connect with your inner child. Because when we were children we did not judge ourselves, we were just us and let that out. Whenever I do this, that’s when the best stuff comes out.

To confidently say I have created genuine impact upon peoples’ lives, regardless of the scale, is something I take great pride in and something I aim to only get better at. I’m in a place now where I have so much artistic clarity in how I want to build my platform to empower and advocate for the underrepresented. On a local level, that means the low-income kids of color who never dared to think a life as a professional creative could be possible for them. That means the Bangladeshis who get swept under the India rug our whole lives. That means the working class minority communities who built NYC, yet are the ones being insidiously displaced and erased by gentrification.

I make music and art because it feels good. It feels like home. It feels like a safe space. It’s a gift. When I’m in a session creating or singing a song, it feels like I am synthesizing atoms from the universe into a special concoction that has the power to unlock an emotion. It’s often something I have no control over - I have to surrender to the metaphysical and truly become a vessel for whatever needs expression.

As an artist, his vulnerability sets him apart; it’s emotional intimacy through MP3. His musical articulation will continuously improve as he searches through his more complex emotions as they require more complex compositions to capture.

Overcoming Mona’s tumultuous and abusive childhood from a restrictive conservative Muslim Pakistani background takes strength, courage, and a definite moral compass. Mona has those qualities in spades…

“By working on projects focused on education and empowerment of girls, I slowly began to realise that gender stereotypes hurt not just girls but boys as well. This is honestly why I created Boyish. With Boyish, my aim is to unlearn my own conditioning and to invite others to think more deeply about masculinity and how we raise boys in India.”

“Oh my gosh you didn’t know!? Dad wanted to be a musician.”

“The seeds we plant will grow to be a field of flowers, sanctuary — a forest filled with love and endless wonder.”