Reset the Algorithm

RTA: Sara Wahedi

This week Moj sits down with Sara Wahedi, Tech-founder and CEO of Afghanistan’s first civic-tech start-up; Ehtesab. In her goal to democratize access to life saving information across the globe regardless of where they live or what they do. Her incredible work with Ehtesab has lent Sara platforms to speak on the injustices faced by Women in Afghanistan and across the Middle East at the hands of extremist governments. Her work on the mission to ‘End Gender Apartheid’ is what brought her and Moj together initially. 
 
From working as a full-time CEO and student to speaking on gender-based violence on the global stage, Sara is a true futurist who has taken matters into her own hands. From the explosion that led to the concept of Ehtesab to the business side of creating a start-up in Kabul, Sara takes us into her world and reminds us how important it is to lean on community to achieve massive goals.

A2A: EMEL

EMEL’s new album, available April 19, 2024, is titled MRA, which translates to “woman” from Arabic, and is a physical manifestation of an important aspect of her music and art. This week on Artist 2 Artist, Patrisse Cullors gets to know the narrative behind this international musician, her deeply rooted ethos of feminine power in music, and how she embraced the power of her voice to speak for those that were silenced in the oppressive climate that shaped her early life. Three years ago, Emel Mathlouthi, the New York City-based art-rock musician who simply goes by EMEL, began writing her fourth studio album MRA, a beguiling coalescence of ethereal, hip-hop, and indie-pop sounds that is, at turns, a call to compassion and to action. Created with an entirely woman-identifying team, it fully embodies the core of its title. Growing up in Tunisia, EMEL listened to everything from classical music to Art Tatum to Celine Dion. From diverse inspirations, EMEL believes that her art is the means by which she can impact the culture around her, that the artist does not choose their audience, but instead offers their voice and a revolutionary message, to anyone who may or may not know they need to hear it. Her musical narratives are rooted in the perseverance of human experience, and rouses us from complacency into empathetic action. For EMEL, presenting her music as art, is of core importance to her, reminding us that when we forget the power behind music, and its ability to highly affect the human psyche, we overlook its power to create political and social reimagination. In an intersection of art and abolition, EMEL and Patrisse offer us a reminder of the powerful impact we each hold the power to effect, simply by examining the boundaries by which we currently show up… and breaking them down, one by one.  Today, as this episode releases, EMEL performs at Public Records, sharing her voice and story, and daring the women in her life to stand, fully and proud, in their power.

RTA: Alex Edelman

In this conversation with the very funny Alex Edelman, we talked about how comedy can be healing and a way for us to see through our differences. In his latest show, now available on HBO, Alex describes his experience attending a white nationalist meeting in NYC…as a Orthodox Jewish man. The stories that follows shows the brilliance of Alex’s humor. Aside from being hilarious, he is excellent at building bridges and showing us all how much more similar we are than different. 
 
In a moment of immense divide, conversations like this one with Alex are a reminder to me of how important it is to build bridges and, of course, belly laugh together.

A2A: JOJO ABOT

It is hard to find an artist more dynamic and embodied than JOJO ABOT. With her interdisciplinary work, she bridges gaps in the art world to bring viewers into immersive experiences that evoke emotion and shift paradigms. 
 
In this conversation, JOJO ABOT and Patrisse connect on the importance of one’s message over medium and the challenges and rewards of being an interdisciplinary arts in a world that persuades artists to “stick to their lane”. We also learn of JOJO ABOT’s process, what inspires their work and how they create balance and harmony to stay inspired.

RTA: Sophia Amoruso

This week we visited the world of entrepreneurship and venture capital with my friend Sophia Amoruso. Sophia has always done things her way and her curiosity and desire to learn are the keys to her success. This makes her latest transition into venture capital an easy one. Supporting founders with advice acquired through lived experiences is priceless. 
In this conversation we touch on how success and failure shape us and the importance of having freedom to explore and change as you grow and learn. We also talk about poker, taking prozac on social media, and the importance of supporting women in a time where DEI initiatives are under attack. There is no shortage of topics or belly laughs when me and Sophia get together.

A2A: Tricia Elam Walker

The Artist we are in conversation with this week is the fabulous Tricia Elam Walker. Speaking to her about her craft, we are reminded again that the journey of an artist is never linear and looks different for everyone. Growing up in the Roxbury area of Boston, Tricia went on to practice law for 16 years before she became a Novelist and Children's book author, penning Breathing Room, Nana Akua Goes to School and Dream Street.
 In this latest episode she takes us through her journey of self expression from her fashion choices, to the stories she has written. Bringing us along with her on her path to self-actualization, Tricia shares the major influence her mother holds over her ongoing drive to create through literature. Artists like Tricia Elam Walker show us the importance of continued exploration and inspire us all to keep dreaming. She will appear as a featured writer at the 2024 National Association of Black Journalists Convention later this summer.

RTA: Gissou Nia

Gissou Nia is a human rights lawyer who has dedicated her life to the protection and justice of civilians affected by war and conflict. In a lot of ways, the work she does is as close to a real-life superhero as we get and her work spans across continents around the globe. 
In this conversation, we speak about her work as a lawyer as well as her work as an activist, a distinction that might be hard for us all to make, but for Gissou it is very clear. All people deserve justice and human rights, but this belief hits even harder for us when we talk about the people of Iran. Gissou’s family is from Iran, and much like many Iranian children raised in the diaspora, Gissou was exposed to the injustice of corrupt governments very early on. This is one of the reasons she says human rights law spoke to her, the need to right the wrongs you see being done to those around you, in your family or in your community. 
Examining nuance, championing human rights and spreading fact-based knowledge has been Gissou’s world; let’s step into it together at a time when justice, safety and truth have never been more important.

A2A: Lumi Tan

In the debut episode of the Artist2Artist and Reset the Algorithm Collaboration, our NEW host Patrisse Cullors sits down with Lumi Tan for a conversation about the importance of art in political and cultural landscape, amidst the backdrop of Lumi’s most recent curatorial project Luna Luna. 
Luna Luna is an art amusement park, lost after its initial run in Germany, 1987. The project was dreamed up by Austrian Pop musician André Heller, whose interest in interdisciplinary art allowed him to explore many mediums beyond music, and bring prolific artists of the century together to build something truly revolutionary. From Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring to Salvador Dali, Arik Brauer, David Hockney and Roy Lichtenstein, the works of Luna Luna are large-scale masterpieces by prolific, artistic giants that the world has not seen in nearly 4 decades. 
 
With the direction of Lumi Tan, this lost fantasy has been brought back to life. In this interview we learn that Heller’s experiences as a child in Europe after WWII and his desire to imagine an artistic medium that could not only create a childlike sense of joy and wonder, but offer a healing space for a generation of children who had their own childhoods destroyed as spoils of the second world war. Luna Luna was born as a quest to recover one's childhood through art.  His goal with Luna Luna as the team puts it was to “use art and imagination to survive and fight back against an endangered world".