Mona Sampath Khan @monasampathkhan is a female entrepreneur and trailblazer, creating the first Bollywood Dance program for the India Community Center in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2003, and then creating her own company, Mona Khan Company in 2009. Mona has designed and choreographed spectacular dance sequences for several high profile shows including the America’s Got Talent, NBA halftime shows, President Obama’s Indiaspora Inaugural Ball, and Oprah’s The Life You Want Weekend.

From Bombay to the Bay Area Mona's talent caught the eye of leading Bollywood choreographers like Farah Khan, Bosco Caesar, and Ganesh Hegde, and she has collaborated with Shaan, Alisha Chinai, Sunidhi Chauhan, Kunal Ganjawala, and the maestro himself – A.R. Rahman. Mona is also the founder of Bombay Jam, an internationally acclaimed Bollywood Dance Fitness program.

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 @berkleeindianensemble 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 @womenoftheworldmusic - disruptors in the a cappella world, singing in 37 languages and counting.

Annette is also the musical composer of a unique collaboration which will premiere on the next episode of the Heartistry Video Series "Social Change Through heARTivism" on Wed, June 23.

This excerpt is Annette offering her take on "Heartistry", giving us yet another reason to love and admire all that she is, and all that she does!

Aditya Prakash @adityaprakashmusic is an award-winning vocalist known for his powerful and emotive voice - 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.

Take a listen to an excerpt from the episode where Aditya is reflecting on his expanding perspective and approach to his art and activism, as he took time over the past year to reflect.

This week we share a special episode as we highlight our upcoming event on May 23 hosted by @nooranidance and a team of artists and volunteers: "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.

The organizations we are raising funds for are:
Home of Hope, Inc @homeofhopeinc
Indian Muslim Relief & Charities @imrc_usa
Khalsa Aid @khalsaaidusa

@farahyasmeenshaikh will be in conversation with representatives from two of the organizations -

Altaf Ghori @altaf_go of Indian Muslim Relief & Charities
Neelam Bhavnani @nbhavnani & Shivaani Sharma @shivaanisharma 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.

Please join us on May 23 at 5pm PST / 8pm EST to show your support, enjoy the performances, and most importantly, raise funds to help. For more information, please visit the link in bio @nooranidance

In this excerpt, Anu speaks about the importance of culture awareness and sensitivity, and how language can be a way to achieve greater understanding of one's own culture, and as a result, more empathy from others towards that culture.

Anu Sehgal is the Founder of @theculturetree Anu @anuseghalny 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 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.

As a cultural educator, she provides children with authentic, immersive and inspiring experiences, offering the children and their families cross-cultural exposure that can help develop knowledgeable, open-minded and respectful individuals.

Sahil K is a Singer, Songwriter and Music Director based in Toronto, Canada, and is the disciple of Late Ustad Sardool Sikander Ji. Sahil K @sahil_k_music has been training in Indian Classical Music, Sufi Music and Folk Music for the past 15 years, and now owns a music production company by the name of "Karma Productions" specializing in Music Production, Film Background Scoring, Vocal Dubbing/Voice-overs, Foley Sound, Audio Engineering, Mixing/Mastering).

In this excerpt, Sahil K reflects on his decision between two paths for his future career, and how ultimately, and thankfully, he chose his music.

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 @navadancesf Alicia-Lynn Nascimento Castro @nascimentoalicia Athena Nair @athena.nair Aysha Upchurch @ayshadances Brinda Guha @brindaguha

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.

First listen to this episode and then watch the entire episode, including excerpts of their dance related work.

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

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 @taarimaa 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.

Triple threat - Actor/Dancer/Singer - leads with compassion and conviction in all that she does.

A #PayYourArtists post that went viral is how they connected. Hear Kayla Pecchioni share what compelled her to vent on social media, the overwhelming response to it, and so much about her brilliance as an Actor, Dancer & Singer!

Kayla Pecchioni @kaylapecchioni 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 @JennyVyas 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.