Ali heads to Awesome Con

Keeping the amazing momentum of 2024 going, Ali was fortunate enough to attend this year’s Awesome Con, Washington DC’s very own annual comic book and pop culture convention. Ali took the stage as a guest panelist to dive deep into the world of SWANA Representation in Pop Culture along with the hosts of The Middle Geeks podcast and esteemed artists and writers from the SWANA community.

If you're wondering what SWANA stands for (we gotchu!), it's Southwest Asia and North Africa. Ali took part in a fascinating discussion about the representation of this diverse and vibrant community in the realm of pop culture. We talked about movies, TV shows, video games, comics – you name it. The panel tackled the long-standing issue of underrepresentation of SWANA communities in major franchises like Star Wars, Star Trek, Indiana Jones, and Dune. Despite being the inspiration behind these iconic stories, SWANA individuals are often sidelined in acting, writing, and directing roles, leading to inaccurate and dehumanizing depictions rooted in Orientalism. While progress has been made with recent projects like Moon Knight, Ramy, and Mo, the panel was an opportunity to discuss personal experiences, identify signs of improvement, highlight favorite instances of positive representation, and call on Hollywood to step up its game.

You can watch the full panel below or listen to it as a podcast on your favorite platform by clicking on the link underneath.