Josefina Santos for The New York Times By Julia Carmel Dec. 4, And its because Im trying to be a living memorial for what was, and what will be in what is, and its because Im trying to bring the sacredness of creativity and fluidity everywhere that I go. 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?". For information about shipping and international shipping times, visit the Button Poetry Store FAQ! Welcome back. One time a complete stranger came up to me on the street and said, "You'd look more convincing if you just shaved. This writer and performance artist is fighting for a world where all people are Tragedy, death, loss and love are essentials we struggle to accept. To have relationship with our beauty thats our own beauty? A Tibetan Buddhist Journey Toward Enlightenment. In a world thats committed to making your life miserable, theres something audacious and beautiful about insisting on maintaining your humor and your delight.. What feminine part of yourself did you have to destroy in order to survive in this world? The activist wrote a book describing the rights of the gay community, which was released in 1995. Vaid-Menon is self-publishing a poetry book called Your Wound/My Garden. At the beginning of my career I was really concerned with detailing the nature of the wound that I had in the world, Mx. And then everyone loves it and theyre clapping. Its the willful unnoticing. Alok has a vast and deep body of emotional, educational work. How are you supposed to be believed about the harm that you experience when people don't even believe that you exist? What kind of person do I want to be? And what a delight and what a joy it is to be foolish together. i will soon forget. Gender diversity is an integral part of our existence. And I really want to say that art was that for me. In 2017 they released their critically-acclaimed poetry collection Femme In Public, a meditation on anti-trans discrimination. The work of soul searching came to me through being an artist. I was paying so much attention to the ways in which I was discriminated against that I forgot to pay attention to the ways in which I was already free. All American Entertainment (AAE) exclusively represents the interests of talent buyers, and does not claim to be the agency or management for any speaker or artist on this site. This writer and performance artist is fighting for a world where all people are able to self-determine their gender. All American Entertainment has successfully secured celebrity talent like Alok Vaid-Menon for clients worldwide for more than 20 years. I was working with a powerful transgender advocacy group there called Gender Dynamics. A kind of hopeful zeitgeist of life-making, of like, look at what Im able to create. Other factors that can affect speaker fees include the talent's schedule, market conditions, length of presentation, and the location of the event. What I recollect is a feeling of unbridled joy, a feeling of wonder, of the enormity and potentiality of my body and this universe and art. i will apologize for being late.i will not have the words for a type of loss that is so distant it is intimate.after lunch later i will get back on the train.i will remember. And I realized that pain cant be eternal, because I can still make beauty from it. The AAPI literary voices in this list include award-winning journalists, artists, academics, industry leaders, and bestselling authors who write across a variety of genres. 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. Urvashi Vaid: Wikipedia & Biography# We are not trying to establish a new beauty standard. But I dont know if thats honest about being alive. poet. Before making any health decisions, you should consult with your doctor. Alok V Menon on Fashion's Genderless Future | #BoFVOICES 2019, Alok Creating Safe Spaces For Trans & Gender-Nonconforming People, Challenging the Gender Binary with Alok Vaid-Menon | Be You, Funeral - Alok Vaid-Menon | Spoken Fest 2019, Beyond The Gender Binary (pocket Change Collective). And so freedom for me is a daily practice, and its constantly evolving and absolutely not linear, which is so unfortunate sometimes. So it was summer 2012 in Cape Town, South Africa. Before we come to a close, Alok shares their practice of how breath can be used as a tool to move through moments of discomfort. Support Button Poetry: http://bit.ly/buttonpatreonSubscribe to Button! How do I express it? as if this struggle is not your struggle. And as I started to come into my own spiritual practice, I realized that for me, spirituality is something separate from religion. It didn't work. Please click here to let us know what you think: bit.ly/manenoughsurvey The Man Enough Podcast, produced by Wayfarer Studios, P&G Studios, in partnership with Cadence13, an Audacy companyLaunch Partner: P&GHOSTS: Justin Baldoni, Liz Plank, and Jamey HeathJOIN THE MAN ENOUGH COMMUNITY:Instagram: https://instagram.com/wearemanenoughTikTok: https://tiktok.com/wearemanenoughFacebook: https://facebook.com/wearemanenoughSubscribe to our newsletter for behind the scenes, updates, and new episodes: https://manenough.com/newsletterRead the book: https://manenough.com/booksFOLLOW THE HOSTS:Justin Baldoni Instagram: https://instagram.com/justinbaldoniJustin Baldoni TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@justinbaldoniJustin Baldoni Facebook: https://facebook.com/justinbaldoniJustin Baldoni Twitter: https://twitter.com/justinbaldoniText Justin: +1 (310) 845-6909Liz Plank: https://instagram.com/feministabulousLiz Plank TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@lizplankLiz Plank Facebook: https://facebook.com/feministabulousLiz Plank Twitter: https://twitter.com/feministabulousSite: http://www.elizabethplank.com/Jamey Heath Instagram: https://instagram.com/jamey_heath_Jamey Heath TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@jameyheathJamey Heath Twitter: https://twitter.com/jamey_heath_Jamey Heath Facebook: https://facebook.com/jameyjazSite: http://www.jameyheath.com/ALOKALOK Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alokvmenon/ALOK Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlokVMenon/ALOK Twitter: https://twitter.com/alokvmenonALOK youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG_G2mCoGdNUIOPaPrgorHgFollow: https://manenough.com/podcast#ManEnough #ALOK #GenderPRODUCED BY:Wayfarer Studios: https://www.wayfarerstudios.comWayfarer Studios YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/WayfarerEnterP&G StudiosExecutive Producers: Justin Baldoni, Jamey Heath, Tarah Malhotra-Feinberg, Marc Pritchard, Carrie Rathod, Chris Corcoran To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. This website is a resource for event professionals and strives to provide the most comprehensive catalog of thought leaders and industry experts to consider for speaking engagements. When Alok Vaid Menon performed this spoken word poem live at #Spoken2019, they left the crowd stunned. These inspiring keynote Coming from many different backgrounds, these men and women are popular entertainers, athletes, models, and more. Big Break: This summer, Mx. I describe putting together an outfit as making an altar on my body. 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. That was the voice of Alok Vaid-Menon. The goal of gender-neutral language is to get rid of gender normativity, not everyones gender., I suppose some people wanted to protect me from bullying and didnt realize that they were bullying me in the process., Gender non-conforming people face considerable distress not because we have a disorder, but because of stigma and discrimination. And I can feel it there in my voice. No one is purely good or evil. Why would you do this, if it exposed you to more harm and scrutiny? Advertisement Coins. And so when I outfit myself in my best form of myself, its because Im trying to receive divinity. In this episode, we examine our divine nature and consider who we truly can be in the absence of judgment. 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? Fill out a. For more information about our guest and to see images of the artwork in this episode, visit AWAKEN Podcast. Take a look at Button's Privacy Policy. She eventually passed on without ever seeing me as myself. We speak with internationally acclaimed, gender non-conforming writer, performer, and public speaker Alok Vaid-Menon, whose work speaks to themes of trauma, belonging, and the human condition. I think for me it also takes the form of style. They performed this poem as a part of a recent appearance on The Laura Flanders Show. You know, I think that theres a lot of misapprehension, miscomprehension about people like me. But Im less concerned with what I sacrificed as much as I am with what I gained. In 2020 they published "Beyond the Gender Binary," a treatise on how moving beyond the binary of man/woman creates a better world for everyone. Like that feels like the real treat of the wedding. And I want to show you, right, because the dance was not just a dance that was done in private. It felt like the body was a mere suggestion. 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. We see the fair, thin, and gender-conforming among us called "beautiful," while the rest of us are meant to spend our entire lives aspiring to be like them. And I ask myself, is this me, or is this someone else? For more information about our guest and to see images of the artwork in this episode, visit RubinMuseum.org/awakenpod. speaker. We punish them until they conform. I see interconnectivity with nature, the earth, humanity, and a deep practice of humility. But color was one of the first realms of resistance I had. No one else should be able to tell you who you are; thats for you to decide., This repression is something we first did to ourselves. "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.' 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 Addeddate 2016-11-04 00:33:48 Closed captioning no Duration 199 Identifier Reincarnation_-_Alok_Vaid-Menon Are you willing to go back to living someone elses lie? Alok Vaid-Menon is one member of the transgender South Asian performance duo known as DarkMatter. And I remember speaking it and being like, whoa, this is what I, not just what I want to do for the rest of my life, but this is what I am. Is this my own gender? Similar motivational celebrity speakers are Shane Ortega, Geena Rocero, Chris Mosier, Angelica Ross and Kylar Broadus. But I think once I started to experience the delight of freedom, there was no going back. So it means that Im kind of ambivalent about form and Im more invested in flow. Mx. They share with us their spirituality, poetry, and what it means to live beyond the gender binary. 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. Is this my own beauty? People have been taught to fear the very things that have the potential to set them free. Theres a conviction in it. Know that you're divine. Different ways of looking would not be seen as a threat, just another way of being. Normative beauty is insecure. And then practice that. 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 so, what I guess Im trying to cultivate in my life is the kind of courage and conviction and stamina to continue every day to ask myself, Who am I? I dont need you to show up to 'protect' me," Porter wrote on Instagram. "I dont need to be legitimized. CADEHILDRETH.COM | PHONE: (202) 660-4705 | 800 CORPORATE DRIVE, SUITE 301, STAFFORD, VA 22554, USA. Beauty, for me, is what the natural orientation of the universe is returning to, said Alok Vaid-Menon. The same applies to their hair style. We fear that if we don't conform, we will be abandoned, but there is no loneliness like having people only see you after you've erased yourself., maybe i have given up fighting for "mine", Wed love your help. When I see things that I love, when I learn new things, when I read new books, when I encounter new ideas, I want to share it with everyone in the world. When in fact we are guilty of the crime of being alive and meaning it. Id put on an old Bollywood track and I would just dance. Now Lives: In a sunny, two-bedroom apartment with ample closet space in uptown Manhattan with a roommate. It became about being seen in a different way. Cannot help but smile when your nurse shaves your right thigh for your bandage. Vaid-Menon appeared on Man Enough, a podcast that explores what masculinity is; previous guests have included Shawn Mendes and Matthew McConaughey. ALOK is a often invited to deliver lectures, keynote speeches and commencement addresses on LGBTQ issues, racial justice, feminism, fashion, art, design, and more. And so actually I had a relationship with my body that I am still trying to remember, which was, I just moved to communicate. And so what I used to do is, I would just dance for my local Indian community. It gives legitimacy to the way that we police and restrict one another's appearance. When you experience us and our, our, and our way of being, you realize that there is an alternative way. 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. And people are saying thats a threat.". Acclaimed gender non-conforming writer, performer, and speaker, ALOK, shares their story, and the The reason you don't fight for me is because you're not fighting for yourself fully. As I continue my journey of self-acceptance, I see so much more beauty around me. By creating an account, you agree to our Privacy Policy. Who hurt the people who hurt you? I feel like every day is an artistic and spiritual endeavor to be what is. Poets use carefully chosen language to connect with audiences, advocate for social causes, and convey emotion. And so you default back into your self-sabotaging coping strategies, and then two months later, something falls apart and youre like, oh, Ive been meaning to address this and I never did. Spoken2019, they left the crowd stunned just dance a kind of ambivalent about and...: in a different way my journey of self-acceptance, I think me. Celebrity speakers are Shane Ortega, Geena Rocero, Chris Mosier, Angelica Ross and Kylar Broadus under the emoiconxx... Best form of style images of the universe is returning to, said Alok Vaid-Menon is one member the! 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