Artist Talk: Multiculturalism - Going Deeper and Beyond

Biographies

Aleya Kassam

Aleya is a Kenyan feminist, storyteller, writer and performer. Her writing has been performed and published on multiple platforms and stages around the world, from Nairobi to Kigali to Stuttgart. She is widely experimental; from page to stage, screen to speaker, micro fiction to memory poems, docu theatre to participatory filmmaking – she loves to play with how people experience story. As the ‘A’ in The LAM Sisterhood, she fills the world with stories for African women to feel seen, heard and beloved, like the award winning, Brazen.

Mūmbi Kaigwa

Mūmbi is an actor, writer, producer and director of theatre, film and TV. Starting in elementary school, she first appeared in a television production of Wole Soyinka’s “The Strong Breed” at 10 years old. Between 1988 and 1999, Mũmbi worked for the United Nations in Nairobi. Since leaving the U.N. she’s devoted her life to the arts, working all over East Africa and using her original blend of performance art and art therapy to address social themes, such as conflict and violence, health and drugs, history and culture, as well as conducting community-driven peace-building workshops throughout Kenya and in Tanzania.

Vamika Sinha

Vamika is a freelance journalist, writer, and photographer from India and Botswana, based in Dubai. She holds a BA in Literature & Creative Writing from NYU Abu Dhabi and is founding editor of Postscript Magazine. Her research and writing interests are centered on cosmopolitanism and gender, intersectional feminism, and jazz literature. Vamika’s work can be found in The Independent, Canvas Magazine, The Bangalore Review, and elsewhere.

Mohammed Waseem Chaudry

Born and raised in Kenya, Waseem is a graduate from NYU Abu Dhabi Class of 2020, where he majored in Psychology, and double minored in Film and Theater. Upon graduation, Waseem worked as a Dean’s Fellow in Student Affairs and he currently serves as a Program Specialist for the department of Spiritual Life and InterCultural Education (SLICE).

Fatiah Touray

Fatiah comes to NYUAD from Sarah Lawrence College where she was the inaugural Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Special Assistant to the President. Previously, she was the Assistant Dean of Diversity and International Advising and the Director of the Academic Achievement Program at the College of Arts and Science at NYU.
Fatiah brings a deep commitment to global education and engagement along with diversity, equity, and inclusion work. In her role at Sarah Lawrence, she launched the first campus climate survey focusing on inclusion, diversity, equity, and belonging. She has introduced bias mitigation training for academic communities, launched programs designed to increase faculty diversity, created and launched a course for all first-year students on Belonging at SLC, and created affinity groups for faculty and staff of color and LGBTQ+ identified faculty and staff.”