Tanzila "Taz" Ahmed
@tazzystar
...is an activist, storyteller, and politico based in Los Angeles. Taz was honored in 2016 as White House Champion of Change for AAPI Art and Storytelling and in 2017 as UCLA Luskin Alumni of the Year. An avid essayist, she had a monthly column called Radical Love and has written for Sepia Mutiny, Truthout, The Aerogram, The Nation, Left Turn Magazine, and more. She is published in the anthologies Modern Loss (2018), Six Words Fresh Off the Boat (2017), Good Girls Marry Doctors (2016), Love, Inshallah (2012) and poetry collection Coiled Serpent (2016). Her third poetry chapbook Emdash and Ellipses was published in early 2016. Taz curates Desi music at Mishthi Music where she co-produced Voices of Our Vote: My #AAPIVote Album (2016) and Beats for Bangladesh (2013). Her artwork was featured in Sharia Revoiced (2015), in Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center’s “H-1B” (2015), and Rebel Legacy: Activist Art from South Asian California (2015). She also makes disruptive art annually with #MuslimVDay Cards.
You can find her rant at @tazzystar and find her at tazzystar.me.
Zahra Noorbakhsh
@ZahraComedy
... is a writer, actor and comedian based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The New Yorker Magazine dubbed her one woman show "All Atheists Are Muslim" a highlight of the Int'l New York City Fringe Theater Festival, the largest multi-arts festival in North America. Her most recent one woman show "Hijab and Hammerpants" is playing in theaters around the Bay Area. As a comedian, Zahra was a finalist in the Aspen National Rooftop College Comedy Competition and has performed with international acts, Maz Jobrani (Axis of Evil), and Shazia Mirza (Last Comic Standing). She was published in the anthology Love, Inshallah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women. She is a member of the SF Writer's Grotto where she currently teaches courses in comedy writing and storytelling.
You can find her rant at @zahracomedy and at www.zahracomedian.com.