Our Constituency and Leadership
Jahajee Sisters’ constituency is comprised of a diverse group of inter-generational Indo-Caribbean women, ages 15-60, with ancestral roots in South Asia and born in the Caribbean and South American countries: Guyana, Trinidad, Suriname and Jamaica. Our constituency is also comprised of a younger generation of women, ages 15-35 born and raised in New York City, who also identify as Indo-Caribbean. An Advisory committee that practices a consensus driven, collective decision-making process currently leads Jahajee Sisters. We embrace reflective practices, team-building and dialogue to establish a strong core group or organizers and leaders who recognize and identify with the challenges women in our community face and share a common vision for change.
We are currently seeking new Steering Committee members. To apply, download an application.
Jahajee Sisters Steering Committee Bios
Simone Devi Jhingoor is an Indo-Caribbean writer, activist and educator. She entered the world of social justice at the age of 16 as the youngest member of Blackout Arts Collective, a national network of artists, educators and activists. It was through her youth development work with Blackout that she became grounded in an approach that utilizes the arts as an instrumental tool to catalyze social change in disenfranchised and marginalized communities. Adopting this method in all aspects of her work for the past decade, Simone believes in the integral connection of the arts to activism, and also to a transformative process that enables healing from personal trauma. She has led arts-based activism, political education and leadership development programs with youth of color and an inter-generational group of South Asian women city-wide through various community based organizations, including South Asian Youth Action, SAKHI for South Asian Women and Harlem Children's Zone, to name a few. As a spoken word artist, she has performed her poetry extensively in New York and in the Caribbean. In 2007, Simone had a strong desire to bring her arts and activism work back to her Indo-Caribbean community full scale and is proud to be a founding member of Jahajee Sisters.
Shivana Jorawar is an Indo-Caribbean artist and activist. She has been involved in the Indo-Caribbean community through the arts for more than 10 years. A trained dancer, Shivana has performed in the community in various Indian and Indo-Caribbean dance styles. More recently, she has written and performed her poetry, which seeks to bring light to women’s trauma and resilience, for community audiences. From 2006 – 2008, Shivana worked with Sakhi for South Asian Women, a non-profit dedicated to ending violence against women of South Asian origin, as an intern and then as a Volunteer Coordinator. During her time at law school, Shivana was Co-Chair of Law Students for Reproductive Justice, was engaged in the Feminist Legal Theory Project, and studied human rights, gender, and LGBT legal history. She has been a legal clerk at the New York State Division of Human Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Shivana holds a B.A. in Political Science from Fordham University, and a J.D. from Emory University School of Law.
Vijai Kublall is an Elementary School Teacher in the New York City Public Schools. She graduated with honors from Brooklyn College with a MSC degree in Reading and a BA in Psychology/ Elementary Ed. from York College. Over the years she has been involved in many humanitarian projects ranging from medical out reach programs in Guyana to teaching summer camps in Jamaica, West Indies and at the America Sevashram Sangha here in Jamaica, Queens. Her affiliation with groups such as Guyana Watch, Project Aim High, New York Jamaica Mission and the Mahaicony Humanitarian and Cultural Association has given her many opportunities to serve the under privileged in Guyana and people here in New York. Vijai is a founding member of the Holi Sammelan and Hindu Festival Committee through which she has organized educational and cultural events to serve the Indo-Caribbean Community in New York. Presently she is an Steering member of the Jahajee Sisters: Empowering Indo Caribbean Women. Her goal is to continue to serve the Indo Caribbean people here and abroad. Vijai is a proud mother of four wonderful children and three grand children.
Taij Kumarie Moteelall has blazed successful paths in the arts, activism and philanthropy, consistently increasing opportunity and access for society’s most marginalized. As a co-founder of Blackout Arts Collective, she grew a local NY-based group into a national network, and was recognized with a Union Square Award. As the former Executive Director of Resource Generation, she helped to move millions of dollars to social justice causes. Taij’s work within her Indo-Caribbean community has lead to several awards, including a Proclamation from the City of New York. Much of her scholarly and artistic work reflects both her academic research and field study conducted in India and throughout the Caribbean, especially in Guyana and Trinidad. Taij has completed an extensive body of poetry, a full-length stage play, and a thesis on the history of Indo-Caribbean Women. She was recognized in the Guyana Chronicle as an artist that is "boldly carrying the torch of creative endeavor." She is currently the Director of Strategic Consulting at Media Sutra. Taij received her BA from Hampshire College in History and Cultural Studies, and completed her MA at New York University in Media and Communications.
Suzanne Persard is a New York City born & bred writer/activist/scholar-in-training. She has studied at Binghamton University, George Mason University and the University of Oxford. A first-generation queer Indo-Jamaican woman, Suzanne founded the Queer Women/Trans Caribbean Collective as a space for building community while supporting the efforts of anti-homophobia campaigns and activists in the Caribbean. Academically, her work is informed by negotiations of gender, sexuality and nationalism, as well as discourses concerning authenticity and the patriotic. Her creative work is rooted in the experiences of nostalgia, memory, and exile. Suzanne is driven by social justice projects that organize marginalized populations, fight institutionalized oppression, and demand human rights both locally and globally. Writing has been her first love for as long as she can remember.
Shabana Sharif is a Special Education Teacher in Brooklyn. She has worked with a variety of age groups including adolescents and teenagers. She received a M.S. in Teaching Students with Disabilities from City College of New York and a B.S. in Marketing from St. John's University. Shabana has served as a community volunteer in New York since she was a teenager, and internationally, teaching English to elementary students in India for several months. Shabana has been active in the Richmond Hill community since she was 17 years old, devoting her time and energy to a variety of organizations, including Neighborhood Housing Services, America India Foundation, South Asian Youth Action (SAYA), The Rajkumari Center and Sakhi for Women. Shabana serves on the Advisory Committee of Jahajee Sisters, where she aspires to continue the work of outreach, education and empowerment of the Indo-Caribbean and South Asian Diaspora communities.
Pritha Singh is Executive and Artistic Director of the Rajkumari Cultural Center. She is a multi-disciplinary artist with an extensive work history in arts management, theater and television production and marketing. She studied Literature and Theater Arts at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Herbert Berghof Playwrights Foundation, Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and Pace University. As Director of the Rajkumari Center, she utilizes all her skills, knowledge and experience to create a vibrant cultural and artistic organization that is the vanguard of a cultural renaissance to revive Indo-Caribbean art and culture, and, to preserve, present and institutionalize these arts here in the United States.
We are currently seeking new Steering Committee members. To apply, download an application.
Jahajee Sisters Steering Committee Bios
Simone Devi Jhingoor is an Indo-Caribbean writer, activist and educator. She entered the world of social justice at the age of 16 as the youngest member of Blackout Arts Collective, a national network of artists, educators and activists. It was through her youth development work with Blackout that she became grounded in an approach that utilizes the arts as an instrumental tool to catalyze social change in disenfranchised and marginalized communities. Adopting this method in all aspects of her work for the past decade, Simone believes in the integral connection of the arts to activism, and also to a transformative process that enables healing from personal trauma. She has led arts-based activism, political education and leadership development programs with youth of color and an inter-generational group of South Asian women city-wide through various community based organizations, including South Asian Youth Action, SAKHI for South Asian Women and Harlem Children's Zone, to name a few. As a spoken word artist, she has performed her poetry extensively in New York and in the Caribbean. In 2007, Simone had a strong desire to bring her arts and activism work back to her Indo-Caribbean community full scale and is proud to be a founding member of Jahajee Sisters.
Shivana Jorawar is an Indo-Caribbean artist and activist. She has been involved in the Indo-Caribbean community through the arts for more than 10 years. A trained dancer, Shivana has performed in the community in various Indian and Indo-Caribbean dance styles. More recently, she has written and performed her poetry, which seeks to bring light to women’s trauma and resilience, for community audiences. From 2006 – 2008, Shivana worked with Sakhi for South Asian Women, a non-profit dedicated to ending violence against women of South Asian origin, as an intern and then as a Volunteer Coordinator. During her time at law school, Shivana was Co-Chair of Law Students for Reproductive Justice, was engaged in the Feminist Legal Theory Project, and studied human rights, gender, and LGBT legal history. She has been a legal clerk at the New York State Division of Human Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Shivana holds a B.A. in Political Science from Fordham University, and a J.D. from Emory University School of Law.
Vijai Kublall is an Elementary School Teacher in the New York City Public Schools. She graduated with honors from Brooklyn College with a MSC degree in Reading and a BA in Psychology/ Elementary Ed. from York College. Over the years she has been involved in many humanitarian projects ranging from medical out reach programs in Guyana to teaching summer camps in Jamaica, West Indies and at the America Sevashram Sangha here in Jamaica, Queens. Her affiliation with groups such as Guyana Watch, Project Aim High, New York Jamaica Mission and the Mahaicony Humanitarian and Cultural Association has given her many opportunities to serve the under privileged in Guyana and people here in New York. Vijai is a founding member of the Holi Sammelan and Hindu Festival Committee through which she has organized educational and cultural events to serve the Indo-Caribbean Community in New York. Presently she is an Steering member of the Jahajee Sisters: Empowering Indo Caribbean Women. Her goal is to continue to serve the Indo Caribbean people here and abroad. Vijai is a proud mother of four wonderful children and three grand children.
Taij Kumarie Moteelall has blazed successful paths in the arts, activism and philanthropy, consistently increasing opportunity and access for society’s most marginalized. As a co-founder of Blackout Arts Collective, she grew a local NY-based group into a national network, and was recognized with a Union Square Award. As the former Executive Director of Resource Generation, she helped to move millions of dollars to social justice causes. Taij’s work within her Indo-Caribbean community has lead to several awards, including a Proclamation from the City of New York. Much of her scholarly and artistic work reflects both her academic research and field study conducted in India and throughout the Caribbean, especially in Guyana and Trinidad. Taij has completed an extensive body of poetry, a full-length stage play, and a thesis on the history of Indo-Caribbean Women. She was recognized in the Guyana Chronicle as an artist that is "boldly carrying the torch of creative endeavor." She is currently the Director of Strategic Consulting at Media Sutra. Taij received her BA from Hampshire College in History and Cultural Studies, and completed her MA at New York University in Media and Communications.
Suzanne Persard is a New York City born & bred writer/activist/scholar-in-training. She has studied at Binghamton University, George Mason University and the University of Oxford. A first-generation queer Indo-Jamaican woman, Suzanne founded the Queer Women/Trans Caribbean Collective as a space for building community while supporting the efforts of anti-homophobia campaigns and activists in the Caribbean. Academically, her work is informed by negotiations of gender, sexuality and nationalism, as well as discourses concerning authenticity and the patriotic. Her creative work is rooted in the experiences of nostalgia, memory, and exile. Suzanne is driven by social justice projects that organize marginalized populations, fight institutionalized oppression, and demand human rights both locally and globally. Writing has been her first love for as long as she can remember.
Shabana Sharif is a Special Education Teacher in Brooklyn. She has worked with a variety of age groups including adolescents and teenagers. She received a M.S. in Teaching Students with Disabilities from City College of New York and a B.S. in Marketing from St. John's University. Shabana has served as a community volunteer in New York since she was a teenager, and internationally, teaching English to elementary students in India for several months. Shabana has been active in the Richmond Hill community since she was 17 years old, devoting her time and energy to a variety of organizations, including Neighborhood Housing Services, America India Foundation, South Asian Youth Action (SAYA), The Rajkumari Center and Sakhi for Women. Shabana serves on the Advisory Committee of Jahajee Sisters, where she aspires to continue the work of outreach, education and empowerment of the Indo-Caribbean and South Asian Diaspora communities.
Pritha Singh is Executive and Artistic Director of the Rajkumari Cultural Center. She is a multi-disciplinary artist with an extensive work history in arts management, theater and television production and marketing. She studied Literature and Theater Arts at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Herbert Berghof Playwrights Foundation, Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and Pace University. As Director of the Rajkumari Center, she utilizes all her skills, knowledge and experience to create a vibrant cultural and artistic organization that is the vanguard of a cultural renaissance to revive Indo-Caribbean art and culture, and, to preserve, present and institutionalize these arts here in the United States.
