Seats at the Table

In the fifth session of SATT, Christina invites Nida Chowdhry and Yumna Khan over for tea! They talk about launching their own production company, taking on stereotypes, and the inspiration for their first web series, Unfair & Ugly. Get to know the guests: About Yumna: Yumna is a producer based in Los Angeles. She earned her B.A. in Communication Studies from UC San Diego, combining her passion for art and business. Her goal is to create media that reflects the world as she sees it. Yumna previously worked with Nida at Fashion Fighting Famine, where she began as a marketing intern and worked her way up to Associate Producer. Here, she gained a foundation in production and realized she wanted a career in filmmaking. While attending a taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Yumna convinced them to hire her as an intern on the spot. On the set of The Tiger Hunter (starring Danny Pudi and Jon Heder), she was promoted three times, from intern to Assistant Production Coordinator. She interned at Intrigue Entertainment, where her boss brought her on as a board member for Creative Minorities Initiative (CMI), an LA-based network for people of color in arts & entertainment, of which she is currently President. Yumna shifted CMI’s focus to promoting minority professionals within traditionally unrepresented creative fields.Before co-founding Stranger Magic Productions, Yumna was a freelance producer, coordinating various music videos, and executive producing several short films aimed at amplifying underrepresented voices and stories. About Nida: Nida is a writer, producer, and performer based in New York City. She earned her B.A. in English and Film & Media Studies from UC Irvine. Nida’s mission and focus lies in storytelling and the impact of media representation. She’s spent the last decade gaining experience in various aspects of filmmaking, from writing (UCB Sketch Writing Program, TV Writing with Ed Lee), to production (BBC, Dancing with the Stars, Fashion Fighting Famine, Kornhaber Brown), to performance (ImprovCity, Advanced Improv at UCB, The Acting Center of LA), to project management and business administration (MIND Research, CAIR, Truth In Reality). Nida previously co-founded 501(c)3 non-profit Fashion Fighting Famine, a female empowerment organization that fostered creativity and entrepreneurship amongst its members, championed a brand shift towards ‘modest fashion‘, and was an early leading force in the ‘modest fashion movement’ (BBC, LA Times, KCET, LA Weekly). There, she executive produced international fashion shows for audiences up to 1,000, bridging Muslim women designers and customers, and creating a platform for body positivity, art, and self-representation. 

Special thanks to: Stranger Magic 

https://twitter.com/strangerxmagic 

https://www.facebook.com/strangerxmagic 

https://www.instagram.com/strangerxmagic/ 

https://strangermagic.com/ 

Logo design by Sukanya Ray www.sukanyaray.com/ 

Seats At The Table Theme by Tyler Freedom @tenlittlerabbits

In the fourth session of Seats At The Table, Christina chats with Prabha Dublish, a student at Babson College and co-founder of Womentum. She’s juggling school and running a nonprofit organization that connects women in rural communities to microloans that they can then pay it forward to other women entrepreneurs. Listen on to learn more! 

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Get to know the guest: Prabha is a social entrepreneur and #ladyboss. In her sophomore year at Babson, she founded Womentum, a nonprofit that connects donors who wish to make an impact with women entrepreneurs in developing countries. She was pushed to take action after taking a trip to rural India and seeing the challenges women in those communities faced. It was clear to her that entrepreneurship was a powerful vehicle to empower these women. Fueled by Prabha’s passion of empowering women, Womentum evolved from a weekend initiative to a full-fledged 501(c)3 non-profit. Under her leadership, Womentum has grown to a team of 5, funded 14 entrepreneurs in 4 countries, and graduated from Babson College's women-only accelerator, WIN Lab. She is truly an up-and-coming force in the social impact scene and she’s not stopping anytime soon. 

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Special thanks to: Prabha Dublish & Womentum 

www.womentum.io/ 

https://twitter.com/give_womentum 

https://www.facebook.com/givewomentum/ 

Logo design by Sukanya Ray https://sukanyaray.com/ 

Seats At The Table Theme by Tyler Freedom https://soundcloud.com/tenlittlerabbits

In the third session of Seats At The Table, Christina gets some insight into pregnancy and motherhood from Meymuna Hussein-Cattan, the co-founder and executive director of The Tiyya Foundation. 

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Get to know the guest: Meymuna Hussein-Cattan and her mother, Owliya Dima-Hussein, are co-founders of The Tiyya Foundation, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to providing community support & educational opportunities for refugees and displaced American families in the Orange County and Greater Los Angeles regions. Meymuna was born in an Ethiopian refugee camp in Somalia, in 1980; her parents having fled Ethiopia in the early 1970s due to civil unrest. She received her B.A. in Social Sciences from the University of California, Irvine, her M.A. in Organizational Management from Antioch University - Los Angeles, and she holds a certificate from Cal State Dominguez Hills in Administration & Grant Writing. 

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Special thanks to: Meymuna Hussein-Cattan 

http://tiyya.org/ 

Logo design by Sukanya Ray 

https://sukanyaray.com/ 

Seats At The Table Theme by Tyler Freedom 

https://soundcloud.com/tenlittlerabbits

In the second session of Seats At The Table, Christina gabs with Irene Hong, a law and social policy student at U Penn about being a feminist as an Asian American womxn, anti-Blackness in AAPI communities, and the importance of role models. 

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Get to know the guest: She is both voice and reason (at least a reasonable amount of the time). She is heart and soul and mind and thought – she is dynamite activism in a bite sized Asian, but don’t you assume that she don’t have teeth to bite back. Because she does, and she will, armored to the teeth in well-informed memes, she’ll bring Sriracha-dipped-politics to every single party (not that modern politics need more spice). She is an open-mind and sunny-side smile, and always willing to listen to the world turn, always willing to learn, willing to smoke a cig and watch the sky burn. She is sister, friend, and daughter, and will drink soju with you to reality TV, no matter what time of night might be. And really, in a world like this, what else do you need? 

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Special thanks to: Irene Hong 

https://www.instagram.com/ireneirishong/ 

https://twitter.com/ireneirishong 

Logo design by Sukanya Ray 

https://sukanyaray.com/ 

Seats At The Table Theme by Tyler Freedom 

https://soundcloud.com/tenlittlerabbits 

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https://www.instagram.com/sattpodcast/ 

https://twitter.com/seatsatthetable/ 

https://www.facebook.com/SeatsAtTheTable/ 

https://seatsatthetable.com/

In the first ever session of Seats At The Table, Christina talks to her good friend, Zareen, about reflecting on direct action, being a Muslim American at the Women’s March, and smiling for photos. 

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Get to know the guest: Smart, kind, passionate, Zareen Rahman is just starting to scratch the surface of her potential. Born and raised in the golden state (named for her relentlessly sunny personality of course), she studied Business Economics at the University of California, Irvine. In her final year, she became the Runway Director for Fashion Fighting Famine, a non-profit organization that blends charity and fashion through an annual runway show and bazaar extravaganza. Voila! Zareen’s love for doing meaningful work while having free license to boss people around was born. After graduating, she tried doing the whole corporate Accountant/Finance thing but she eventually found her dream job as a Finance and Operations Manager at a national non-profit. She’s very passionate about social justice and is dedicated to creating change and equal chances for all. In her spare time, she is studying for her GMATs and plans to start a blog combining her love for fashion, fabulous women of colour, and intersectional feminism. 

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Special thanks to: Zareen Rahman 

https://www.instagram.com/zareenrahman/ 

Logo design by Sukanya Ray www.sukanyaray.com 

Seats At The Table theme by Tyler Freedom https://soundcloud.com/tenlittlerabbits