Today we’d like to introduce you to Maisha Azadi.
Hi Maisha, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My story- Oh my, so much has happened since I last talked with Voyager L.A back in 2019.
Oh! You all have been through it too! An entire whole pandemic!
It was enough to wipe all dreams and plans off the map. But I watched so many
creative “entrepre-endurers” pivot, recreate, and dig deeper into what truly called them during this time.
I also had to pause and truly take a look back at the opportunities I had either worked pretty darn hard at or had the privilege of experiencing during our two-year-long twilight zone.
The last time we met, I shared with the Voyager readers how my multi-hyphenate life came to be.
The result of the personal impact of working for magnanimous women in theater and a history of social activism in my family led me to intertwine both passion and purpose so deeply, (and maybe at times at a fault) in all that I do creatively.
The pandemic season made me go even harder in all those areas. And when I say go harder, I mean, getting ever so still, clarifying what the work is, and failing forward. Social Media can present this perfect glossy editorial-size nugget of your life’s achievement without the failing forward part. Yet, if we are ever able to zoom out to see the twenty million mishaps of the bigger picture, we could learn to value our journeys a bit more in the process and not only after we’ve survived it all.
This year was definitely a year of creative wins that I have been so thankful for but make no mistake, there were also losses.
So many of us are walking through uncertainty in many areas so celebrating my wins are also an acknowledgment of the conquering of giants of uncertainty, health, financial strain, and even self-sabotage. This year, I wrote, produced, and directed my short film, HOME SOON. First a stage play that was postponed due to Covid, I ended up adapting the play for screen and filming it here in Los Angeles in the fall of 2021. This was my first SAG Signatory production through my recently launched company Sparrow and Finch Films, we’ve since gone on to having eight official selections at festivals across the country and winning multiple awards for Best Actress and Best Emancipatory Film (my social justice win!) The gains of the experience far exceed the losses. I shared with my team my two goals for the project were 1. To create a high-quality film and 2. To preserve relationships. We allowed these goals to be our North Star, and all had one of the best on-set experiences we’ve had with a group of virtual strangers for 3 days. I long to do more of just this, and this film was the experience allowing me to see what is possible. Another significant win within these past two years was my organization, Urban Artivist Academy formally becoming a non-profit and being a presenter of our work at the State of the Arts Summit through Arts L.A. It was a wonderful introduction to the arts community here in Los Angeles and another reminder of how my work overlaps in areas of activism and art. Our task was to address the lack of wage equity for BIPOC arts workers, and I had a wonderful time revealing the systemics roots of the issue and working alongside other visionaries on ways to correct it. Other wins include signing with a commercial agent and actually booking work! As well as offering a series of Cultural Humility workshops through my DEI consultancy, MAS DIVERSITY, which utilizes media to help organizations with their DEI efforts.
All of this happiness occupied the same space as losing two close relatives, having two surgeries, navigating tough relationships, and managing anxiety and depression. But this is what I love about the journey— it will never be one thing of the other. We can have extreme happiness in the midst of sorrow. We can doubt our abilities while still learning to fly. We will always be “in process”. So, where I am today is a great reminder of the process and a milepost for where I want to be tomorrow. All while giving myself grace for “all the things” I’ve walked through to get to this point in the present.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Heck no!…LOL! It hasn’t been a smooth road, don’t we all wish or aren’t we all a bit disillusioned to think that when you go for creating the life you desire, it’s going to be all dancing rainbow monkeys and open doors. It all comes with challenges, external, internal, and relational. But I am finding that it is in those challenges we find our true selves. We find what we are made of what we stand for and what we won’t back down to. For my film, we had it come down to wire before we had our insurance certificate approved, and knowing how to push forward in spite of not knowing is a true skill developed after various testing and faith walks! I had surgeries this past two years that I wasn’t expecting, but while lying in bed recuperating, I found a producer’s intensive where I met one of the producers, I hired to help me along the journey. Every bump in the road has led to an even greater gear to get kicked in order to accomplish the goal
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m an actor/ writer and director, needless to say, I love storytelling. I started my own production company. Sparrow and Finch Films to be able to support myself and other creatives as we get to tell our stories, stories that are inherent to own lived experiences and those that draw others closer to our unique journey in life. Just as passionate as I am about telling stories, I am just as drawn to the burden of racial reconciliation here in America. So, I’ve learned to use my passion for telling stories to help people connect to the work of diversity and inclusion in youth environments. Through MAS DIVERSITY Consultancy, I am helping students, and teachers to find ways to undo racism at the ground level, the classroom, and learning environment. I strongly believe that this is the best way to course correct our nation’s inherited “isms” or as I call them, internal social malfunctions. Providing our children, the best way to articulate differences and biases in ways that support their ability to reimagine a future better and more inclusive than what we can imagine. I do this work through filmed scenarios and experiential training that utilizes the lens of an actor and our ability to draw our subtext and context through our storytelling. This heart-centered, perception-based approach is much different from the logic-based DEI models that many organizations currently experience. For many, the work of undoing racism is a highly emotional task, and through MAS Diversity I am able to meet workshop participants where those emotions are acknowledged and also challenged in order to do the collective work to move forward.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I truly believe risk-taking is essential to growth. Do we risk doing what we love or play it safe with a plan B backup career? Do we choose to do what brings us boundless joy and freedom or engage with others based on what and when society deems appropriate?
If we want to acknowledge it or not, our lives and choices we make are all oriented around how risk-averse we are. The places we live, the partners we choose, the schools, the careers, the cars we drive are all examples of how we engage with risk. And to me risk is deeply intertwined with faith. Who takes a risk secretly thinking we’re going to fail? No, we have a glimmer of hope that whatever we are setting off to do, will be better than we imagine or return to us more than the risk involved. We have to think this way! Or in other words we have to have faith to take a risk!
Do we risk doing what we love or play it safe with a plan B backup career? Do we choose to do what brings us boundless joy and freedom or engage with others based on what and when society deems appropriate?
I’ve been so thankful that I was raised in a home by an artist who understood the journey of risk.
I’ve taken multiple major risks in my life. I moved to NYC once with a mere $35 dollars to my name. I did not have it all figured out, but less than 6 months later I was in the south of France at a graduate program that I would not have known about if I hadn’t taken the risk of moving to NYC and seeing the ad for a school while riding the subway. These are the blessings in disguise of risk-taking. Not all end up happy, but it is always still worth the risk to me.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.maishaazadi.com/ www.sparrowandfinchfilms.com / www.masdiversityconsultancy.com
- Instagram: @maishaazadi
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@maishaazadi
Image Credits
Dev. & Michael Roud Photography
