Interview: Brown Girls Food Club
We are delighted to have had the chance to interview the four founders of Brown Girls Food Club, Hamaila, Hala, Amber, and Ayesha. Brown Girls Food Club hosts monthly meetups at minority-owned businesses that only BIPOC (Brown, Indigenous, Person of Color) womxn can attend in Austin, Texas. However, at the moment, they are doing Zoom meetings, which any BIPOC womxn can attend.
We stumbled across their Instagram last month and of course, were very impressed by the community they are creating. We were very excited when they accepted our invitation to interview them all about their club. Yasmine had the chance to interview all four ladies, minus Amber, who fortunately emailed her response as did Ayesha after a technical issue (Yasmine not double-checking that it was actually being recorded) led to the recording of her interview being deleted.
We hope you enjoy reading this interview as much as we enjoyed getting to know all four founders. We encourage you to follow all of them on Instagram (we will post those links too) and if you can, attend a Zoom session.
Hamaila
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I grew up in a military family, so I have lived all over the world. I went to pharmacy school for a few years because my dad was a pharmacist in the Air Force, and since I am the oldest of four, I decided I would be the one to follow this path. I didn’t realize what it entailed, so I ended up dropping out. After that, I started an internship with a non-profit that helped North Korean refugees for about a year. I then began to take classes at the community college; whatever types I wanted, I did graphic design, woodworking, metalworking, and eventually ended up in the jewelry department in 2018.
I started my own jewelry business while working multiple jobs, but because of COVID, it’s now my full-time job. Then last summer, I started both Brown Girl's Food Club and Ladysmiths of Austin. Ladysmiths of Austin is a community of female jewelers here in Austin that help each other learn about the field and grow together. We ended up getting a shop in November, where we featured different women artists every month, we had about 10-15 different artists.
It was a cool model and considerable success; in the first two weekends, we made $14,000! Due to COVID, the shop is closed, and we are virtual. We try to do fundraisers and challenges now. We had a Black Lives Matter fundraiser and raised $11,000, so that was cool.
At the moment I’m getting ready to move to Arcosanti, Arizona, which is this new experimental community.
2. What made you want to create Brown Girls Food Club? What do you personally bring to it?
I didn’t have a lot of brown friends in town. Hala was a friend of a friend, who I met in 2018. Ayesha was someone I met through Instagram in 2019. She was a brand ambassador for a brand I follow, and I just loved the fact she is focused on style, architecture, and design. We followed each other on Instagram, and she came out to some of my markets, and she suggested we start doing stuff together. We did the first potluck for Ramadan last year. It was at Hala's house, and Ayesha and some of my other brown friends came too. Basically, I have brown friends who did not have other brown friends, so I decided to get them all together. Amber was still in Southern California at this time, but she knew Ayesha and me through Instagram. Amber reached out to us to say that she was moving to Austin soon and needed friends, so we said, “Great come join us!”
After that first meet up, we started going to different restaurants every month based on one of our ethnic backgrounds. We thought if we needed this type of community so bad, there are probably other women out there who need it too. That is how the monthly meetings were started! As for my part, I am more of the behind the scenes person. I like the connecting and ideas part.
3. What do you hope to achieve with this group?
We want to create a place for our community. Right now, we are doing virtual meetings. The next big step is to expand it out. We are working on a resource packet for people to create their own Brown Girl's Food Club in different cities. The packet is to help give them the tools and guidance to do so. It is on pause because everything is virtual, so everyone all over the world can come to ours. Our other big goal is offering the (not a) Masterclasses, which we started.
We have a Slack channel with 40 to 50 people on it now, and it’s become this really great place for everyone to talk. There is a lot of talent in this Slack community, so we thought we would showcase individuals who have skills that they can share with others. We did one last week on how to sew cloth napkins! Another idea we have is to start hosting cooking classes where we make foods from different cultures.
4. What does food mean to you? Who are your favorite cook(s) and recipe(s)?
I have always loved food, and I had always cooked since I was really little—most of the stories about me when I was small revolve around food. There was one when my family went down to Mexico, and my parents gave me a taco to eat while we were driving back home to California. They checked on me a little while later and saw that I ate the paper plate with the taco. Another one was when I was five years old. I wanted to surprise my parents by making breakfast in the morning. I cooked rice, and I did not know how to cook rice or the fact that it expanded. So, my brother and I measured out all this rice and red food coloring because, in Pakistani culture, we have dessert rice that looks pink. Anyways, the rice expanded, and it overflowed! So when my parents woke up, there was just this giant pot of rice that is overflowing, and it was so bad that not even the birds would eat it. So you can see I have always loved food.
To me, food is love personified in an item. You cook food for the people you love, and I do believe that if you cook food with love, it tastes better, and it is a way of preserving culture as well. Especially since my family is an immigrant family, so food is a very specific way of preserving culture and creating a community. You could balance your whole life around food and your relationship with it.
A celebrity chef I loved is Anthony Bourdain. The way he respected other cultures and treated them with so much care that was truly inspirational. At the same time, though, I don’t think I made any of his recipes, but I loved him as a person. I really love Samin Nosrat, but again I don’t believe I made any of her recipes.
These days I am trying to make recipes by Hetal Vasavada, who is Milk and Cardamom on Instagram. She mostly does Indian desserts. They are interesting because they are not traditional Indian desserts. She takes the core of them and translates them to a more western upbringing, which is more relatable to me.
5. Tell us your favorite book, any book recommendations you have, or what you have read recently.
In quarantine, I started going back to reading fiction for the first time in years. I used to be a huge book nerd, but it has been a long time since I have been such a voracious reader. One year, I think it was 2016; I read 100 books. I just finished Pachinko. It was so good! I read Normal People after I watched the show, that was great too. I thought the book would tell me more, but it ended at the same point as the show! Right now, I am reading This is Marketing by Seth Godin. Marketing is something I struggle with when it comes to my business, and I like the way Godin promotes marketing. When it comes to cookbooks, I borrowed one from a friend called Asian Dumplings and one called Feast by Anissa Helou, which is about food from the Muslim world. I think my favorite book is The Portrait of Dorian Grey, but I have not read it since high school, so I am not sure about that. So, it might be this book of poetry, If They Come for Us by Fatimah Asghar. I refer to this one a lot.
Hala
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Both of my parents are Lebanese, but it’s complicated because my family is a bit of everything, and my mom's family has not lived in Lebanon for generations. So we are a little bit African, Palestinian, French. Basically, a huge culture mix, even though ethnically, I am Lebanese. I think having this mixed background gives me a unique perspective on the world, immigration, food, culture, family, or how to relate to other people.
I grew up in Canada. My family came to Canada as refugees when I was seven years old, and eventually, we moved to the US. On my own, I moved to Houston and now to Austin, where I am currently based, but I'm possibly moving back to Michigan, where my family is.
2. What made you want to create Brown Girls Food Club? What do you personally bring to it?
When I first moved to Austin, I was in a serious relationship, so it was harder to make friends. I had been living in Austin for two years when we broke up, and I realized I didn’t have a lot of friends and especially friends who were people of color.
I knew Hamaila through a mutual friend, so I started to reach out to her, actually, more like I slid into her DM'S on Instagram. We started hanging out, and we decided for Ramadan since all the founders of this group are Muslim it would be nice to have iftar with friends. I offered to host it at my place. Hamaila came with two friends, and she invited Ayesha, who she had met through Instagram too. None of us really knew each other before this event and ended up having such a great time! We had a nice time sharing food, talking, and relating to each other.
After this, we intentionally started to meet up once a month at restaurants. We organized this just as friends, and then one day, Ayesha said, "Why don't we open this up to people? We are getting so much out of this. I’m sure there are other women of color in Austin who would enjoy this too." So we started an Instagram and started branding. From there, we organized meet-ups at certain restaurants. I would say none of us have a specific role. We all really communicate with each other about what needs to be done, and then we do it.
3. What do you hope to achieve with this group?
As we get bigger, we are starting to get requests from members for things they would like to see and participate in. We are working with them on how to grow the community organically. We are happy with the skills shares that we call (not a)Masterclasses that have just launched. We started those by asking our community what skills they would like to share, and we are offering the courses to everyone regardless of gender or race.
Eventually, we would like to have ambassadors from other cities, so we are currently working on a guide for starting your own brown girl's food club. We are also busy building a website to keep track of restaurants, services, and to create a platform for others to meet.
Overall what I want to achieve from this group is for people to build relationships or friendships with each other, which is something I have gotten from this.
4. What does food mean to you? Who are your favorite cook(s) and recipe(s)?
To me, food is culture. My family eats Lebanese food, but we also eat West African, French, and American food. Food is also a community. It is where you sit down and share and talk to each other. These are the things I think about when I think about food.
I always shout her out. I love Samin Nosrat. Even though she doesn’t cook a lot of Iranian dishes, I do like that she has found a way not to be pigeon-holed as a brown womxn only to cook the food of her culture. She is an expert in the food of other cultures, and I respect the fact that she highlights the foods of marginalized communities.
My favorite at-home cook is my mom. She made excellent Lebanese food.
What I have been enjoying cooking recently are old family recipes and writing them out as actual recipes. I am not sure if I have a favorite recipe. I do love cooking Moroccan food. I like experimenting with a lot of cuisines, and I have loved Moroccan food since I was a baby. I recently made grape leaves with my sister, which was fun but also very time-consuming. However, it gave us a lot of time to talk, and making them is very meditative. I like recipes that take a community to make.
5. Tell us your favorite book, any book recommendations you have, or what you have read recently.
I read every single night. I try to focus on getting books by authors who are POC, womxn, or a part of the LGBTQ+ community because I want different perspectives when I read. I have been doing this for the past 3-4 years because when people recommend books written by Hemingway or white men, I was not connecting to it. I decided to make a conscious decision to read books by other authors who helped me to find my love of reading again.
Lately, I have been into reading Margaret Atwood. I finished Alias Grace a few weeks ago, and I loved it. I just finished Cat's Eye, which I enjoyed too. My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshgegh came out last year, and she is a Jewish-Turkish-American writer I like because she is very dark and funny.
Little Gods by Meng Jim. I enjoy stories about the immigrant experience because I am one, so I tend to seek those out. Especially ones that discuss returning home.
Amber
https://www.muslimwomenprofessionals.org/
https://www.amberkazalbash.com
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I am a marketer based in Austin, Texas. Over the past few years, my interests outside of my professional pursuits have expanded from a creative direction in editorial photography to building platforms for underrepresented groups and people of color to learn and connect. I'm fascinated with the culture, food, fashion, and the sense of identity they can bring to second-generation Americans like me.
2. What made you want to create Brown Girls Food Club? What do you personally bring to it?
I moved here about a year ago from Southern California. In need of being near other womxn of color, I researched on Instagram to find a few other women with similar interests. I connected with Hamaila, who introduced me to Hala and Ayesha. From there, we began to work together on what is now the Brown Girls Food Club. The three of them had this idea earlier in the year, and once I joined, we decided it was time to bring the idea to life. I have worked on building community organizations for womxn, most recently a group called Muslim Women Professionals, so I try to bring my expertise around growing visibility for smaller groups like this to the team. I also help with moderating our meetups and projects, managing some of our upcoming initiatives like our community website.
3. What do you hope to achieve with this group?
The main thing I hope to achieve with this group is establishing a strong presence for the BIPOC womxn who make Austin such a wonderful and exciting place. Since our "HQ" is here in Texas, I feel that we have a significant opportunity to rewrite the current narrative around the lack of diversity and bring about awareness to the people, places, and food that make it such a great place to live. I hope to expand that model to other cities. Our meetups generate such exciting points of connection and conversation, and it all begins with what's on your individual plate. I hope that everyone who joins the group has the inspiration and confidence to share what's on theirs.
4. What does food mean to you? Who are your favorite cook(s) and recipe(s)?
Coming from a South Asian household, food has always been a central force in my life. As I've gotten older, I've found my balance and groove with what kinds of food and recipes make me happy, but above all, nothing beats the most simple "home food" made by my mom. I had the opportunity to stay with my family for a few months throughout the beginning of COVID. Having my mother's daal chawal (lentils and rice) gave me comfort upon every serving. The familiarity of food like this brings a sense of inner peace in times like this.
5. Tell us your favorite book, any book recommendations you have, or what you have read recently.
I wish I could say I am an avid reader, but being online 24/7 has made my attention span shorter than ever. I am currently in the middle of reading The Alchemist. My favorite memorable note so far has been "every blessing ignored becomes a curse." When I first read it, it felt like this was the perfect reminder that every privilege we have, whether it is a family, community, or a good plate of food, should be savored and appreciated to the fullest.
Ayesha
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I was born in Pakistan. However, I lived in Saudi Arabia and Germany before moving to the US when I was 14. My family is a multicultural hybrid. Third Culture, mixed, diaspora, immigrants, you name it, we fall into it. Living half my life in the east and then in the west has taught me to look at all my cultures through different lenses. This has been highly beneficial to me as a designer and a person.
I work in architecture but consider myself a multifaceted designer. I don't feel like I have one calling in my life, so I try to dabble in anything that interests me. The underlying themes of what I enjoy is inclusivity, purpose, and connection. I enjoy creating, whether it be physical spaces or media.
You can check out my work or learn more about me on my website or my Instagram.
2. What made you want to create Brown Girls Food Club? What do you personally bring to it?
BGFC came out of a need for a space to connect with like-minded WOC (womxn of color). The four of us met during Ramadan in June 2019 and continued to meet at minority-owned restaurants in Austin. So, we decided in October to form the club and open it to other BIPOC) womxn. We spotlight BIPOC restaurants, especially those with little to no marketing or media attention. Our group's core value is food, but we've expanded into other aspects of connecting BIPOC womxn in the digital age.
We all bring what we can to the table and work as a collective, but I currently focus on branding, social media, and events.
3. What do you hope to achieve with this group?
Through BGFC, we hope to achieve a welcoming space for those who didn't feel like they could be themselves in alternate spaces in their lives, all while breaking bread with incredible womxn. It's a club to connect and learn from each other. It is a safe space for those who don't feel like they've found their people. Also, it is space to make friends and grow into a family. We pride ourselves on the diversity that our community is made up of and hope to see it prosper beyond our meetups. We also hope to expand to other cities in the near future post-COVID.
4. What does food mean to you? Who are your favorite cook(s) and recipe(s)?
Food, to me, is my identity. It's home. I find out more about my heritage, the more I learn my own family recipes. The act of cooking is meditative as well. It's also a means of storytelling; I grew up watching elderly Turkic women sitting together, sharing their lives while their hands were busy folding dumplings. The act of eating together is powerful, especially with different cultural traditions. We grew up sitting on the ground pretty often and eating with our hands. No matter what part of life you're in, young, old, rich, or poor, you're dining together when you're at the table (or floor). It's communal.
My favorite cook is the one I grew up with. His name is Ala Quli, and he lives in Pakistan but is of Turkic descent. He is the keeper of my late grandmother's recipes. I would spend many days in the kitchen watching him make noodles while sneaking the uncooked dough to eat and later being scolded by my mom for eating raw dough; she said I'd get worms in my stomach. I didn't care. I loved the texture.
I don't have a particular favorite recipe, as it honestly would depend on which cuisine. I love to eat good food. But I do love my mom's homemade hummus immensely.
5. Tell us your favorite book, any book recommendations you have, or what you have read recently.
Unfortunately, I do have the chance to read as much as I used to, as most of the books I read now are for my architectural licensing exams (hoping to be done soon). But one of my all-time favorites is The Battle For Home by Marwa Al-Sabouni. I also keep gravitating back to You and I Eat The Same by MAD Dispatches. I've been reading more articles about BIPOC architects for a series I've been posting about called #UnsungArchitects. I've also been enjoying Haley Nahman's newsletter, "Maybe Baby." I listen to many podcasts, but my favorite is "Chaii Lab," run by 4 WOC friends of mine. Misha Euceph's Michelle Obama podcast, "Tell Them, I Am," also killer. I love any Radiotopia series as well.