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When I wouldn't leave home without my blue contacts or when I was bleaching my hair, I didn't have the language to articulate that I was trying to assimilate to whiteness. If anything, I was trying to look normal.

Vivek Shraya

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Vivek Shraya
Look
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Without
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Whiteness
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More quotes by Vivek Shraya

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Despite the fact that I'm not highly skilled in any visual art, aesthetics have always played a strong role in my art, including my first albums.
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I didn't want to give the white reader an opportunity to think of racism as imaginary - a sentiment that is already a central barrier in addressing the problem.
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I especially worry about the ways Canadians can be glib about our supposed difference from the US in our acceptance of diversity.
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I have been and continue to be committed to art as a tool to ignite, comfort, and discomfort.
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I always work with text orally in the writing process, saying passages aloud to measure flow.
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I think white artists have a responsibility to be not only naming white supremacy, but to be using their power and privilege to support artists of color.
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I tend to focus less on genre as a starting point and more on idea or intention and let the idea dictate genre.
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Children are receptive to talking about gender creativity, confirming the importance of the book as a means to instigate this dialogue at an early age.
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Now is not the time for Canadians to be sanctimonious. It is time for us to be prudent and active.
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I worry about what Trump will inspire in Canada, especially given incidents that have already occurred here since the election.
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Music is my first love, where my artistic journey began.
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I used singing as a safety measure. I would pay attention to what songs the popular girls liked, learn those songs from the radio or library cassettes, and then accidentally sing or hum these songs in class. This would impress the girls, who would then defend me from the boys.
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I recently did a reading at an elementary school in Ottawa, and one of the children asked me if I was a girl. I said yes. Another child commented that I had a deep voice. I responded: Can girls have deep voices? There was a pause and then the group responded, Yes!
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I am more likely to get paid for my art if it's presented alongside a white artist, so the questions around value and agency arise: What choices should I make, or do I have to make, if I want to be compensated for my work? Why isn't my art valued on its own?
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As a brown artist, I have mixed feelings about my relationship to art and my responsibilities post-Trump.
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