Bad Brown Aunties

This week’s guest is Fariha Róisín, a Bangladeshi writer, editor, and podcaster who tackles issues of wellness, self care, Muslim Identity, race, and pop culture. We speak to Fariha about navigating trauma and the sometimes messiness of aunties and the impact that can have. This episode also marks our midsummer break - we’ll be back in a few with more juicy Bad Brown Auntie episodes. Thanks so much for listening so far and see you soon!

This week’s guest is one of the lead stars of the hit TV series “Queen Sugar” - executive produced by Ava DuVernay with Oprah Winfrey. Dawn-Lyen Gardner talks to us about the making of Queen Sugar, its characters, and we do a deep dive into the strong theme of “auntie-hood” on the show. We also chat about Dawn’s own identity, family background, and her interest in activism.

Our guest this week is a curator of "black art and experiences," a writer, creator of the "Black Contemporary Art" Tumblr, and former social media manager at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Kimberly Drew talks to us about fashion, race, accessibility and creating non-traditional methods of engaging with the art world. And of course, aunties!

This week, we’re talking to gender non-conforming performance artist, writer, and educator Alok Vaid-Menon. Alok talks about survival, their art, and the aunties they’ve met along the way. In a very special segment, Alok calls someone they consider an aunty-figure in their life - Kareem Khubchandani aka LaWhore Vagistan. Together they examine the role queer and trans aunties play in supporting each other.

This week we bring you a rare, intimate interview with the one and only Lupita Nyong’o. To the world, she’s a barrier-breaking Oscar-winning actress, fashionista, and now children’s book author. She also happens to be one of our close, long-time friends. Lupita talks to us about moving to the United States, her family, how she’s navigated fame, her passion for telling authentic stories that expand representation, and about the aunties who’ve uplifted her along the way.

In the first episode of Bad Brown Aunties, we talk to Grammy-award winning musician and DJ, Adam Bainbridge a.k.a. Kindness. As Kindness gears up to release a new album this year, they talk to us about their identity, career, and the auntie they find most inspiring. We learn about Amina Desai, Kindness’ grandmother, who is South Africa’s longest serving female Indian political prisoner.

Hosted by two queer brown immigrants Rage Kidvai & Thanu Yakupitiyage - Bad Brown Aunties is a podcast about art, culture, politics, and legacy through the lens of the amazing and creative people of color in our community. In each episode, we pick an artist, activist, writer, or cultural worker to talk about their lives, work, and who inspired them to be who they are, with a special nod to the aunties and elders that have shaped them.