Heartistry

Amna Mawaz Khan @amnadabbadoo 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 politi...

Priya Das @priyadasmosaic is the co-founder and Chief Programming Officer of Mosaic America @mosaicamerica 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 b...

Princess Sarah @iamprincesssc 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 s...

Dr. Saumya Dave @saumyajdave 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 Narra...

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...

Kaif Ghaznavi @kaifghaznavi is a Fulbright scholar and graduate of National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan, and from the California College of Arts. Kaif aims to create a healthy dialogue of cultural practises within the community by curating 'Bunvat Festival' @bunvatfestival annually. She believes in celebrating culture through music, dance and theatre with a focus on the Urdu Language. Her...

Byb Chanel Bibene is a dance educator, choreographer and performer. He is the founder and artistic director of both Kiandanda Dance Theater @kiandandadt and the Mbongui Square Festival. Byb's innate technical and aesthetic sensibility is rooted in the culture and dances of the Republic of Congo, and his professional foci are the interdisciplinary areas of theater, traditional, Afro-urban and conte...

Mashal Peerzada @mashalpeeru 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...

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto @zulfikaralibhutto 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. Zulfikar is currently based in Karachi, Paki...

Nadia Payan @nadiapayan '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 belie...

Muneeb ur Rehman @dramajik is an Applied Performance Practitioner, and Acting and Improvisation coach 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...

Misha Japanwala @mishajapanwala 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...

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,...

Ami Park is an Actor + Abundance Coach with her program, Awakened Joy @awakenedjoycollective Since childhood Ami has been pursuing acting. After graduating with a BA from Boston University, Ami moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in Television and Film, and it became clear that she was going to chart her own path as an Asian woman in this industry. Ami realized that she wanted to share all the...

We welcome back one of our previous guests Amit Patel @_amitdances and newcomer to the Heartistry Talk Show, Ishika Seth @ishika_dance as we hear about their upcoming project and performance "Unearthed: Untold Stories from The Ramayana". @unearthed.show is a dance and music production that excavates the stories of forgotten voices in the Hindu epic, Ramayana. Bringing forth diverse perspectives, A...

Hip hop in Pakistan?! You heard right! Listen to this week's episode and be inspired by the journey of Bboy/Hip Hop dancer, Taishi @taishi_anarchy and how dance saved his life. Hear how the dance style and the culture of Hip Hop is growing and evolving in what might seem like an unlikely place, and how the Hip Hop community is creating a supportive and inclusive culture for all who are interested....

Bhumi B Patel @bhumithelion 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...

Meet two awesome female entrepreneurs based in Karachi, Pakistan. Raasti Said Diwan @yogi_raasti is the founder & owner of Karachi based wellness studio Yoga Lift @yogaliftpk 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 certificati...

After seeing Shaheen Gull @shaheen.gull21 speak and perform at the Aurat March in Karachi, Pakistan, Farah knew that her story needed to be shared. Shaheen was born to a Baloch family in a small village of Badin Sindh. 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 nee...

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 S...

We kick off Women's History Month with Meenu Devrani @meenu_devrani and Saloni Shrestha - both entrepreneurs who are following their creative journeys which eventually led them to crossing paths and working together to build the @agaatifoundation Meenu is a silversmith with over 10 years of working in the artisan retail sector with her studio practice based art jewelry brand Vaasvara Jewelry @vaas...

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...

Suhani Parikh @withlovesuhani @modernmarigoldbooks 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 @modernmarigoldbooks Now a traditional independent pu...

Sahasra Sambamoorthi @sahi_s is co-founder and CEO of Navatman @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. In...

Dheepa Chari @dheepamusic is an 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 J...