Paranda Party

Paranda Party is an immersive cultural arts program that uplifts South Asian diasporic traditions, centers queer joy, and provides a platform for local artists through braiding, performance, zines, and community connection.

A paranda is a traditional Punjabi hair adornment, braided into the hair to express identity, beauty, and cultural pride. It became a mainstream beauty staple in Bollywood, and those spinning parandas on screen inspired generations of us to swing our own with attitude.

Paranda Party began as a shared dream between founders Fatima Zaidi and Lana Patel. Fatima had been hand-making parandas for years, and during Pride month 2024 she met Lana at Queer Arts Featured in the Castro, formerly Harvey Milk's camera store. Fatima braided a paranda into Lana's hair, and in that moment the two imagined a gathering that could honor hair, queer identity, and the divine feminine in all of us.

Each Paranda Party starts with a theme rooted in South Asian diaspora languages, inspiring original artwork by Fatima drawn from South Asian truck art traditions. Community members gather beforehand to hand-make parandas and attach messages of well wishes, and artists and writers from around the world contribute to a companion zine. At the party itself, guests experience a paranda braiding demo, live performances of poetry, storytelling, music, and dance, a community dance floor, local food and an arts market, and plenty of gup shup (socializing).

Our values guide everything we build: dignity for every person, cultural integrity in honoring Punjabi roots, joy and healing through creativity, and inclusion that centers queer and South Asian communities while staying open to all.

So far, Paranda Party has brought together 60+ attendees across two events, featured more than a dozen South Asian diasporic artists in our zines, and produced dozens of handcrafted parandas. We are building a rare kind of space: femme-forward, culturally grounded, and rooted in ancestral learning, alternative to a typical party or open mic.

Looking ahead, we are growing into an annual and eventually traveling event across the U.S. and global diaspora, with "Make Your Own Paranda" workshops, expanded zines, a micro-grant fund for our artists, and a vocational pathway program teaching paranda-making as a creative job skill.

Your support helps us pay our artists fairly, cover materials and venue costs, keep our events accessible, and keep weaving community magic.