HEARTISTRY TALK SHOW

Anita Mithra

Anita is a Mass Communication post graduate with a degree in Business.

She spent the first twenty years of her career working as a Journalist, a Communication specialist, in Sales and Marketing and Advertising as well as running her own direct marketing agency.

All this while spending all her evenings on stage.

At age 40, she decided to follow her heart and went on to open her own theatre production company - The Tortilla Entertainment Company which is now 12 years old.

She produces unique theatrical events, uses theatre in corporate training and is a casting director

Anita is the proud mother of two sons- her very best achievement!

Shatarupa Bhattacharyya

Shatarupa Bhattacharyya is a social scientist and theatre artist, currently on the faculty of the Creative Writing programme at the Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Bengaluru. She holds a PhD in Development Studies from the National Institute of Advanced Studies, also in Bengaluru, and an MPhil in History from the University of Hyderabad. Her research is focused on the history and culture of the Sundarbans, the deltaic region that spans the Indian state of West Bengal and the Republic of Bangladesh. She is particularly interested in the festive practices prevalent in the region, specifically the worship of the syncretic deity Bonbibi. Her artistic practice is focused on representing the lived experiences of women across time and space on stage, which she has done in almost 30 productions over the last 12 years, primarily as an actor, but recently as a director, producer, and soon as a playwright as well.

Annika Sharma

Annika is an agented and published author of romcoms starring South Asians. Her debut, "Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words," has been named to Amazon's Best Books, Apple Writers to Watch, and Library Journal's Best Books of 2021. She is also the co-founder and co-host of That Desi Spark podcast, a show featured on Forbes, the BBC, a Spotify billboard campaign, and more. She is a lover of long conversations, superhero movies, coffee, pizza, and traveling.

Wajiha Ather Naqvi

Wajiha Ather Naqvi is a singer/song-writer and music researcher from Karachi, Pakistan. As a singer, she trains in Hindustani music under the apprenticeship of Ustad Naseeruddin Saami and his son Rauf Saami from the Qawwal Bachche-Delhi gharana. She is currently based in London and is pursuing her PhD in ethnomusicology from Kings College London researching on the performance histories and hereditary musical practices of the Qawwal Bacche- Delhi gharana.

Surina Jindal

Surina Jindal is an actress, award-winning producer, and public speaking coach. She is the co-creator and executive producer of the 2021 Comedy Central feature film "Hot Mess Holiday". Jindal starred, and executive produced alongside Melanie Chandra and Kal Penn.

Surina co-produced "The Giants" a sumo wrestling docuseries currently airing on Rakuten TV and is the winner of 2022 Sports Industry Award for Best Original Content Series, and "Lemon" - a comedic short that premiered at Tribeca, played in festivals worldwide and aired on United Airlines and Amazon Prime, where it became one of the most watched shorts on Amazon.

Her recent producing stint in India had her developing a sitcom for Netflix India, as well as producing and directing the podcast My Ex-Breast for Audible.

Clearly on a roll, Surina also just completed her directorial debut, "Title Fight: Between Two Worlds", a feature-length documentary about Arjan Singh Bhullar, the first South Asian MMA heavyweight champion of the world.

Sujatha Balakrishnan

Sujatha Balakrishnan is a teacher/counselor and a theatre practitioner based out of Bangalore. She founded "Theatre for Change" a not for profit community theatre colllective in 2014, to address social issues which plague society in a theatrical format. She firmly believes that any art form must go beyond entertainment and engage the audience in becoming agents of change. It must include social criticism and political activism. 

The underlying principle of her initiatives resonate with the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe's metaphorical description of dominant narratives, “Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” Sujatha believes that it's important that every story is told, heard and counted. Else, it will always be a one sided story. 

Marium Jeelani

Marium Jeelani is a Digital Media Artivist and Content Creator from Karachi, Pakistan. She uses her online platforms to educate audiences on sociopolitical issues and to start conversations on taboo topics to help those most marginalised. Marium is also a passionate creative who has always explored different mediums of art. Aiming to combine art with activism she enjoys photography, videography, makeup and creative direction. She is the co-owner of @desifinesse - a platform highlighting South Asian creatives and voices. Marium speaks frequently on the oppression of South Asian and Muslim women from the Global South as well as amplifying voices of other marginalised identities. She believes in radical decolonisation and anti imperialism through fighting white supremacy, heteropatriarchy and capitalism.

Rabia Meghani

Rabia Meghani is a Medical Researcher, Behavioral Therapist, Educator, Yoga Therapist and Ayurvedic Practitioner. Rabia’s formal education is in public health and epidemiology. Merging her knowledge of disease and the ancient science of Yoga and Ayurveda, Rabia aims to modernize eastern healing teachings and make them accessible to the masses while honoring the roots of the science. Her passion lies in harmonizing western medicine with eastern healing methodologies.

Barnali Ghosh

Barnali Ghosh (she/her) is a designer, artist, and transportation justice advocate from Berkeley, California. Her work bridges homes and homelands, creating spaces for belonging.

She co-founded the award-winning Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour, which uses storytelling and theater to share narratives of local South Asian American resistance movements, from immigrant freedom fighters in the 1910s, to queer and feminist organizing a century later.

Over the course of the pandemic, she created over seventy new photographic pieces, inspired by the work of Asian American, South Asian, and women artists, as well as California native plants. Her Unfaithful Re-Creations series plays with color, dark humor, immigration, and pandemic themes.

David Brandstätter & 

Michelle Jacques

David Brandstätter’s work is rooted in cross disciplinary performance (circus, dance, physical theatre and music). He was born in Wuppertal (WOOPERTAAL) Germany, and studied applied music science in Hamburg. From the age of 15 he worked internationally as a juggler and unicyclist and became a practitioner of traditional Japanese martial arts. In 2001, he started his studies of choreography in Arnhem at the European Dance Development Centre (now called ArtEZ) and focused his research on the development of contact improvisation as a tool for choreographic purposes. He graduated in 2005 and founded the organization @shifts_art_in_movement together with Malgven Gerbes. Since the creation of the organization, shifts has worked with more than 100 festivals, theatres and Universities, countless artistic collaborators, choreographers, dramaturges, dancers, visual artists, architects, researchers, writers and musicians – and has presented its work in more than 30 countries worldwide.

Michelle Jacques is the Artistic Director of CHELLE! (SHELL) and Friends New Orleans big band, CHELLE’S JUKE JOINT Acappella Ensemble, Vice President of the Governors Board of The Recording Academy and Board member of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. CHELLE’S Juke Joint has toured Germany and Austria performing in Acappella festivals. Michelle’s credits include: recipient of the 2021 InterMusic SF Musical grant, City Of Oakland, Individual Artist grant for 2008, winner of the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards for “Best Folk/Progressive Song”, and with Grammy Award winning producer Greg Landau’s soundtrack for the 2010 movie “La Mission”.

Meena Merchant 

Meena Merchant, a storyteller and a creator - teaching and promoting the creation of art throughout her community. Meena believed it was her heart's calling to use film & video as a medium to tell the stories of women and people of color. Her life is an example of "following one's calling" - which she did over and over again as she repeatedly found herself in moments and scenarios where she knew she was either on the "right" path, or needed to make a change. 

In the fall of 2020, Meena was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. Her journey through her illness paralleled her approach to life in general, and continued to inspire so many, up until her final days. On August 15, 2022, Meena Merchant passed away, and to say she will be missed by the many that were blessed enough to have met and known her, is a huge understatement. 

Both as a tribute to Meena, and more so, because we believe she will forever have the ability to inspire others, we are re-airing this very special conversation, with this extraordinary human being - Meena Merchant.  

Antara Bhardwaj

Antara Bhardwaj began her study of kathak at the age of nine with legendary Kathak maestro Pandit Chitresh Das. Her panache and magnetism have dazzled audiences throughout the U.S. and India, including a nationally televised performance in India, and lecture demonstration "Dancing Mathematics" - highlighting the complex mathematics in the Hindustani music system. She identifies herself as a story-teller - her mediums being kathak, film, and writing. In 2014, her production Upaj:Improvise, a dance documentary film was broadcast nationally on PBS, and is currently available on Amazon. In 2016, she established her own dance company and school “Antara Asthaayi Dance.” In 2019, Bhardwaj was Honored as a Mosaic Silicon Valley Fellow for commitment to artistic excellence and strengthening community through multicultural arts. Bhardwaj continues to produce short dance films, develops her mastery of taal (rhythm) under the mentorship of Sandeep Das (a Grammy-award winning artist with whom she regularly performs and tours), and mentors twenty-five young girls in the art form of kathak.

Amna Mawaz Khan

Amna Mawaz Khan is a performance artist trained primarily in Bharathanatyam, presenting her Arangetram under Indu Mitha (Pride of Performance Award, Pakistan) in 2013. Under her guidance, Amna also trained in Kathak and Uday Shankar dance forms. She studied choreology and choreography during a summer course at Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

Since 2007, Amna has been a political organizer aligned with the Pakistani socialist- feminist movement, and is a founding member of Women Democratic Front, Awami Workers Party and Laal Hartaal. Amna is a believer in the transformational impact of Art, whether used as propaganda or whether as a form of resistance, within society.

Priya Das

Priya is co-founder and Chief Programming Officer of Mosaic America. She is the creator of Mosaic’s inspired framework for social cohesion that powered the award-winning Mosaic Festival Silicon Valley. Priya drives the creative vision, programming strategy, artist relations, and community collaborations for Mosaic's unique approach and events. In addition to being an arts critic and columnist in her past life, Priya is trained in the Hawaiian/ Slide Guitar, Indian classical Bharatanatyam and Carnatic vocal, and has familiarity with Spanish Flamenco. She has held upper management and consultative positions in hi-tech and is an alumna of Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute (MALI) and SVCreates’ MindShare program. Priya holds degrees in Business and Computer Science.

Princess Sarah Culberson

Princess Sarah has an extraordinary journey that has been featured on CNN, GMA, BBC among numerous other publications worldwide which has trended #1 globally in over 60 countries. She is an internationally-known thought leader, TEDx speaker, artist and educator whose work addresses biracial and cultural identity and raises awareness of issues impacting Sierra Leone.

She shared the story of reuniting with her birth father in A Princess Found: An American Family, an African Chiefdom, and the Daughter Who Connected Them All, coauthored with Tracy Trivas and published by St. Martin’s Press. A Princess Found is now being adapted into a major motion picture for Disney Studios by award-winning filmmaker Stephanie Allain.

Princess Sarah and her brother Hindo Joseph Kposowa founded the non-profit Sierra Leone Rising which provides clean drinking water, sanitary pads for girls, education, medical attention, resources to build schools and technology centers, and more throughout Sierra Leone. Her work in business and technology has led her to create upcoming projects including an animation show with Randy Jackson as well as a Roblox game to connect and educate children about cultures around the world.

Saumya Dave

Dr. Saumya Dave is a board-certified psychiatrist, author, mental health contributor to NBC News, and co-founder of the women's mental health nonprofit, This Is For Her. In her private practice, she works with women in areas including the impact of caregiving, relationship stressors, body image, self-care, and more. She is an adjunct professor at Mount Sinai, where she teaches a Narrative Medicine class. Her writing has been featured in The New York Times, Refinery29, ABC News, and others. She is the author of two novels from Penguin Random House, Well-Behaved Indian Women and What a Happy Family, and is currently working on a novel about motherhood, guilt, and anger. She lives in New York City with her husband and son.

Raaginder

Raaginder is a violinist, composer, and songwriter from the San Francisco Bay Area. Trained in the ancient art of Indian Classical music, Raaginder invokes deep and soulful melodies on a five-string violin. He has created several albums in which the sounds of Indian classical music and hip-hop intermingle. These works bring forth lyrical and rhythmic sections which stem from traditional elements while also infusing a modern touch.

Raaginder has performed in prominent venues all over the world such as The White House, Wembley Arena, Kennedy Center, and many more. Through these endeavors and experiences, Raaginder's art brings forth a new, intense, and interesting sound for his audiences to hear.

Kaif Ghaznavi 

A Fulbright scholar and graduate of National College of Arts and California College of Arts, Kaif Ghaznavi aims to create healthy dialogue of cultural practises within the community by curating 'Bunvat Festival' annually. She believes in celebrating culture through music, dance and theatre focusing on Urdu Language. Her portfolio for the variety of platforms she performs on/for, informs us that she carefully chooses her content with the impact on the society taking precedent.

Byb Chanel Bibene

Byb Chanel Bibene is a dance educator, choreographer and performer. He is the founder and artistic director of both Kiandanda Dance Theater and the Mbongui Square Festival.

Bibene’s innate technical and aesthetic sensibility is rooted in the culture and dances of the Republic of Congo. His professional foci are the interdisciplinary areas of theater, traditional, Afro-urban and contemporary dance. Bibene has performed internationally and toured throughout the world with companies originating from Africa, Europe and the United States.

Bibene holds a Master's degree in Economics/Finances from Marien Ngouabi University, Congo and an MFA in Dance Creative Practice (Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence) from Saint Mary's College of California.

Mashal Peerzada

Mashal Peerzada is a dramatic writer and director for theatre, film and television, who has trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and is a graduate of the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles, California. Mashal is a passionate believer in connecting, educating and empowering individuals through the arts. Seeking untold stories and creating avenues of exploration and rediscovery is central to the work of Yellow Brick which is a creative learning and content development company that uses the arts to create authentic, inclusive and inspirational content as a medium of advocacy, equity, collaboration and communication.

Much of what Mashal is and believes has been formed by the stories and movies of a childhood spent steeped in an amalgamation of Tolkien, Star Wars, The Arabian Nights, Winnie the Pooh, The Shahname, Bladerunner and Lewis Caroll - this allows her to embrace the impossible, create without fear and believe without hesitation in the magical power of stories and the arts.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (b. Damascus, 1990) is an artist and curator whose work resurrects complex histories in the South Asian, South West Asian and North African region. In the process he unpacks the intersections of religion, storytelling, futurity and environmental degradation through a multi-media practice rooted in printmaking, textile and performance.   Bhutto has shown work and curated exhibitions globally, as well as spoken extensively on the intersections of faith, radical thought and futurity at Columbia University, UC Berkeley, NYU, Stanford and the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture.   Bhutto is currently based in Karachi, Pakistan and received an MAH in History of Art from the University of Edinburgh in 2014 and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2016. 

Nadia Payan

Nadia Payan’s life's play and work include her being an artist, TEDx speaker, circle facilitator and montessorian devoted to conscious creativity, community care and embodied interconnection.

Nadia is also a creative healing practitioner, meditator and meditation guide, lover of beauty, subtle energy observer and worker, a human work-in-progress, a divine spiritual being, as she believes, all of us are. 

Muneeb ur Rehman

Muneeb ur Rehman is an Applied Performance Practitioner from Pakistan, employing performance and drama across different human contexts for wellness, development, education, research, creativity, entertainment and community. As an actor, he has performed in theatrical productions of various genres and styles.

Drawing from his experience as performer on stage and teacher in the classroom, he has been developing an enabling performance pedagogy, partnering with schools, NGOs, youth programs, corporations and community programs. He works actively with children of all age-groups to draw their creativity and imagination through performance. 

Muneeb has created a teachers training program that employs dramatic methodology to make classroom teaching personalized, effective and fun. 

During his travels to Nepal, Muneeb also trained Tibetan refugees in dramatic methodology for language teaching, in addition to training and curating improvisation shows with artists there. 

A regular presenter at international performance platforms such as ‘Performing the World, NY’; ‘Play Perform Learn and Grow, Greece’, ‘Drama for Life, South Africa’ and SDEA, Singapore,  his research on organic creative practices was recently published in the anthology Theatre and Democracy by Norwegian University of Science & Technology and University of Witwatersrand.

Muneeb is also developing a performance-based training program for a research institute that sensitizes technologists and designers to complex human factors in design processes. 

Apart from being an Acting and Improvisation coach, Muneeb also wears a red-cherry nose as a medical clown, performing participatory shows for children with cancer in curative and palliative care, as part of their psycho-social well-being. 

Misha Japanwala

Misha Japanwala is a Pakistani artist and fashion designer whose work celebrates women's bodies.   Her body casts, worn as sculptural garments, blur the lines between fashion and fine art, clothing and nudity, freedom and censorship. Misha's work attempts to reclaim the way women's bodies have historically been depicted in art, and subvert the male gaze and colonist beauty standards from the way we see real bodies.   Misha’s work has been photographed and written about in numerous publications including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle and i-D, and she has created custom pieces for women including Cardi B, Gigi Hadid, Halsey and Joy Crookes. She was recently honoured on the Forbes Under 30 List.   Her work continues to be an explorative and radical celebration of women, their agency and their bodies. 

Wahab Shah

Wahab Shah is a Pakistani Dancer, Actor, performer, choreographer and director of international calibre. He has choreographed projects for some of the heavy weights throughout South Asia including AR Rahman, Atif Aslam, Rahat Fateh Ali khan, Abida Parveen, Sonu Nigam, Balvinder Safri, Usha Uttup, and Merchants of Bollywood, to name just a few. After acquiring his BA in acting from TAFE Australia, training with various companies in Sydney, and forming his own company "Eastern Flavas Dance Company" in 2003, Wahab marked his presence in Pakistan at the Sufi Festival in 2006. His trademark contemporary Sufi dance style has set benchmarks and is regarded as the identity of modern dance from Pakistan, and Wahab performs extensively as part of showcases for international delegations representing the culture of Pakistan.   In addition to his brilliant artistry, Wahab has a genuine desire to change the way Pakistanis see and experience all forms of dance, hoping to stretch beyond the boundaries of the perceptions of what dance can be, and ultimately, to share its power, beauty and humour with a broad audience. 

Ami Park 

Ami Park is an Actor + Abundance Coach with her program, Awakened Joy.  Park spent most of her childhood on the east coast pursuing acting, and graduated with her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Boston University, immediately moving to Los Angeles thereafter and continued to pursue Television and Film.  However, 3 years into living in LA, Ami realized that she wanted to share all the tools and tips that have helped her manifest some of the most incredible things she had visualized for herself, which is where her program, Awakened Joy, came into existence.  The actor was able to manifest her dream talent manager, an incredible community, a recurring Korean American on her dream show, "This is Us", attract financial abundance, etc. the list goes on.  However, the most important thing she realized is that it's not about the external wins that will make you fulfilled, it's what's going on in our inner lives- abundance is all about feeling good. 

Ishika Seth & Amit Patel

Ishika Seth is a dance artist, writer & parent resided in unheeded. She strives to create works to challenge social, cultural and political constructs. She combines Indian and Western aesthetic and movement styles to create an idiom of Indian Contemporary dance movement. Her eclectic training in modern dance, contemporary, jazz, yoga, mayurbhanj chhau and Bollywood enable her to constantly explore and expand her movement vocabulary and art-making. She obtained her BA in Dance from SJSU. She was the Assistant Artistic Director of Mona Khan Company for over ten years. She is currently working on "Unearthed: Untold Stories of The Ramayana" to be presented at ODC theater in April, with Amit Patel & is a dancer with Noorani Dance. 

Amit Patel is a professional dancer, choreographer, and teacher from Fremont, CA. As a first generation born Indian American, Amit strives to fuse his cultures by bringing together different disciplines of dance. He is a teacher of an unconventional style of dance called "Indian Contemporary," something Amit fell in love with as he fused his diverse training in both Eastern and Western forms of dance. Amit is equally notable for his rebellious pieces in heels, known as “Bollywood Heels,” which challenge the norms of gender roles and sexual identity in dance. 

Taishi

Taishi Gulzar is a Bboy / Hip Hop dancer based in Karachi Pakistan. His journey as a dancer has not been easy as a young boy living in Pakistan especially when he decided he would be a professional dancer and that too, a Bboy and hip-hop dancer. It was a nightmare for everyone, and he even heard people saying it would be better if he committed suicide rather than committing himself to dance. From being called names, to getting kicked out of parks, venues, malls, and places he tried to step foot into for training and performing, or even asking if he could just dance, Taishih has been underpaid and considered a nobody. Living in a society like this, Taishi hopes that by doing everything that he can to follow his dreams will be a lesson to those around him. He wants others to have that same belief in themselves because as he says “No one is going to make your dreams happen except for you.” Taishi is also one of the cofounders of Anarchy - a Hip Hop freestyle crew in Karachi, Pakistan.

Bhumi Patel

Bhumi B Patel is a queer, desi artist/activist, dance scholar, and director of pateldanceworks @pateldanceworks (she/they). In its purest form, Bhumi's performance work is a love letter to her ancestors, and she pursues liberation through dancing, choreographing, curating, educating, and writing/scholarship. Bhumi aims to support marginalized and oppressed voices through performance and movement education. She earned her MA in American Dance Studies from Florida State University and her MFA in Dance from Mills College, and is currently a doctoral student at the Ohio State University. She is also a member of Dancing Around Race, and engages with curatorial practices for both performances and written publications. Making art is her way of tracing the deeply woven connections in which we live–past, present, future–as a way to build communities of nourishment and care.

Raasti Said Diwan & Maria Aeliya Jafri

Raasti Said Diwan is the founder & owner of Karachi based wellness studio Yoga Lift which provides an array of yoga and wellness classes for men and women both. Raasti is also an internationally certified yoga instructor with a 200 hour certification in Ashtanga vinyasa, a 50 hour aerial yoga certification, yoga alliance continuing education credits in Somatic Movement and Prenatal Yoga, and is currently pursuing her 300 Yoga Teacher Training with San Francisco based Jason Crandell. 

These days through her pregnancy, she is delving into restorative and healing practices, giving her body the space and ease it needs at this time.

Maria Aeiliya Jafri is a registered yoga instructor with a 200 hour training in vinyasa & hatha yoga and 50 hour training in Aerial yoga. Maria has been practicing yoga for over 10 years, and has been teaching for 2 years. She is also the co-founder of Jump Chinese - a Mandarin Chinese Learning Program. 

Maria’s favorite aspect of practicing yoga is the self love, acceptance and compassion she gains everytime she steps on the mat. Marias favourite part of teaching is inspiring wellness and self awareness in her clients. Overall Marias yoga is quirky, strong and passionate! 

Shaheen Gull

Shaheen was born to a Baloch family in a small village of Badin Sindh, Pakistan. She was a survivor of multiple forms of systematic abuse throughout her childhood, and eventually sought out a marriage with the hope that this would provide the change that she needed in her life, but found this to be untrue. Shaheen eventually moved to Karachi with her daughter, and embraced, though she had know for a while, that she was queer. With the quality of her education either being stunted or lacking in quality, Shaheen took it upon herself to educate herself in various ways, and is now a Rapper, Mouth Harpist, Content Creator and Poet. She hopes that by sharing her stories of trauma, she can help others to know they are not alone and seek the support they need. Shaheen also hopes to break these cycles of abuse that are ignored and perpetuated in many societies and communities. 

Pallavi Gunalan

A comedian, writer, and actor, Pallavi writes for Crooked Media's Lovett or Leave It, has performed at numerous festivals including SF Sketchfest and New York Comedy Festival, and was a Laugh Factory Fresh Face. She's opened for Maria Bamford, Preacher Lawson, and Moses Storm and has been featured on Funny or Die. She's a producer for Facial Recognition Comedy and Funnilingus, and was on UCB and Second City improv teams. Check out her wild, brutally honest, and goofy takes on social media @PallaviGunalan everywhere.

Meenu Devrani & Saloni Shrestha

Meenu Devrani is a silversmith with over 10 years of working in the artisan retail sector with her studio practice based art jewelry brand Vaasvara Jewelry and more recently, her new artisan made social enterprise start up Fyoli Fyoli. Passionate about the environment and craftspeople of the world, Meenu believes that the handmade economy is going to play a crucial role towards attaining a more sustainable future for this planet and the people. As she reflects on the kind of impact she would like to leave in this world she embraces and lives the idea that the world we deserve exists at the intersection of Social, Gender and Environmental justice.

Saloni Shrestha is a social entrepreneur with over 12 years of international fashion design & management experience. A fashion design graduate from Parsons, New York, Saloni is trained in couture & ready-to-wear at reputed fashion houses Oscar De La Renta, Diane Von Furstenberg, Zac Posen, & Naeem Khan. Her commitment to creative life & craftsmanship has evolved from working with artisans for design projects starting   building an Ethical, Eco friendly & Equitable Artisan Economy that is deeply rooted in creativity nurtured by human hand & soulful spirit.

Soniah Kamal

Soniah Kamal is an award winning novelist, essayist and public speaker. Her recent novel, Unmarriageable, is a Financial Times Readers’ Best Book, a People’s magazine and NPR Code Switch pick. Book All Georgians Should Read, a Georgia Author of the Year in Literary Fiction nominee and shortlisted for the Townsend Prize for Fiction. Soniah’s TEDx talk is about second chances and ‘We are the Ink’, her U.S. Citizenship Oath Ceremony address, is about immigrants and the American Dream. Her work is in the New York Times, Guardian, Buzzfeed, Catapult, Normal School, Georgia Review and more.

Trish Hosein

Multidisciplinary artist TRISHES challenges the confines of art and constructs of self by using live looping, visual art and spoken word to delve into our psyches. Her undeniably original songwriting, fleshed out by hip-hop beats and pop hooks, examines human struggle through an anthropological lens to prompt listeners on a journey of self-inquiry.  As a musician, the Trinidadian-American has been featured on NPR, Billboard, Rolling Stone India, MTV India, and VH1 India; and she has performed internationally, playing festivals like SXSW, CMW, Women’s Redrock Festival, Tune In Tel Aviv, Linda Perry’s Rock N Relief, Pyramid Yoga Festival and more. Her visual art has been part of Adidas “Nite Jogger” campaign and she has been nominated for Best Music Video at the South Asian Film Festival two years in a row, including one nomination for her directorial debut on her music video “Gaslight.” Her debut album “The Id” came out in October 2021 and in December of 2021, Trish gave her first TEDx talk at Tedx DelthorneWomen