Join Chef Heena Patel and paper sculpture artist Zai Divecha for a night of conversation in Minnesota Street Project adjacent to Besharam. Geetika Agrawal, Project Director of Bay Area nonprofit La Cocina, will moderate a discussion about about their common Gujarati heritage, what inspires them, and how that reflects on their mediums of choice.

Throughout the night, there will be wine, snacks, and dinner provided by Besharam, a paper-folding demonstration by Zai, and a silent auction for two of Zai's pieces. Proceeds from the auction will be donated to the Pratham Institute, an organization in India that provides vocational training, job placement, and employability and entrepreneurship support for youths.

Upon conclusion of the event, attendees will receive a sample of Zai's work to take home.

Heena Patel is Chef and owner of Dogpatch restaurant Besharam, which was recently named Best New Restaurant of the Year by SF Eater in 2019. Besharam means "shameless," which is a word often used to put women in their place. Throughout her female-led restaurant, Chef Heena reclaims that word and instead uses it to ask herself, what more can you do? If you're truly shameless, what else can you accomplish?

Zai Divecha is a San Francisco-based artist whose work provides a quiet, calm respite from an overstimulating world. By folding, pleating or rolling sheets of white paper, she creates intricate patterns of light and shadow. Divecha has shown at Marrow Gallery, West Coast Craft, and the American Craft Council; clients include Instagram, Twitter, and Square. Divecha is a Bay Area native and a Yale graduate, and she works out of a shared workshop in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco.