Global Citizens Culture

From fashion to art and music, these talented creatives from the South Asian diaspora are making sure alternative voices like theirs are heard. They speak about the mini-revolutions they have in store.

- Nadya Agrawal

RAVEENA, Musician

With pastel-toned visuals and a dreamy voice, Indian-American songstress Raveena hit the scene like a storm with her first video Sweet Time, which came out in 2017. The track was soft, tender, and showed a dexterity both with creative direction and music that left fans clamouring for her follow-up EP, Shanti. Listeners even burn incense at her concerts to tap into her calming energy. “My main motivation is to access the kindest and most vulnerable places in people’s hearts, and then create a community out of those softened peoples,” she says. “I’m just a vessel of a higher musical energy. We need more representation and different kinds of South Asian art and personalities in the media, not a watered-down and stereotyped version of it funneled through one or two people in the mainstream.” Since putting out her first song, Raveena has been part of the lineup for the music festival Camp Flog Gnaw in Los Angeles, and performed in Jakarta, Indonesia. She is set to release her first full-length album this year.

ANAA NADIM SABER

Editor and Entrepreneur

Overlooking her expanding media empire, fashion blogger turned-media maven Pakistani-American Anaa Nadim Saber is as hopeful as she is ambitious. Her blog, Our Second Skin started as a school project when she was studying fashion merchandising at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York. Saber began by posting pictures of her outfits and in 2016 she was named a rising street star by WhoWhatWear. This was followed by features in The Cut, and for brands like Urban Outfitters, Adidas, and Barneys NY. This year, Saber has plans to grow the blog into a media and creative service platform that will create content focused on bringing authentic South Asian representation to fashion and culture.