"To live is to be slowly born . . . " Antoine de Saint Exupéry
A Little About Me
Here is a short(er) introduction to my work. For my approach and philosophy, click here.
I am a writer, somatic facilitator and deeply curious human being. I navigate the world through a forest of questions that live in my body. My shoulders are always seeking ways to create systems--from families to nations--that allow people to live the full brilliance of who they are. My belly churns this question daily: how to unweave oppression from inside our cells out through our hands, actions, beings? My knees want to know: how to show up to the immense grief of what is--how to hold each other through it, how to build strength from its depths? In my heart, I ask about the mysticism of love, the grief of loss, the rage of violence, the paradox of belonging. As a first generation South Asian American whose work resides in the in-between, I’ve spent my life learning how to navigate and find strength in the liminal space. These questions and more have guided me over the past 10 years as an artist and facilitator.
Where I Work
I currently hold the following roles:
Education & Training
Truthfully, my most informative teachers and education have been the conversations, relationships, conflicts and humbling experiences I've had with students, peers, elders, my family, strangers, people I completely disagree with, and--always--literature, film, dance, music & art.
That said, I am grateful to have trained with the following people/organizations. They have given me whole families of like-valued thinkers, artists, entrepreneurs, counselors and sweet hearts:
Shout out: the Jam and InterPlay in particular are organizations that uplift and honor the wisdom of communities, making space for collective learning and discovery. I am continually learning from the practices and people I encounter through these two communities.
*NOTE: I have strong and mixed feelings about higher education. I list my studies here not to validate myself, but because there is a truth to the privileges I carry having attended these exclusive institutions. And yet, my greatest learning has always come from individuals and from life itself. I continue to work enormously hard to unlearn the creative constriction, perfectionism, intellectual b.s., social/economic hierarchies and capitalistic learning structures that school and higher education built inside me. That's why I left design school. I wanted radical and transformative practices, not further ivory tower pedigree and external validation.
While these places gave me beautiful things too--friendships, some honest and caring teachers, some examples of how I DON'T want to be in the world--they don't make me more or less qualified than anybody else. Institutions taught me a specific academic language, but I believe intelligence and capability reside within. They cannot be bestowed nor taken from any human being, only nurtured.
Here is a short(er) introduction to my work. For my approach and philosophy, click here.
I am a writer, somatic facilitator and deeply curious human being. I navigate the world through a forest of questions that live in my body. My shoulders are always seeking ways to create systems--from families to nations--that allow people to live the full brilliance of who they are. My belly churns this question daily: how to unweave oppression from inside our cells out through our hands, actions, beings? My knees want to know: how to show up to the immense grief of what is--how to hold each other through it, how to build strength from its depths? In my heart, I ask about the mysticism of love, the grief of loss, the rage of violence, the paradox of belonging. As a first generation South Asian American whose work resides in the in-between, I’ve spent my life learning how to navigate and find strength in the liminal space. These questions and more have guided me over the past 10 years as an artist and facilitator.
Where I Work
I currently hold the following roles:
- Organizer and facilitator for YES! and InterPlay
- Designer/director of an arts, sustainability and inner resilience program at the Camden Street School in NJ
- Editor and 'Manager of Caring' for art & eden
- Copywriter for independent artists, nonprofits and social enterprises
- Community artist & workshop leader, in collaboration with other radical, liberatory, difficult-to-define creators around the world!
- In the past, I've worked as a teacher in NYC, Boston and rural India, as a production assistant for Elsewhere Museum, a community manager for Idealist.org, as a literacy specialist for Building Brainiacs, and as a tutor for K - 12 students
Education & Training
Truthfully, my most informative teachers and education have been the conversations, relationships, conflicts and humbling experiences I've had with students, peers, elders, my family, strangers, people I completely disagree with, and--always--literature, film, dance, music & art.
That said, I am grateful to have trained with the following people/organizations. They have given me whole families of like-valued thinkers, artists, entrepreneurs, counselors and sweet hearts:
- Somatic SoULL: the somatics of living, aging & dying with Jeanne Denney (2018)
- YES! World: Arts for Social Change Jam, NYC Jam, North America Jam -- participant, organizer & facilitator (2015 - current)
- InterPlay: Arts and Social Change Training, Leaders Training -- certified InterPlay leader (2016 - current)
- Relational Uprising: Culture (2018)
- VNSNY Hospice Training (2017)
- Institute for Community Action (2017)
- BK Foundation Experiential Exchange Program (2016)
- Theater of the Oppressed NYC Joker I (2016)
- Kroc School for Peace and Justice: M.S. in Conflict Management and Resolution (expected: 2020)
- Parsons: select courses in Transdisciplinary Design M.F.A. (2016)
- Williams College: B.A. in English** (2012)
Shout out: the Jam and InterPlay in particular are organizations that uplift and honor the wisdom of communities, making space for collective learning and discovery. I am continually learning from the practices and people I encounter through these two communities.
*NOTE: I have strong and mixed feelings about higher education. I list my studies here not to validate myself, but because there is a truth to the privileges I carry having attended these exclusive institutions. And yet, my greatest learning has always come from individuals and from life itself. I continue to work enormously hard to unlearn the creative constriction, perfectionism, intellectual b.s., social/economic hierarchies and capitalistic learning structures that school and higher education built inside me. That's why I left design school. I wanted radical and transformative practices, not further ivory tower pedigree and external validation.
While these places gave me beautiful things too--friendships, some honest and caring teachers, some examples of how I DON'T want to be in the world--they don't make me more or less qualified than anybody else. Institutions taught me a specific academic language, but I believe intelligence and capability reside within. They cannot be bestowed nor taken from any human being, only nurtured.