Today's guest, DJ Bembona is taking the New York music scene by storm. Her sets are known for their infectious Afro-diasporic tracks. At the core of her work, she is an activist. She uses her sounds to empower by bridging the gap between communities of color, activism, and generations. Her sets offer a space for healing, movement, joy, and liberation for black and brown communities. When she’s not DJ Bembona, she is Xiomara. A Brooklyn-Native who continues to advocate for marginalized communities through her daily work.

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Welcome back to Season 7 of Immigrantly. Our today’s guest is Shruti Ganguly. She is an award-winning filmmaker whose work has been featured globally, at festivals like Sundance, Venice, and AFI. Shruti recently launched her own production company honto88 and its clients are just as impressive, including media outlets like MTV. Behind the glitz and the glam is just your neighborly, city girl with intense wonder and drive. Shruti believes in creating art that is brave and purposeful, which shows the strength of women and other minority communities. She is no doubt making a huge wave. Her journey to this present moment is like ours, complicated and far from straight. Check out her story!

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81 Episodes later, we are gearing up to release our 7th Season of Immigrantly on June 30th.  81 conversations that have challenged the archaic stereotypes of what it means to be an immigrant, a child of immigrants, a person of color, and everything in between. And we’re far from being done. We have so many more conversations that we’re excited to share with you. Thanks for coming on this journey with us. We can’t wait for you to hear Season 7.

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The focus of today’s episode is on the entertainment industry. Leading the battle from within for inclusion and accountability is Sue Obeidi, director of MPAC’s (Muslim Public Affairs Council) Hollywood Bureau, our guest today on Immigrantly. We spoke to Sue about her role at MPAC, Hollywood's representation of minority communities, tips on how consumers can become mindful of the content they are watching.

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How do we navigate spaces in which we can have access to some privileges but not others? How can anyone claim their identity without first recognizing their entitlement?  Today, We will do a deep dive on these topics with Layla Saad. She is an esteemed writer, speaker, and podcast host. Layla is the author of the New York Times Bestselling book,  Me and White Supremacy, providing the tools to go inwards as you begin to unpack how you benefit from and further white supremacy. It’s not only for white people. The exercises are formatted so that anyone who benefits from white privilege can do the work as well. Outside of the book, Layla is the host of the “Good Ancestor Podcast,” where she facilitates conversations on the intersections of race, feminism, identity, spirituality, and leadership to foster social change. 

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Today on Immigrantly, we welcome an exceptional guest who is all about the environment and fighting for mother earth as our home. Gelareh Darabi is an environmental correspondent for the National Geographic Channel and Al Jazeera. She grew up with lakes, forests, islands as her playground and now fights for their health and existence today. She is an activist, a journalist, a filmmaker, yet what I see as most core to her identity is her familial connection to this planet. I am inspired by Gelareh’s passion and the way it drives her work. I hope for those listening that Gelareh’s story and this conversation draws you to your feet and that you feel a newfound appreciation for our earth.

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A first-time candidate running for office to represent Queens in the House of Representatives, Sandra Choi joins a wave of progressive newcomers, hoping to ignite change at the most direct level. A lifelong Queens resident, Sandra is running her campaign on economic and social equality. These issues are close to her heart because they are her lived experiences. A child of immigrants, she grew up working class. She and her brother were raised by her grandmother, who lived with Parkinson’s disease, while her parents worked nonstop to make ends meet. And now, she’s channeling those experiences to advocate for the most vulnerable in her home borough.    

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Catherine Kapphahn’s mother, Marijana, died of ovarian cancer when Catherine was only 22. she found herself cut off from the past she never really knew. Born and raised in America, Catherine realized that she knew very little of her Croatian mother’s early life. As Catherine searches for clues to her mother’s elusive history, she discovers that Marijana was orphaned during WWII, nearly died as a teenager, and escaped from Communist Yugoslavia to Rome, and then South America. Through travel and memory, history and imagination, Catherine resurrects the relatives she's never known. But how does collective memory exist between mothers and daughters? And what does it mean to find wholeness? These are the questions that Catherine explores in her book, Immigrant Daughter: Stories You Never Told Me. 

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Our guest for today's show is Yara Elmjouie. Yara’s production “In Real Life”  is structured in short documentaries on conversations around food, from its flavors to its history to its sociopolitical implications. These episodes are abundant in wacky dishes and comical relief, just as they are tuned to discussions on what food means to identity and community. Besides his evident passion for cooking and sharing that passion with others, Yara is also politically involved. His journalism is imbued with themes of heritage and culture, how immigrants preserve and redefine theirs in the larger context of America and this global world.

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Our guest for today's show is Iram Parveen Bilal. She is a creator. A Physics-Olympian-turned-filmmaker, she wears eight rings on her body and appreciates honesty. She is an enabler who focuses on thought-provoking stories that are socially impactful and envision an inclusive world. All of these statements were provided by her. When someone uses these words to describe themself, you know that the art they produce is going to be interesting and thought-provoking. What more could you expect from someone who believes that “genuine curiosity is the antidote to fear?”  Iram’s films have addressed issues like feudalism, youth movements, cultural stigma, generational ties, and poverty. The interdisciplinary nature of her work has received praise for tackling these complex issues while incorporating an exciting degree of mystery and thrill.Her latest film is " I’ll Meet You There,” a story that follows the father-daughter journey of Majeed, a Chicago policeman, and Dua, his teenage ballerina daughter as he goes undercover in a mosque for a special FBI assignment.

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