I am a multi-disciplinary artist, currently working as a trauma counselor and completing a masters in contemplative education in Vancouver, Canada. In the past, my work was in art therapy, facilitating meditation, dance, and singing workshops for newly arrived refugee youth in Montreal. I am on a new life quest for simplicity, integrity and spiritual nourishment. In this life, I am a diasporic, queer be-ing of Memon and Bangalorian descent who grew up between Mississauga and Malawi. I have an honours degree in Film and Cultural Studies from McGill University. My creative philosophies are rooted in the Dhamma (Vipassana meditation), animism, improvisation, and compassionate eco-social justice.

I love mycology, marine biology, and am newly getting into gardening. I love sculpture, design, decoration, installation, costume and fashion, especially sacred clowning and drag. I love experimental music, but also love tribal, industrial, spiritual trance and ambient drone / but also classic top 40s femme pop and r&b. I am interested in underground, outsider and tribal/folk art of all mediums.

I am a meditator and have become very interested in the intertwining of spirituality, nature and art. I have a relatively newfound curiosity for monasticism and Buddhist cosmology.

I love animals!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I am looking for magical connections.

Interests

- Music
- Animals
- Art
- Aesthetics / Texture
- Spirituality / Meditation
- Relationships
- Performance
- Nature

• animals
• arts
• performing arts
• fashion
• meditation
• politics
• music
• bungee jumping
• cultural studies
• nature
• marine life

Music, Movies, and Books

Filmmakers: Sergei Paradjanov, Toshio Matsumoto, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Ulrike Ottinger, Jack Smith, Frederick Wiseman, Masahiro Shinoda, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Andrei Tarkovsky, Shuji Terayama, Mala Morska Vila, Kenneth Anger, and more underground films but I rarely remember the filmmakers names.

Music: experimental noise, 60s doo wop soul, industrial, saharan psychadelic, old shoegaze, experimental pop, eery folk, psych gamelan, tibetan throat singing, classical choral, buddhist monastery chanting, yelly gypsy music, exotica, dark ambient, trance, i dunno i could go on forever.

Books: The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol by take a wild guess, The Difficulty of Reality by Diamond Cora, Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag, The Threshold of the Visible World by Kaja Silverman, Cruising Utopia by José Estaban Munoz, The Diary of Eva Braun, and more.

Scripts: Seven Visions by Sergei Paradjanov

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

º• I've bathed an elephant!
º• caught a pastel aqua and coral peach spotted octopus in the indian ocean in java
º• had a 100 year old sea turtle in my line of vision underwater in the tropical blue of cozumel
º• bungee jumped off of the victoria falls bridge in zimbabwe and rapped the whole time i flew
º• performed Vivaldi with a 1000 person choir in st. john's, newfoundland
º• resident artist at an multimedia art residency in selasia, greece
º• blue transparent fireplay along my body wearing tight gold spandex lol

Teach, Learn, Share

I have so much to learn.

I can teach you how to knock your tongue onto your upper jaw cavity to make a loud cluck sound.

Share music, ideas, beliefs, art, adventure.

What I Can Share with Hosts

A curious personality, a love for authentic deep diving conversation and comical warmth.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, England, France, India, Indonesia, Malawi, Mexico, Namibia, South Africa, United States, Zimbabwe

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, Thailand