“Stories from the Beauty Parlor” Podcast: Fact Sheet
Episode Summaries
Episode 1: Kosovo - wedding rituals and nail therapy in Europe’s youngest country
In our first episode, we visit Linda at Serpent Claws Salon in the capital of Pristina and Elvira at Beauty Line in a Bosnian village on the border to North Macedonia. In their respective salons, we learn more about the tension and opportunities of advocating for change while traditions are carried by care workers. In a country emerging from its new-ish independence with progressive values, traditional practices can be hijacked by patriarchal values. How does migration play a role, and what can we learn about becoming a wife from a 6-hour make-up ritual?
Photo: Annamaria Olsson, 19.08.2024
Episode 2: Georgia - drag show, create beauty, protest, repeat
We meet Not-So-Virgin-Mari, one of Tbilisi’s drag artists, resisting the country’s escalating homophobia. In their classy, high-demand tattoo parlor, we talk to Pito Seturi, internationally known Georgian Artist, who reflects over Russia’s interference in their democratic elections that gave power to the Georgian Dream Party. As Tbilisi enters 115+ days of continuous protest of the far-right, Kremlin-backed, “Georgian Nightmare,” through art, activism and a lot of mocking, we get a poignant lesson in Georgian’s Soviet history, the authoritarian playbook, and how queer-led community organizing fights for power with beauty.
Photo: Pamela Chomba, 21.11.2024
About the co-hosts and founding team
Annamaria Olsson
Annamaria Olsson is a Swedish activist, writer and social entrepreneur living in Berlin since 2008. In 2012, she founded Give Something Back To Berlin (GSBTB), an NGO dedicated to fostering community among migrants, refugees, and locals to fight anti-migrant discourse. GBSTB became an internationally acclaimed best practice, awarded with over eleven German and global prizes from institutions like the UN and the city of Berlin. The organization has hosted visits from prominent figures, including Queen Camilla of the United Kingdom, and the King and Queen of Sweden. Until today it runs more than 80 weekly activities welcoming 18.000 participants and volunteers annually. A published author, Annamaria is a respected speaker, having presented at the UN headquarters in New York and from 2023 to 2026 cycle, she will serve as a standing guest lecturer at Harvard University on refugee integration in Germany.
Pamela Chomba
Pamela Chomba is a Peruvian-American internationally recognized advocate for immigration justice. Before joining Beauty Parlor, Pamela worked at FWD.us, a bipartisan immigration and criminal justice advocacy organization, where she enhanced the organization’s border, asylum, and migration program. In this role she led political advocacy efforts to the White House and Congress with organizations from the US-Mexico border and across continental US. Pamela is a Democracy & Belonging Forum Member at UC Berkeley and a German Marshall Fund Fellow, often found developing Transatlantic Programming between the US and Europe. Pamela brings lived experience as an undocumented immigrant to her advocacy work and her personal journey fuels her commitment to immigrant rights and women’s voices around the world.
About Stories from the Beauty Parlor: Founded in August 2024, Stories from the Beauty Parlor is a multidisciplinary storytelling and fundraising platform mobilizing support for feminist causes. Our plan is to leverage the $650B beauty industry to invest back into the communities that fund them – women* and queer folks. Currently, only 1 to 2% of global philanthropic funds go towards these groups. As anti-feminist rhetoric increases worldwide, we resist through joy, beauty, and collective action in support of grassroots making crucial work on the ground.