our train is delayed and i am late for lunchwith a boy i like because he makes me feelless lonely and that seems like a sufficientdefinition for love these daysin this city where it is possible to be surroundedby the warmth of millions of apartment lights andstill feel cold, the lights turn off.and its one of those momentswhen we are forced to look up from our screens and remember that we exist outside of them. Theres this term thats circulating called chromophobia, fear of color. ALOK (they/them) is an internationally acclaimed writer, performer, and public speaker. Nonbinary activist Alok Vaid-Menon broke down the history of and problems with the gender binary and how people can fight against it in video that has gone viral on social media. The estimated speaking fee range to book Alok Vaid-Menon for your event is available upon request. Pricing often varies between live and virtual events. One of my favorite things was going to weddings and seeing intergenerational dancing. Tragedy, death, loss and love are essentials we struggle to accept. Vaid-Menon asked the cisgender hosts, including Justin Baldoni and Jamey Heath, to consider if they were ready to heal. Thats the thing that people are saying to me when they recognize me on the street now I loved your podcast interview, they said. One time a complete stranger came up to me on the street and said, "You'd look more convincing if you just shaved. Webwe have been taught to fear the very things that have the potential to set us free Alok Vaid-Menon 63 likes Like Its not just that you internalize the shame; rather, it becomes Take a look at Button's Privacy Policy. It was a dance that I wanted to stage for my own community. She eventually passed on without ever seeing me as myself. In one memorable moment, Mx. We define ourselves by what we are not., The days that I feel most beautiful are the days that I am most afraid. When I play music, its not just that Im playing music, its that Im setting the scene to be alive. Theres, in fact, a third way. Our agents are happy and able to submit an offer to the speaker or celebrity of your choice, letting you benefit from our reputation and long-standing relationships in the industry. Alok Vaid-Menon generally travels from New York, NY, USA and can be booked for (private) corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. People have been taught to fear the very things that have the potential to set them free. Its the inability to see that vibrancy, diversity, instability, collapse, rupture, serendipity are the natural orientations of being alive. By encouraging and broadcasting the best and brightest performance poets of today, we hope to broaden poetry's audience, to expand its reach and develop a greater level of cultural appreciation for the art form.Help us caption \u0026 translate this video!https://amara.org/v/CYwp1/ And then everyone loves it and theyre clapping. No need to encapsulate my universes into frameworks of gender. And then I ask it until I can remember that the shame was not my own. Toward the start of the conversation, Heath told Vaid-Menon that when he listens to them speak, he asks himself, "Why do I not fight for them?". That was the voice of Alok Vaid-Menon. Why would you do this, if you lost access to power, legitimacy, intelligibility? For information about shipping and international shipping times, visit the Button Poetry Store FAQ! Welcome to AWAKEN, a podcast presented by the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City. One of life's paradoxes is that we are encouraged to "be ourselves," but are often punished when we do. Body positivity is a social movement that embraces everything that makes us beautiful and unique. But Im less concerned with what I sacrificed as much as I am with what I gained. We thought fitting in would give us securitybut is it security when someone else living their life differently unsettles us to our very core?, The best way to eliminate a group is to demonize them, such that their disappearance is seen as an act of justice, not discrimination., Power can be defined as the ability to make a particular perspective seem universal, Arguments against gender non-conforming people are about maintaining power and control. Fill out a. The fear is not of what could be, or what was, its the fear of what is. They've repressed their own creativity.". And then you acting like a fool, that gives me permission to be a fool. WebBrowse 332 alok_vaid menon stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. It felt like the body was a mere suggestion. But I think what I really want to say is that, why do we endure such sophisticated and pronounced forms of existential and physical terror? as if this struggle is not your struggle. Id put on an old Bollywood track and I would just dance. "And then here we are, 100 years later, trans and gender-nonconforming people are saying, 'Hey everyone, I want to be able to exist, I want to be able to walk outside without being spat on, I want to be able to live and not fear dying.' So the goal has always been about elimination of us. "They've repressed their own femininity. What a joy it is to be able to curate the sounds of my own soundtrack. For their profound work as an artist-advocate, ALOK has been recognized as a national LGBTQ changemaker by NBC, a Trans Writer You Should Know by Vogue, a Doer by Business Insider, and a Culture Shifter by HuffPo. Vaid-Menon's response, which broke down how Heath could actually better support trans people, has gone viral. Every time Im feeling shame, I breathe into that location. Vaid-Menon said. And that kind of sense of recognition and that sense of self-acceptance and that sense of surrender to the kind of quiet pulse of the earth having a heartbeat is what I would describe why we do this thing. I see interconnectivity with nature, the earth, humanity, and a deep practice of humility. And what I gained was my life back. In 2019 ALOK was invited to close the Business of Fashion Voices Conference with a keynote speech calling for the degendering of fashion and beauty industries. Gender-neutral language isnt about replacing an old norm with a new one. "I don't need your help," they said, adding that they "have an unshakable and irrevocable sense of who I am" and don't need to prove anything. Alok Vaid-Menon in Oxfordshire, England, on Nov. 22, 2019. But I dont know if thats honest about being alive. How two poets are nurturing support networks disrupted by the ALOK (they/them) is an internationally acclaimed gender non-conforming writer, performer, and public speaker. And what I really appreciate about the story is it requires us to kind of move out, zone out, zoom out of just like an interpersonal interaction and see the world from a different perspective, and be like, what, from the perspective of a tree or from the wind, is this conflict? So if its like, oh, Im feeling shame that theres hair on my face, I close my eyes and I breathe in to that. Atlanta-based company Mailchimp calls Aloks talk required viewing for the world and Cornell University uplifts Aloks presentation as truly life-saving work.. Despite constant invalidation, so many transgender people transition because we know there is a quiet and fierce dignity to being able to look at yourself and say "this is who I am.". We hope you enjoyed it. This podcast is supported by Barbara Bowman, the Ellen Bayard Weedon Foundation, the Prospect Hill Foundation, Bob and Lois Baylis and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Web89 quotes from Alok Vaid-Menon: 'we have been taught to fear the very things that have the potential to set us free', 'Its not just that you internalize the shame; rather, it becomes Founder of TransTech Social Enterprises & Actress in the FX Attorney, Author & LGBTQ Rights Activist; Motivational Television Host & Culture Expert on Netflix's "Queer Eye", Transgender Activist, Actor & TED Resident. Let me share that. That is the poetic work. That while we might mechanically be alive, while we might be speaking, we never really do the due diligence to ask, Are these the words of my own that Im speaking? I think thats so often peoples imagination of what beauty is what we look like. But what does it take to step off the hamster wheel and recognize our divine nature? Their work as a leading figure in the movement for gender fluidity takes them from starring in HBOs "The Trans List" (2016) and "Random Acts of Flyness" (2018), to designing three gender-neutral fashion collec-tions, to modeling for New York Fashion Week and Vogue editorials, and to gracing the stages of venues such as Beautycon, the New York Times Global Assembly, and SXSW to speak about overcoming marginalization and self-acceptance. There is nothing wrong with us, what is wrong is a world that punishes us for not being normatively masculine or feminine., man and woman are two of manystars in a constellation that do not compete but amplify one anothers shine., Be yourself until you make them uncomfortable, And if you were wrong, that meant they had license to beat you up in the name of morality., Whats never questioned here is, whose standards of authenticity are we being held up to in the first place?, And we tell the kids who dont fit into our categories that they are wrong. Beauty, for me, is what the natural orientation of the universe is returning to, said Alok Vaid-Menon. In the author's words it "is a dream of what it could look like to celebrate transfemininity in public both in ourselves and for the people who desire us (by which I mean: everyone, across time, always)." And so actually I had a relationship with my body that I am still trying to remember, which was, I just moved to communicate. Alok Vaid-Menon have Our booking agents have successfully helped clients around the world secure talent like Alok Vaid-Menon for both live and virtual events for over 20 years. Alok Vaid-Menon is one member of the transgender South Asian performance duo known as DarkMatter. And I had to basically stay at home and I started to really write. Although I am constantly harassed for it, I am able to keep going because I know who I am. To live in America is to already attend a funeral IE 11 is not supported. Are you willing to go back? Awaken is produced by the Rubin Museum of Art in collaboration with Sound Made Public. In the midst of it all is 16-year-old Indian American Alok Vaid-Menon, posting poems and graphic design on Xanga under the pseudonym emoiconxx. That sense of safety, of trust, of legibility and coherence. As a full-service talent booking agency, we have access to virtually any speaker or celebrity in the world. And in so many ways, the enduring forms of harassment that I experience are the universe asking me this question over and over again. Why would you do this, if it exposed you to more harm and scrutiny? ", FollowNBC OutonTwitter,Facebook&Instagram. Its the reason why I do the work that I do. ", "I dont need your help. Vaid-Menon later said when they talk about challenging traditional gender ideology, cisgender men often feel threatened. "Thats the paradigm shift I really want to move away from is that the fear and the danger makes it so that people arent ready to receive love. With every tear I am seeing the miracle of body. They've repressed their own ambivalence. And I really want to say that art was that for me. Awaken is sponsored by Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, a print and digital magazine dedicated to making Buddhist teachings broadly available. Is this my own life? Cannot help but smile when your nurse shaves your right thigh for your bandage. . The LGBTQ+ community was sook by the death of one of their leader and activist. And if youre enjoying this podcast, leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Why do engrained beauty standards so often require some of us to become invisible in order to make other people feel more comfortable? If it was universal and just, it would not need to be constantly proven. "I'm just doing this to help." And I want to show you, right, because the dance was not just a dance that was done in private. "People dont know how to receive that love," they said. Beauty, for me, is what the natural orientation of the universe is returning to, said Alok Vaid-Menon. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Did anyone teach you about the question words? The work of soul searching came to me through being an artist. #degenderfashion love & need you contact@alokvmenon.com Like, Ive experienced this goodness, this rightness, this alignment, this beauty, why would I not want other people to be part of it? And Id rather spend my life and my career speaking about those important things. . Some of my favorite comedians are Black, Indigenous, people of color and trans people because we know that humor is not about levity. And I can feel it there in the way that I move. For more information about our guest and to see images of the artwork in this episode, visit AWAKEN Podcast. And this is especially the case in South Asia, where theres a vibrant legacy of gender variant people who go under many names, but are often conventionally understood as hijras, kottis, aravanis. Alok Vaid-Menon: The Urgent Need for Compassion. WebAlok Vaid-Menon is a keynote speaker and industry expert who speaks on a wide range of topics such as Keynotes, Endowed Lectures & Commencement Addresses, Beyond the AAE is a talent booking agency for paid events only. That response has deep historical roots, they said, noting that they've studied gender, sexuality and sociology at Stanford University. When in fact we are guilty of the crime of being alive and meaning it. They are the author of Femme in Public (2017), Beyond the Gender Binary (2020), and Your Wound/My Garden (2021). Alok has a vast and deep body of emotional, educational work. Join for an evening of poetry, stand-up comedy, drag, and more as they take their audience on an emotional roller coaster all the way from the personal to the political. And its just idiosyncratic and strange and utterly uncinematic. As a mixed-media artist ALOK uses poetry, comedy, lecture, performance, fashion design, and visual art to explore themes of gender, race, trauma, belonging, and the human condition. As a mixed-media artist their work explores themes of trauma, belonging, and the It gives legitimacy to the way that we police and restrict one another's appearance. But, in my experience, a commitment to honest self-actualization yields unparalleled peace and conviction. At her funeral I had to dress as the man she wanted me to be. i want to text the boy above ground waiting for me, ask:have you ever been to a funeral with complete strangers?but instead i look at the woman next to me, the onewho told a dead man to die more considerately andi remember that to live in america is to attenda funeral with complete strangers: how many ghosts does it take for a cemetery to call itself a country? And I realized that pain cant be eternal, because I can still make beauty from it. 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