An audio-visual art presentation by Sri Vamsi Matta on the reversal of gaze in Indian Mainstream, how Dalit-Bahujan artists across time and space have flipped the gaze, and challenging the existing oppressive and gate kept bramhanical overview.
Followed by Conversation with Yashica Dutt about her book ‘ Coming out as a Dalit’
Yashica Dutt, the award-winning author of Coming Out as Dalit, is an internationally acclaimed Dalit journalist and among the most recognized global voices on caste. Dutt’s work has been published in the New York Times, Foreign Policy and The Atlantic, and she has been featured on the BBC, The Guardian and PBS Newshour. Her writing has been part of Pen America’s India at 75 anthology that featured prominent Indian writers looking back on India’s history in its 75th year of independence, and a collection titled Our Freedoms: Essays and Stories from India’s Best Writers. Coming Out as Dalit, which was published in the South Asian subcontinent in 2019, quickly became a best-seller and is currently part of the curriculum in over 50 colleges and universities worldwide, including Harvard University, UC Berkeley, and UC Davis. Coming Out as Dalit is among the first books written by a Dalit author in English to win the prestigious Indian Arts and Letters Award for young writers in 2020.
‘Coming out as a Dalit ‘ was published in India in 2019 to acclaim, now the US expanded edition includes 2 new chapters covering how the caste system traveled to the US, its history here, and the continuation of bias by South Asian communities in professional sectors. Amid growing conversations about caste discrimination prompting US institutions including Harvard University, Brandeis University, the University of California system, and the NAACP to add caste as a protected category to their policies, Dutt’s work sheds essential light on the significant influence caste-ism has across many aspects of US society. Raw and affecting, Coming Out as Dalit brings a new audience of readers into a crucial conversation about embracing Dalit identity, offering a way to change the way people think about caste in their own communities and beyond.
The event is free and open to public. RSVP to secure a seat before they run out.
