What’s your background?
I’m a British Pakistani Spoken Word Artist, Poet, Writer and Content Creator, using my passion for words to represent the South Asian diaspora as best as I can. Upon completing my degree in English Literature with Creative Writing, I’ve been creating an engaged and diverse community on social media full of other South Asian creatives. Through my multi-disciplinary creative work, I aim to encourage, inspire and motivate like-minded people to create with their cultural heritage and identity in mind.
Who are your biggest influences?
Artistically? Who inspired you to become an artist?
My influences shift from time-to-time but I really admire authors, who write novels that aim to fill in the obvious gap of representation still missing. Authors like Hafsah Faizal, Elif Shafak and Sairish Hussain are my greatest inspirations when it comes to this. In terms of poets, I appreciate and admire the depth of emotion in more spiritual poets like Baba Bulleh Shah and Rumi.
How have you developed your career?
(From student to artist)
After I graduated university, I was invited to perform at Huddersfield Literature Festival. I made sure to take the opportunity despite being incredibly nervous because it was my first time ever performing live. After that one time, people on my social media and LinkedIn were reaching out, inviting me to different events and open mics, asking me to perform. I’ve developed my career from student to artist by always taking on opportunities, no matter how scared of nervous I was. Say yes to everything at the start!
What current trends or area of work are you currently focusing on?
Dual heritage identities, merging languages and celebrating the fact that you know multiple languages, literature, poetry and arts in the South Asian community!
Describe a real-life situation that inspired you?
I was recently featured and asked to perform at an exhibition for South Asian artists. I was in awe and really inspired by the other artists’ work that spoke so true to many common themes in our community. It inspired me to seek out and even potentially start my own community like that one because we exist, we just need more exposure and opportunity to do so!
What is your dream project?
I want my name on the cover of a book! I’m currently working on a novel and my absolute dream would be to hold it in my hands, in its full, physical form.
Quick Fire questions…
Collaborate or work alone? | Depends but I think collaborate |
Plan ahead or improvise? | Plan ahead |
Inside or Outside? | Outside |
Laugh or Cry? | Laugh |
Morning or Evening? | Evening |
Football or Rugby or Cricket? | Football |
Ed Sheeran or Liam Gallagher? | Ed Sheeran |
