Voices on the Side

Suzy is a Palestinian-Californian fashion designer whose parents instilled in her a strong Palestinian identity. She has been drawn to traditional Palestinian clothing and textiles since her youth. After studying Fashion and Textile design at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, Suzy designed a modern interpretation of the traditional Palestinian thobe which was showcased at the UN headquarters in NY.

Suzy uses Tatreez to bring about awareness and to share the beauty of Palestine. Her latest collection - Freedom Fighter - is a political and humanitarian expression, implementing indigenous fabrics and innovative textile design to pay homage to the past with eyes to the future, hand-embroidered by Palestinian women refugees. 

In our conversation, Suzy shares learnings from and stories about her friend and mentor Wafa Ghnaim (@tatreezandtea), who is a dress historian, writer, and educator. 

Welcome to 차 with Laura and Leah! Cha is a podcast and video series featuring conversations with our friends over tea. We are two diasporic Korean women who were inspired by Nina Simone's quote, “An artist’s duty is to reflect the times.” Cha is our offering to the collective and we hope our conversations inspire you to start having meaningful dialogues and reflections with your own communities. So make sure to brew a pot of cha and join our conversations about art, spirituality, culture, and liberation. 

Suzy Website

Suzy Instagram

Laura Instagram

Laura Website

Laura YouTube

Leah Instagram

Leah Substack

Leah YouTube

Devon is a father, musician, and educator committed to the fight for collective liberation. Our conversation is no holds barred when it comes to critiquing the systems that prop politicians and celebrities over the people. Devon’s moral clarity is at once inspiring and grounding - we are so grateful to be on this timeline together with him.

Welcome to 차 with Laura and Leah! Cha is a podcast and video series featuring conversations with our friends over tea. We are two diasporic Korean women who were inspired by Nina Simone's quote, “An artist’s duty is to reflect the times.” Cha is our offering to the collective and we hope our conversations inspire you to start having meaningful dialogues and reflections with your own communities. So make sure to brew a pot of cha and join our conversations about art, spirituality, culture, and liberation. 

Devon Instagram

Laura Instagram

Laura Website

Laura YouTube

Leah Instagram

Leah Substack

Leah YouTube

차 logo designed by https://www.instagram.com/grime_ninja/

Kim Saira (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist, storyteller, sound bath practitioner, and community organizer exploring realms of community care through creativity and self-reflection.

Welcome to 차 with Laura and Leah! Cha is a podcast and video series featuring conversations with our friends over tea. We are two diasporic Korean women who were inspired by Nina Simone's quote, “An artist’s duty is to reflect the times.” Cha is our offering to the collective and we hope our conversations inspire you to start having meaningful dialogues and reflections with your own communities. So make sure to brew a pot of cha and join our conversations about art, spirituality, culture, and liberation. 

Kim Instagram

Laura Instagram

Laura Website

Laura YouTube

Leah Instagram

Leah Substack

Leah YouTube

Pam Brown is a multi-faceted writer, activist, and wellness entrepreneur whose activism includes protesting the Iraq War with African American Women United for Peace & Justice, Occupy Wall Street, and the Occupy Student Debt Campaign. Pam was also the co-host of the WBAI/Pacifica Radio Morning Show and an adjunct professor of sociology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and The New School. Ever the academic, she has degrees in Philosophy, Media Studies, and Sociology.

Pam traveled to Occupied Palestine with fellow filmmakers and activists to document Palestinian organizing for liberation. In this episode, we talk about protesting, revolution, racial capitalism, and so much more.

Welcome to 차 with Laura and Leah! Cha is a podcast and video series featuring conversations with our friends over tea. We are two diasporic Korean women who were inspired by Nina Simone's quote, “An artist’s duty is to reflect the times.” Cha is our offering to the collective and we hope our conversations inspire you to start having meaningful dialogues and reflections with your own communities. So make sure to brew a pot of cha and join our conversations about art, spirituality, culture, and liberation. 

Links

Pam Substack

Pam Website

Laura Instagram

Laura Website

Laura YouTube

Leah Instagram

Leah Substack

Leah YouTube

Nadia Irshaid Gilbert is Palestinian from the American south. She is a creative director, chef, immersive and visual artist, and storyteller. She is also a trained Reiki Master and embodiment facilitator. Nadia combines multiple modalities of study in her life’s work, producing visual media and facilitating multi-sensory experiences that invite us all to dive deep and transform. She believes in changing the world through our grounded, open hearted presence. 

Nadia’s food, presence, and spirit are simply delicious.

Welcome to 차 with Laura and Leah! Cha is a podcast and video series featuring conversations with our friends over tea. We are two diasporic Korean women who were inspired by Nina Simone's quote, “An artist’s duty is to reflect the times.” Cha is our offering to the collective and we hope our conversations inspire you to start having meaningful dialogues and reflections with your own communities. So make sure to brew a pot of cha and join our conversations about art, spirituality, culture, and liberation. 

Links

Nadia Instagram

Nadia Links

Nadia YouTube

Laura Instagram

Laura Website

Laura YouTube

Leah Instagram

Leah Substack

Leah YouTube

Joél Leon also known as Joél L. Daniels, is a Bronx born and raised performer, father, author, and storyteller who writes and tells stories for Black people. Joél specializes in moderating and leading conversations surrounding race, masculinity, mental health, creativity, and the performing arts, with love at the center of his work and purpose. He is the author of Book About Things I Will Tell My Daughter, God Wears Durags, Too, and Everything and Nothing at Once: A Black Man's Reimagined Soundtrack for the Future. His TED talk on healthy coparenting has been viewed over 1.5M times. He’s worked with The Gates Foundation, HBO, Nike, Twitter, and the TODAY Show, and has been featured in EBONY, The Independent, Newsweek, Medium, BBC News, Sirius XM, Forbes, the Huffington Post, Blavity, and others. Joél currently works as the Creative Director at the NY Times T Brand Studio.

Welcome to 차 with Laura and Leah! Cha is a podcast and video series featuring conversations with our friends over tea. We are two diasporic Korean women who were inspired by Nina Simone's quote, “An artist’s duty is to reflect the times.” Cha is our offering to the collective and we hope our conversations inspire you to start having meaningful dialogues and reflections with your own communities. So make sure to brew a pot of cha and join our conversations about art, spirituality, culture, and liberation. 

Links

Joel's Links

Joel Instagram

Laura Instagram

Laura Website

Laura YouTube

Leah Instagram

Leah Substack

Leah YouTube

Jungwon Kim is an award-winning writer and cultural worker. She is also a communications leader, organizational strategy consultant, and journalist who has dedicated her professional life to human rights and environmental advocacy. As Head of Creative & Editorial at the Rainforest Alliance, she directed a multimedia team of writers, videographers, and graphic designers. Earlier in her career, she served as the editor of Amnesty International USA’s human rights quarterly that featured the work of award-winning journalists and documentary photographers (circulation 300,000). She began her storytelling career as a newspaper reporter, magazine editor, and on-air correspondent for nationally syndicated public radio programs. 

Through her consulting practice, Next Wave, she develops tailored impact strategies (social, environmental, narrative), facilitates organizational and team retreats, and provides mindfulness-based leadership coaching to individuals. Jungwon currently serves as the board chair of Peace Is Loud, a nonprofit organization that builds narrative impact in the documentary film sector, and a board member of the Fund for Public Health NYC, which works to build racial and socioeconomic equity in public health outcomes. She did her undergraduate and graduate studies (B.A. Philosophy, dual M.J./M.A. program in Journalism and East Asian Studies) at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in support of her graduate research on self-censorship in the Hong Kong news media, a Foreign Language Area Fellowship, and a Korea Foundation Fellowship.

Welcome to 차 with Laura and Leah! Cha is a podcast and video series featuring conversations with our friends over tea. We are two diasporic Korean women who were inspired by Nina Simone's quote, “An artist’s duty is to reflect the times.” Cha is our offering to the collective and we hope our conversations inspire you to start having meaningful dialogues and reflections with your own communities. So make sure to brew a pot of cha and join our conversations about art, spirituality, culture, and liberation. 

Links

Jungwon Website

Laura Instagram

Laura Website

Laura YouTube

Leah Instagram

Leah Substack

Leah YouTube

Our first guest on Cha is our friend, Naley by Nature. Naley is the founder of NaleybyNature , an independent project to document stories from different corners of the world. She is a filmmaker, producer, and writer and is currently working on bringing greater awareness of the Palestinian genocide to Western audiences. Born and raised in New York, Naley studied media and journalism at Iona College. With the rise in social media, Naley was drawn to all the perspectives traditional media fails to report on. During the pandemic, Naley and her co-founder, Sadia, quit their jobs and started traveling the world to create their documentary.

Welcome to 차 with Laura and Leah! Cha is a podcast and video series featuring conversations with our friends over tea. We are two diasporic Korean women who were inspired by Nina Simone's quote, “An artist’s duty is to reflect the times.” Cha is our offering to the collective and we hope our conversations inspire you to start having meaningful dialogues and reflections with your own communities. So make sure to brew a pot of cha and join our conversations about art, spirituality, culture, and liberation.

Links 

Naley Instagram

Naley Substack

Naley YouTube 

Laura Instagram

Laura Website 

Laura YouTube 

Leah Instagram

Leah Substack

Leah YouTube

logo designed by @grime_ninja

Welcome to 차 with Laura and Leah! Cha is a podcast and video series featuring conversations with our friends over tea. We are two diasporic Korean women who were inspired by Nina Simone's quote, “An artist’s duty is to reflect the times.” Cha is our offering to the collective and we hope our conversations inspire you to start having meaningful dialogues and reflections with your own communities. So make sure to brew a pot of cha and join our conversations about art, spirituality, culture, and liberation.

Links 

⁠Laura Instagram⁠

⁠Laura Website ⁠

⁠Laura YouTube ⁠

⁠Leah Instagram⁠

⁠Leah Substack⁠

⁠Leah YouTube⁠

Logo designed by @grime_ninja

Alexandra is a somatic artivist dedicated to liberation through somatic education and care, mahayoga, body temple dance, and ritual arts. Although we recorded this conversation a few months ago, everything we discuss is as relevant as ever, especially as we try to stay grounded amidst these times.

Alexandra and I talk about our yoga practices, processing the grief of witnessing gen ocides, and community. Oh — and our shared love of the moon!

TW: We talk about mental health issues including OCD, especially in the first 13 minutes, but we touch back on trauma throughout the episode.

Alexandra’s IG

Leah’s IG