They are portrayed in films as the butt of a sexual joke, the endless fascination with body parts, genitals and sexual preference overrides even the most PG of daytime talkshows.Įnter Vivek Shraya, talking freely of her own desire, her own parts, her own sexuality. Trans people are constantly seen as other, they are forever sexualised and objectified. I think the aspect of her work that I cherished the most was when she discussed her sexuality freely and easily in her work. Her voice is an echo, a soft place to fall, a mirror through which young trans and LBTQIA people can see their own beauty. She writes as if she were speaking to her former self perhaps, a younger self, and when I think of all the young trans or agender people reading her work around the world, my heart is warmed. She writes honestly, but not in a way that is not compassionate. Remember that poetry is life distilled and that life is not always nice or proper or normal or happy or smooth or even-edged." - Gwendolyn Brooks Don’t force your poem to be nice or proper or normal or happy if it does not want to be. "In writing your poem, tell the truth as you know it. I'm reminded of this quotation by Gwendolyn Brooks: Her writing is lyrical and bare, but most of all honest and I think this is something I value the most. It is raw, it is vulnerable, it is beautiful and radical. I loved that she was able to take complex, difficult issues like privilege, heteronormativity and her own anti-black racism and condense them into short, emotional, cathartic poems.
She discusses racism, colour, what it means to be brown, desire, sexuality and how in coveting whiteness, you can lose yourself. And from the first poem, white dreams, I loved her work. Vivek is an engaging and highly popular performer in addition to writing, she is a performance and recording artist (as well as filmmaker) and often incorporates music and multimedia into her readings.Įven This Page is White by Vivek Shraya has to be one of my most long-awaited reads of 2017.The book includes a “conversation with friends” featuring Sarah Quin (of the popular music duo Tegan and Sara), poet and memoirist Amber Dawn, musician Rae Spoon, and author Dannielle Owens-Reid.The motivation for the book is to use poetry to reduce and transcend barriers that divide people according to race, and to paint the face of racism so that it is visible, tangible and undeniable. even this page is inspired by events of the past few years in which race (as well as class, gender, and sexuality) have become explosive and divisive issues.Vivek Shraya is a talented writer, musician, performer and filmmaker who has previously published an acclaimed novel (She of the Mountains) and a YA book ( God Loves Hair) as well as a new children’s picture book this season ( The Boy & the Bindi).
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