This week we feature the current favorites and obsessions of Sabina England, a filmmaker, playwright, performance artist and ASL poet based in the Midwest. Her first narrative film Wedding Night (2010) premiered at Tribeca Cinemas in New York City and her plays have been performed in London, UK. She wrote and published Urdustan: A Collection of Short Stories (excerpted on The Aerogram), and has just been selected by the St. Louis Visionary Awards as Emerging Artist of the Year 2016. Sabina is currently working on a new ASL hip hop poetry video shot in Mexico City, and she is developing her solo deaf poetry performance art show called Allah Earth: The Cycle of Life for the forthcoming Fringe Festival. Visit her website, watch her videos (which include a few ASL poetry films) and follow her on Twitter/Facebook.

1) Vintage Indian Fashion

“Vintage Indian Fashion” is a tumblr blog run by an Indian woman who has a good knowledge of vintage South Asian fashion, often linking South Asian fashion with traditional South Asian miniature paintings, classic Hindi films and South Asian literature. It’s a great tumblr for us fellow South Asians to learn about our beautiful fashion and take pride in our heritage!

https://vintageindianclothing.tumblr.com/post/132551507797/chandra-bindi-or-the-moon-bindi-also-a-sanskrit

2) “What Up”, by Hector Guerra (Pachamama Crew)

Hector Guerra is Spanish-Bolivian rapper who was born in Spain but now lives in Mexico City. He got his start with a popular hip hop group called Pachamama Crew. He’s one of my favourite musicians because his music has so much positive energy, love, joy, and power. I’ve watched “What Up” many times because it always lifts up my soul whenever I feel down. P.S check out his other videos!

3) “Sounds So Different” Micropixie’s Sinead O’Cover

Micropixie is a British Asian musician of Gujarati origin based in San Francisco. She recently released a music video called Sounds So Different: Sinead O’Cover. I just interviewed her for POC Creators and we discussed the video in detail. Plus: the video has closed captioning available for us fellow deafies!

4) Leroy Moore (Krip Hop)

Leroy Moore is a black disabled hip-hop poet and activist from San Francisco. He’s the founder and organizer of a group called Krip Hop, a collective of artists with disabilities who use hip hop to promote disability rights and awareness through music and social media. He also writes for Poor Magazine, focusing on disability issues and hip hop. He just released a book of poetry called Black Kripple Delivers Poetry & Lyrics. He’s a passionate advocate for artists with disabilities and often speaks out against police brutality. I highly recommend following him to learn more about disability issues.

5) Savitha Sastry

Savitha Sastry is a classically trained Bharatanatyam dancer who used to be a neuroscientist (I’m not kidding you). She writes, choreographs and performs her own original Bharatanatyam dance productions, having traveled around the world to give performances and workshops in India, China, South Africa, UK, USA, and Canada. One of her goals is to make Bharatanatyam more accessible and modern for today’s audiences. She is one of my inspirations because she is always creating something new every year. You can watch some of her trailers and dance videos online.