversity and agents of change who are empowered to work towards cultivating an inclusive and equitable organizational culture.

Danzacuentos with David Herrera, Karla Quintero, Mario Ismael Espinoza 

A conversation with the creators of Danzacuentos a series, supported by Hope Mohr Dance holding space for artists that self-identify as Latinx, Hispanic, and/or Indigenous to drive their own narrative, while showcasing the spectrum of experiences of movement artists from Latin America or who form part of the US Latin American diaspora. Karla Quintero, Mario Ismael Espinoza and David Herrera share their own journeys of art making, activism, social justice, and how this series - Danzacuentos - is an opportunity for the public to gain a peek into the life of these artists - including the histories, rituals, practices, and people that sustain them.

Revolutionary Voices, Sonali Fiske x Ariana Delawari

Ariana Delawari is an Afghani artist - musician, filmmaker - and activist. In this episode, she humanizes and grounds the very complex socio-political crisis we are witnessing right now in Afghanistan.

Take a listen to this excerpt from the conversation between Ariana and Sonali, where Ariana states a call to action the international community, and specifically to South Asians to "Create a movement of the renaissance of the beauty of our collective region..." and that "...shining that light is one of the strongest ways to awaken consciousness away from this extremism."

Mona Shaikh 

Mona Shaikh combines a South Asian sensibility with Americanized values cherishing the First Amendment—the right to bear big mouths. And her fresh, fearless, free speech has raised eyebrows. With her offbeat sense of humor Shaikh is a tightrope walker striving to maintain equilibrium while dealing with conflicting forces. With half of her life spent in a prominent conservative Muslim household in Pakistan, and the other immersed with America’s entertainment and culture, Mona knew she was set out to break boundaries. Today Mona resides in Los Angeles, Calif., pursuing her career as a comedian and actor while developing her upcoming One-Hour Special and Comedy TV series. She also made history by becoming the first Pakistani female Comedian to headline Hollywood Improv.  Mona was most recently featured in Newsweek, The Guardian, LA Weekly, New York Post, Huffington Post, Washington Post and BBC. Mona has headlined in Dubai, Portugal and London. She also Emcee'd the Womens March in SF in 2019 thus making history to be the first South Asian/Middle Eastern female comedian to perform for a crowd of 60K. She recently appeared on The Rookie on ABC as Donna Abbasi and will also be on Apple TV's Helpsters as Reina Rafter. She again made history by producing her own show at The World Famous Comedy Store in Los Angeles called Minority Reportz with a launch of sold-out shows.‌ The show has been featured in LA Times and Hustler Magazine (Larry Flynt was a big fan).

Dr. Sadaf Jaffer 

Dr. Sadaf Jaffer is a scholar and activist. She recently completed two terms as mayor of Montgomery Township, New Jersey. In January of 2019, she became the first South Asian woman to serve as mayor in New Jersey, and the first Muslim woman to serve as mayor of a municipality in the United States. Jaffer is also a Postdoctoral Research Associate in South Asian Studies at Princeton University. Jaffer is running for New Jersey General Assembly in Legislative District 16. If elected, she will be the first Asian American woman and the first Muslim American in the New Jersey Legislature.

Heena Patel 

Heena Patel is multi-hyphenate arts worker, coach for creatives and South Asian women, facilitator, and gathering designer. For nearly 15 years, she has been amplifying South Asian arts and culture in the mainstream performing arts sector as a producer, agent-manager, mentor, artist, consultant, curator, and more. The founder and CEO of MELA Arts Connect, her work has focused on nurturing the ecosystem around South Asian performing arts and community. She's turned her disadvantages as a woman of color in a predominantly white field into her superpower, while also going against norms and expectations of her within the South Asian community.

Shazia William Morrris

Shazia William Morris is a self-taught home cook and baker, with 10+ years of experience perfecting her craft. Her background is in the healthcare field, so she has a keen understanding of how important food & our health is physically and emotionally. With no professional culinary training but a lot of passion, Shazia has committed to self-directed study over the years, with her early influence being her own mother’s amazing Pakistani food that instilled her with the importance of her culture and heritage and the joy of cooking for others.

A firm believer in sharing knowledge and resources, and with the patience of teaching coming very natural to her, using her platform and recipes, Shazia hopes to share that cooking can be approachable and most importantly, that no matter how much we avoid our passions, your passion will find you.

Mona Sampath Khan 

Mona Sampath Khan's name is synonymous with Bollywood in North America. To see her in action is to witness something spectacular and unforgettable. From Bombay to the Bay Area, her journey is nothing less than awe-inspiring. Her talent soon caught the eye of leading Bollywood choreographers like Farah Khan, Bosco Ceasar, and Ganesh Hegde. She collaborated with such popular names as Shaan, Alisha Chinai, Sunidhi Chauhan, Kunal Ganjawala, and the maestro himself – A.R.Rahman. Her quest to spread the universal language of dance led her to create the first structured Bollywood Dance program for the India Community Center in the San Francisco Bay Area. She designed and choreographed spectacular dance sequences for several high profile shows including the hit TV show America’s Got Talent, NBA halftime shows, President Obama’s Indiaspora Inaugural Ball, and Oprah’s The Life You Want Weekend.

Annette Philip 

Annette Philip is a musician, educator, and arts entrepreneur. A seasoned recording and touring artist, composer, pianist, and voice-over actor, she is an Emmy-nominated TV personality and bonafide sari connoisseur.

At Boston's Berklee College of Music, Annette is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Berklee Indian Ensemble, a viral phenomenon with close to 200 million views till date. Besides performances with several Grammy winning legends including A.R. Rahman, Bill Whelan, Nona Hendryx, and Zakir Hussain, Annette has spent over a decade touring the globe with internationally acclaimed vocal quartet, Women of the World; disruptors in the a cappella world, singing in 37 languages and counting.

In all she does, including "keeping it light" her powerful reflection series, Annette's message of self-love, resilience, and kindness are the foundation.

Aditya Prakesh

Aditya Prakash, an award-winning vocalist known for his powerful and emotive voice, is a young virtuoso of Carnatic music, and one of the youngest musicians to tour and perform with Ravi Shankar at the age of 16. In addition, Aditya has worked with leading innovators of the arts such as Anoushka Shankar, Karsh Kale, Tigran Hamasyan and most recently Akram Khan. In 2010, Aditya founded the Aditya Prakash Ensemble, a group that frames Aditya’s highly ornamented, stylized and emotive Carnatic vocal style around jazz instrumentation.

heARTseva

A special episode highlighting "heARTseva" - a virtual event featuring artists from across the globe offering performances of dance, music and more, as we raise awareness and funds for 3 amazing organizations working in India to provide critical aid to the many in need.

Raising funds for Home of Hope, Inc, Indian Muslim Relief & Charities, and Khalsa Aid, Farah spoke to Altaf Ghori of Indian Muslim Relief & Charities, and
Neelam Bhavnani and Shivaani Sharma  of Home of Hope, Inc.

Each guest offers insight into the work being done on the ground in India, how funds are being allocated, and why each of us need to continue to demonstrate support even as the media cycle and attention fades away, giving the impression that the crisis is resolved.

Anu Sehgal

Anu Sehgal is the Founder of The Culture Tree. She lives in New York with her husband and her two sons. She is a marketer by profession. She holds an MBA from Yale University and has worked in the corporate sector for almost 15 years.

Anu grew up in India and is a native Hindi speaker. She is an active parent and believes an awareness of one’s heritage, culture and language is key for children to become self-aware and confident individuals. Anu founded her company The Culture Tree five years ago, with a desire to fill a vacuum for quality and educational South Asian events and classes in the New York City area. Her company continues to grow and expand.

As a cultural educator, she is always looking forward to providing children with authentic, immersive and inspiring experiences. In general her focus is at providing children and their families cross-cultural exposure that can help develop knowledgeable, open-minded and respectful individuals.

Anu is a health enthusiast, she leads an active and healthy lifestyle. For exercise she swims and does yoga regularly. She is also into mindful eating and healthy cooking, she is constantly making delectable Indian dishes that are healthy and made with fresh and seasonal ingredients. She teaches cooking classes both to children and grownups and is an active volunteer at WITS (Wellness In The Schools).

Sahil K

Sahil K is a Singer, Songwriter and Music Director based in Toronto, Canada. He is the disciple of Late Ustad Sardool Sikander Ji. Sahil K has been training in Indian Classical Music, Sufi Music and Folk Music for the past 15 years. Currently, Sahil K owns a music production company by the name of 'Karma Productions'. Karma Production handles all sorts of audio work such as: (Music Production, Film Background Scoring, Vocal Dubbing/Voice-overs, Foley Sound, Audio Engeneering, Mixing/Mastering). Sahil has been published by Tseries India. All of his work can be found on streaming platforms such as Youtube, Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud.

Social Change Through #heARTivism

A unique episode adapted from the Heartistry Video Series, Episode 2: Social Change Through #heARTivism featuring 5 dynamic women of color dance artists including Nadhi Thekkek, Alicia-Lynn Nascimento Castro, Athena Nair, Aysha Upchurch, Brinda Guha

Each artist is in conversation with Farah, sharing how they use their artistic practice of performing, choreographing and teaching to advocate for equality and justice, and the unique ways they are raising awareness about various systems of oppression through their passion, compassion, and commitment displayed through their heart led art and activism. This beautifully powerful combination is what we call heARTivism.

Chitra Peña

When Chitra Peña became the mother of two Indian-Puerto Rican daughters, she embarked on a mission to preserve and share culture with them through language. Through her company, TaariMaa, which launched in 2019, Chitra creates resources that teach language and emotional intelligence. Her goal is to make native languages fun and approachable to parents and children alike, and help them build strong bonds.

She also encourages breaking toxic generational cycles by sparking tough conversations, many of which are inspired by her continued personal journey of unlearning and finding self-love. Chitra strives to change the narrative of what it means to be a South Asian family.

Kayla Pecchioni

Kayla Pecchioni is a professional stage actor and educator, living in East Harlem, NYC. Most notably, Kayla spent nearly two years touring with the Broadway show THE BOOK OF MORMON, as Nabulungi. Other select credits include: DREAMGIRLS (South Korea), the RADIO CITY CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR, and Maggie in A CHORUS LINE at SIGNATURE THEATRE - where she became one of the first Black women to ever play this classic role. Outside of performing, Kayla is on the teaching faculty of The Broadway Collective, where she prepares upcoming artists for the professional industry. She is devoted to normalizing mental health stigma, and spreading an overall message of kindness.

Jenny Vyas

Jenny Vyas​ is a self-taught Contemporary South Asian Fine Artist and Muralist from the Chicagoland area. She is highly influenced by beauty in complex human emotions and attempts to reveal them through multiple nuances in expressions through her paintings and murals. Her interest in human frailty shows in her paintings where she creates abstracts of human silhouettes and fluctuating forms in half-light; all drawn from reality, personal experiences and memories. You can find her work at JennyVyas.com

Yuki Ellias

Yuki Ellias is an actor, theatre- director and corporate coach. She trained at the Jacques Lecoq School of Theatre in Paris and is a trained pedagogue from the London International School of Performing Arts. As an actor she has performed in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Italy and India. Her theatre company Dur Se Brothers has produced the multi-award winning play Elephant in the Room which has travelled to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Perth and Hong Kong. Her other shows include Hello Farmaaish, Yatagarasu and Basti Mein Masti. She endeavours to make theatre for diverse spaces and diverse audiences. Yuki is also a corporate communications coach and has worked with organisations in India and across the globe in the areas of Executive Presence, Crucial Conversations, Presentation and Pitch Impact, Big Stage and Speech Coaching etc.

Suhaee Abro

Suhaee Abro began her training in Indian classical dance (specializing in Bharatanatyam) and Pakistani and Indian folk dances at the age 7 from Sheema Kermani. Later she trained briefly with different teachers, through workshops and residencies and then a contemporary dance training at N.O.D (Nuova Officina Della Danza) in Turin, Italy. She has been performing since 2001, including numerous performances in Pakistan, India, China, Germany, Italy, Nepal, United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. These performances include her chorographical work as well as work she performed in. She has also collaborated with different artists that are dancers, musicians, actors, filmmakers and writers. Apart from dance, she has also done selective acting work for Television since 2004; appearing in T.V plays, Music Videos and Documentaries as well. Along with two feature films, out of which her feature film, My Pure Land was also a submission by Britain for the Best Foreign Language Film for the 90th Oscar Awards. Her third and upcoming film is a collaboration with a U.S based production, The Window. She has taught Dance and workshops based on healing through dance since 10 years. Abro now works mostly between Europe and Pakistan and is currently based in a town close to Milan, Italy. She is teaching dance online. She is also currently being trained by her second guru in Bharatanatyam, Vithya Arasu based in Pondicherry, India and in Nattuvangam by Sai Kripa Prasanna based in Chennai, India.

Bushra Burney

Bushra Burney is an LA-based writer and actor. Her one-person show, The Kulfi Paradox, debuted in October on Zoom. Her first play, Designated Muslim, was featured by the City Lights Theater Company’s “Lights Up!” festival of new plays in San Jose, California. Her following play, An Evening Repast, currently in development, takes place over one night as two friends realize they don’t know each other as well as they thought. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she also met and trained under Zahra Noorbakhsh, who later became director of her debut one-person show.

Susanna Barkataki

An  Indian yoga practitioner in the Shankaracharya tradition, Susanna, supports practitioners to lead with equity, diversity and yogic values while growing thriving practices and businesses with confidence. She is founder of Ignite Yoga and Wellness Institute and runs 200/500 Yoga Teacher Training programs. She is an E-RYT 500, Certified Yoga Therapist with International Association of Yoga Therapists (C-IAYT). 

Author of #1 New Release and International Bestseller in Yoga in Nov 2020 Embrace Yoga’s Roots: Courageous Ways to Deepen Your Yoga Practice. With an Honors degree in Philosophy from UC Berkeley and a Masters in Education from Cambridge College, Barkataki is a diversity, accessibility, inclusivity, and equity (DAIE) yoga unity educator who created the ground-breaking Honor {Don’t Appropriate} Yoga Summit with over 10,000 participants.