June 2025 – Issue No. XIV
Welcome to the June edition of SHOR, a curation of South Asian experiences in New York City.
In this issue we highlight June events, profile Sunny Bhathela, the founder of Viani Watches, and share a SHOR team openings.
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Events
A list of upcoming events in June.
Dounia — Friday, June 6th
Genre-defying artist Dounia brings her soulful sounds to Brooklyn.
Baby’s All Right (Williamsburg) | Music and Performance | Tickets
Omar Presents: Sufi Sessions — Saturday, June 7th
An intimate evening of live Sufi-inspired music, poetry, and ritual.
Sangs (Bushwick) | Music and Culture | Tickets
Ashni, Emily Jeanne Brown, Sami Stevens & More — Monday, June 9th
Indie and jazz singer-songwriters in a vinyl bar setting.
Cassette (Ridgewood) | Music and Community | Tickets
Nikita + Special Guests — Tuesday, June 10th
Nikita takes on Nublu.
Nublu (East Village) | Music and Performance | Tickets
Zeemuffin — Saturday, June 14th
Zeemuffin will be kicking off her summer shows in NYC.
TBA | Music and Performance | TBA
The Caravan — Saturday, June 14th
A cross-cultural party and global dance floor experience by Omar ؏.
Damballa (Brooklyn) | Music and Performance | Tickets
Bashiri Asad, Shayla Hernandez, Raspberry Pie & More — Saturday, June 14th
A funk, soul, and R&B night with live performances in Fort Greene.
Brooklyn Music Kitchen (Fort Greene) | Music and Culture | Tickets
AfroDesi: DJ SUDI & Friends — Sunday, June 15th
A rooftop dance party fusing Afro and South Asian beats featuring TEEJ, MOHOGANY, PRIYANKA, and MR SAJ.
Elsewhere (Bushwick) | Music and Culture | Tickets
Sammy Obeid — Thursday, June 19th
Sammy Obeid returns to City Winery on his “Domestic Tourist” stand up tour.
City Winery | Comedy | Details
NY Indian Film Festival — Friday, June 20th - Sunday, June 22nd
NY India Film Festival is back at the Angelika.
Angelika (East Village) | Film | Details
Habibi Festival at BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! — Friday, June 20th
A celebration of SWANA music and culture in Prospect Park.
Lena Horne Bandshell (Prospect Park) | Music and Culture | Tickets
Other Tongue Bazaar — Sunday, June 22nd
A day of food + bev pop-ups, vendors, artist workshops and live music.
Monkey King | Food, Art, Music & Culture | RSVP
Saami Brothers - Khayal & Qawwali at Sommwhere! — Monday, June 23rd
Khayal and classical Qawwali offering by the illustrious Saami Brothers at Sommwhere on Ludlow.
Sommwhere (Lower East Side) | Music and Culture | Tickets
NAAN STOP — Thursday, June 26th
A new party celebrating the South Asian diaspora. Amapiano, house, jersey club, desi beats, and more global edits featuring Mrii & DJ Halla.
SOB’s (204 Varick St) | Music | Tickets
Into the Archives: Samia Usmani — Saturday, June 28th
A celebration of Samia Usmani’s five-year journey in sustainable fashion, featuring her design archives and community.
538 Johnson Ave (Bushwick) | Arts and Culture | Tickets
Brooklyn Baithak — Saturday, June 28th
An intimate space for raga based music & dance.
Ruhani Cafe (Atlantic Ave) | Music and Culture | Tickets
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Know an event we should add to our next list? Shoot us a message at shor.newyork@gmail.com or DM us on Instagram!
Coming Soon
Coming soon…
Bengali Film Festival — Saturday, July 19th
Bengali film festival at Angelika in East Village.
Village East by Angelika (East Village) | Film and Culture | Tickets
June Spotlight: Sunny Bhathela
A micro-profile of South Asian changemakers.
When Sunny Bhathela set out to find a wristwatch that reflected his Indian heritage, he assumed it would be a simple search. What he wanted was straightforward: a sleek timepiece that used Hindi numerals instead of the typical Roman ones. But after scouring the market, he found nothing that matched his vision.
So, he decided to design one himself.
More than a year and a half of prototyping later, Bhathela launched Viani—the only Hindi-numeral watch brand on the market—in 2023. The project was both a personal and cultural endeavor: a tribute to the often overlooked history of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system, the first to introduce the concept of zero.
“The idea behind this watch was really a work of love,” says Bhathela. Even the brand’s name, Viani, is a play on “divani,” the Hindi word for “passionately in love”—a fitting reflection of Bhathela himself, whose passions range from spinning records as a DJ, practicing as an eye doctor, and now, crafting watches.
Coming from a family of generational tailors in rural India, Bhathela had a long held love for fashion and streetwear, but the amount of waste in the fashion industry always troubled him. “My family’s tailoring shop created beautiful pieces, but I couldn’t ignore the mountain of fabric scraps that were piling up,” Sunny told Esquire in a recent profile. When designing Viani, Bhathela made sure to prioritize eco-friendliness and sustainability. The watches in his first collection are entirely solar-powered, capable of running for months on a single charge—no batteries required.
Each Viani timepiece is an international collaboration: designed in New York, built with solar components sourced from Japan, assembled in Switzerland, and rooted in the ancient numeral tradition of South Asia.
With every watch, Bhathela hopes to do more than tell time. He wants to spark curiosity about the numerals we often take for granted—offering a wearable expression of South Asian history.
— Urooba
Thank you!
If you read this far, thank you for checking out the June issue of SHOR! We will keep updating our events calendar throughout the month, but feel free to follow our instagram for event reminders and more frequent updates.
We’ll see you in July for our next edition!