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In my thirties, I have felt a greater urgency to make art that highlights what it feels like to be racialized, likely due to living in a country that obscures our racism with the idea of multiculturalism.

Vivek Shraya

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Vivek Shraya
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Thirties
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More quotes by Vivek Shraya

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As a general rule, I tend to collaborate with artists whose work I admire.
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Music is my first love, where my artistic journey began.
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Writing about racism requires a directness that writing a love story does not.
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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 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 don't yet know what style will be required for my next novel, but my sense is that each book will involve a new relationship to language.
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My interest in language is steadfast, but I think each project and its accompanying intentions dictate how language must be used.
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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 have always considered the aesthetic of a project, including press photos, as a means to further the message of the art itself.
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I am always hesitant to call myself an activist, mostly out of respect for the activists who are using their bodies and voices to protest or activists online who are constantly engaging and educating others.
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I feel like I have had to catch up to the art I've made, and learn from the protagonists I have written, especially in relation to gender.
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When I do book readings, I always incorporate music or singing.
Vivek Shraya
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I have been and continue to be committed to art as a tool to ignite, comfort, and discomfort.
Vivek Shraya
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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.
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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.
Vivek Shraya
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I have dedicated a significant portion of my time and artistry to making art that addresses various forms of oppression, including white supremacy, misogyny, and biphobia.
Vivek Shraya
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Making music has been connected to one of my greatest heartaches, because my own music has never quite connected with audiences. But it was this heartache that pushed me to explore other artistic avenues, like writing and filmmaking, and I ultimately feel most at home in a multidisciplinary environment.
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My intention was never to write a trans novel - which is perhaps an effective strategy for writing a trans novel.
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I couldn't write about love without writing about hate - specifically, how the experience of hatred embeds itself in the body and prevents love from entering or leaving.
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