Featured

“Inside Malden” interviews pianist Yelena Beriyeva

Traveling all the way from the Republic of Georgia to Malden, pianist Yelena Beriyeva brings us notes – of all kinds – that are worth listening to. With melodies that glisten and phrasing thoughtfully timed, her playing echoes some hard-learned and practiced principles that resonate and inspire, both on the stage and in conversation. There is a quiet yet deliberate positive vibe and a collaborative spirit you feel in Beriyeva’s presence that is born out of years of tireless work and the string of hardships she and her family endured in the Republic of Georgia after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Beriyeva’s life of music began at age three in Tbilisi, when her mother, a musician, observed both her daughters’ natural musical abilities and began to groom the sisters for lives as professional musicians. Through the upheavals in political and daily life, her family stayed close, and the two Beriyeva sisters, both professional pianists today, played through the turmoil. The family was eventually able to come to the United States, first to […]

Featured

“Inside Malden” with Ose Schwab profiles Sifu Mai Du

Mai Du, Founder and Sifu of the Wah Lum Kung Fu and Tai Chi Academy in Malden, jokes that her American dream started out as a nightmare at Logan Airport. Only eight, exhausted from a long trip from Vietnam via the Philippines, she arrived with her family in the United States on Halloween night. Despite this spooky start, Du has established herself in the United States not only as a Vietnamese-Chinese-American but a nationally recognized youth organizer and activist, one of the few female certified Wah Lum Kung Fu instructors in the Greater Boston Area, Founder and Sifu of a thriving award-winning Kung Fu and Tai Chi academy in Malden, owner/teacher of a math and reading school, and founder of numerous local and national advocacy groups and coalitions. Learning and education, or as Mai puts it “sharing,” is a constant theme in all she does. Passionate about youth and education, she is what she calls others to be, “relentless in the work of instilling hope and inspiration in our younger generations so that they have […]

Community Ramadan Iftar in Malden 2014
Inside Malden

Souad Akib | We are different and we are one

VIEW ON YOUTUBE | LISTEN | DOWNLOAD PODCAST Watch the episode on local cable (Comcast 3, Verizon 28) Sundays at 7:30 pm and Thursdays at 11:30 am through January. In a day of troubling reports of terrorist attacks around the world, refugee crises in Europe and the US, war, and the trends of racial, ethnic, and religious profiling, Souad Akib, a native of Morocco and a vibrant and well-loved presence in Malden, offers a concerned but optimistic voice of reason and hope to us all in Malden and beyond. In 2010, Souad Akib founded the American Association for Arab Women (AAAW). In collaboration with other organizations in Malden, this non-profit organization helps women from Arab countries access the resources needed to navigate the systems, culture, and language of their new home. By this empowering support of women, the AAAW helps families to thrive in Malden. Malden benefits by this service as immigrant families become engaged residents. In addition, the AAAW sponsors events that invite all of Malden to workshops that raise awareness about important topics […]