03 Mar / People Change by Vivek Shraya [in Booklist]
Multi-disciplinary artist and writer Vivek Shraya (The Subtweet, 2020) continues her thoughtful, deliberate self-narrations. Her latest essay collection centers change: “If I were to have anything resembling a higher purpose, I’d now say that it’s to evolve and to model evolution. To demonstrate the beauty of change.”
Reinvention and transformations are fueled by a natural need to change, she says: our very cells are constantly shedding and growing – and our identities, as well. “Which one am I? Gay? Queer? Bisexual? Trans woman? Trans femme? Non-binary? I am whichever one makes sense for the particular moment and social context I’m situated in. I am all of these identities and none of them.”
Intimate and inviting, Shraya’s narration reveals articulate vulnerability, describing prayers for early death, using style as a “resistance to the mundane,” insisting on being addressed in her classroom as Miss (not Ms.) Shraya for having been denied girlhood, divorcing her partner to become “fartners” (playfully fusing friend and partner).
While brief enough for a single-sitting listen, Shraya’s changes prove deserving of multiple repeats.
Review: “Media,” Booklist, February 15, 2022
Readers: Adult
Published: 2022