Doing away with the male gaze, but how?! Through the female gaze of course!

Season 5 kicks off with a powerhouse heARTivist!

Meet Marium Kamal - Pakistan based artist, feminist and entrepreneur. Though a graduate of a renowned arts institution in Karachi, Pakistan, it was the unlearning that Marium did, and her ability to channel her anger and frustration of the male gaze, that led her to her true path of heARTivism.

Barkha and Shachi are NYC based dance artists themselves, and we loved hearing from them about their why, what, how, AND their ability to revise their approach as they continue on this path with Angaan. 

We continue to be impressed by the depth and thoughtfulness of The Citizens Foundation @tcfpak to not just offer access to high quality education to children, but also fosters a sense of community involvement in the various areas of which the schools exist.

@tcfusa @tcssfbayarea

Vidya Murlidhar @vidyamurlidhar is a Conscious Parenting Coach, Author and Creative Writing teacher. This conversation feels even more poignant in current times, as many navigate various aspects of parenting and teaching.

“I feel that my work is now a combination of maintaining my tradition and lineage, while at times going beyond it into the world of contemporary, and in the process leaving my stamp on the evolution of Sarod and its music.” - Alam Khan

This conversation with @alamsarode on the @heartistrytalkshow hosted by @farahyasmeenshaikh resonates on so many levels - for artists, creatives, those following in someone else’s footsteps, but also carving their own path... all of it! 

A fascinating conversation sharing the personal and professional journey of humanitarian and human rights advocate, My Lo Cook @ed_shadhika. My has worked with institutions like The Center for Victims of Torture, Human Rights Watch, and Polaris to address the world’s most pressing and complex issues, and is now the Executive Director of Shadhika a non profit organization whose work is to address gender injustices by supporting women-led, grassroots organizations to develop hyper localized solutions tailored to the communities they serve.

From motherhood, the power (and challenge) of saying no, happily choosing more than one path, AND creating artistic projects and presentations that foster youth taking pride in their culture - hear it all in our conversation with Rasika Kumar 

Every artist’s journey is uniquely theirs, and we loved hearing about Melissa Sondhi’s, and why, as she says, “she works so hard.”

Melissa is starring as Juliet in the current production of Opera San José’s @operasanjose Romeo and Juliet (running until Sept 24) as one of the title characters, and she is also one of the first-ever Wadhwani Artist-in-Residence for a South Bay opera company. 

Purvi Shah identified a way to leverage her training and a career in design, along with a hard-won experience in dealing with pediatric cancer, and turned it into a compassion project. As Executive Director of Kids & Art Foundation @kidsandartorg Purvi helps families confront the disease by teaming children touched by cancer with artists. Purvi founded Kids & Art in 2008 after her son Amaey was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. She sought a way to make a difference for her own child and thousands more like him. It also served to create some order in her overturned world. Amaey passed away after battling the disease for six of his nine years in 2011.

In honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness month, and to be inspired by these lived experiences, we urge you to listen, and to demonstrate your support for this organization, and the many that are doing work in this area.

Drasti is a dynamic dancer, with a foundation of training and experience in Bharatanatyam, and a performing artist known for her energy, dramatic expressions, and versatility of Eastern and Western dance forms.

Hear about Drasti’s journey with dance, dispelling the myth of “starting late” and the deeply personal and relatable topic of her upcoming full-length work “Paheli: The Riddle of Motherhood” which explores themes of identity and its evolution through motherhood.