Jivana Heyman 07:41:32
Hi everyone, its Jivana I just want to come on for a moment and thank our sponsor offering tree. They're an all in one easy to use community back business that saves you time, energy and money as a Yoga teacher. Offering tree allows you to create a website in less than 30 minutes. Plus you get a discount to accessible Yoga. Just go to offering tree.com backslash accessible Yoga to get your discount today. Okay, here's our episode.
Anjali Rao 07:42:02
Welcome to the love of Yoga podcast. I'm your host, Anjali Rao. This podcast explores the teachings of Yoga for self and collective transformation. We dive into how spirituality and philosophy can ignite social change. I share conversations with folks who are on the front lines of justice and liberatory movements, thought leaders, change makers and healers.
Hello, and welcome to the level Yoga podcast. I'm your host Anjali Rao, and this is the second podcast of 2024. I'm super excited to have with us today for Fariha Roisin, who is a multidisciplinary artist, a Muslim Queer Bangladeshi who is interested in the margins liminality otherness and the Mercurial nature of being I love that, Fariha. Her we Her work has pioneered a refreshing and renewed conversation about wellness, contemporary Islam and Queer identities. And as appeared in The New York Times Al Jazeera The Guardian vise with the joys and others. She is currently the Deputy Editor of violet book sits on the advisory board of slow factory, I highly, highly recommend for everyone to go check that out, and frequently writes essays on her substack. From everything about comparing yourself to others, shorter fraud and deeply profound firms St. Omair. Fariha has published a book of poetry and died, entitled How to cure a ghost with a journal called being in your body, and a novel named like bird, which was named one of the best books of 2020 by NPR, Globe and Mail, Harper's Bazaar, a must read by Buzzfeed News and received a starred review by the Library Journal. Upon the book's release, she was also profiled in the New York Times, first work of nonfiction who is wellness for an examination of wellness culture, and who it leaves behind was released in 2022. And a second book of poetry is survival takes a wild imagination, which is out fall of 2023. I'm so excited to have you with us, Maria, and share your prolific work with the listeners as well as your wisdom and your voice. Just a very, very warm welcome again. I wanted to just invite you for us to just lead us through your journey into the work that you do as multidisciplinary artist or author, thought leader in so many ways and a Bangladeshi Queer femme Muslim was was doing such amazing work. So could you just lead us through briefly where how you began and where you are now.
Fariha Roisin 07:45:20
Firstly, thank you so much for having me on this podcast. So I feel incredibly honored when I get to have conversations with other South Asians. It's actually deeply moving to me to have these kinds of conversations as we were saying off my agenda, to be able to have undealt with people as really beautiful. My journey to where I am. I was born in Canada. I moved back to Bangladesh, which is my parents home country when I was four and a half. Because my father didn't want to live in the West. He hates the West. And so we our whole plan was you know, he was doing his urban planning PhD at the University of Waterloo. So I was born there. So we emigrated in my sister, my mother emigrated with my dad in the 80s. And then in the 90s 1990, I was born and then I went back to Bangladesh and then because it was so dangerous To live there, because my dad had has has very socialist Marxist values and Bangladesh was increasingly becoming fundamentalist. There was just a backlash, and there was a lot of danger for educators who had very left beliefs on leftist beliefs. So we left and we moved to Australia. And I was raised really predominantly in Australia. And I would feel, I would say, even to this day, I don't really say I'm Canadian, I say I'm Australian. I don't feel Canadian, I feel Australian. And I, it's a very specific locality, geography. It's a specificity that that not everybody understands, because it's so isolated. And it's also like this landmass, it's largely not been colonized. So it's different. It's a different kind of energy. It's a different kind of space. It's different kind of landscape. And I really think that Australia's geography had a huge form formation for me as a person than as a thinker. And as a writer. I think that this the severity of not just like my upbringing, because I was raised in violence, but within violence, I really focused on the world around me, I wasn't allowed out, I didn't really have a social life, I was very popular at school, but I was very strange. And I didn't have like close friends, I didn't have friends that I could really have close contact with. Because I didn't have a phone I didn't have I wasn't allowed, I had to go to school and come back. And things were timed. So I had to come back at a specific time, if I was a little late, if I was five minutes late, my mother would be extremely angry and violent. So like my sister, and I, and my father and I, we all kind of stayed between the scenes and within the scenes of the family. And like very much like everything that was controlled and ordained by my mother, we did otherwise we didn't do anything. And in that way, I think that that had a huge impact, obviously, in how I am how I perceive the world, how I see life. And I think that like much like the title of my second book of poems, and it was born out of this feeling of like, as I wouldn't like a bird came out, I wrote it. It was published when I was 30. I started writing it when I was 12. It took me 18 years to write I didn't consistently write it throughout the 18 years, but it took me 18 years to write. It's kind of insane that I did that. And I felt deeply angry at the writing world because I felt as if I wasn't getting the acknowledgement or the platform, or like, I wasn't getting anything for it, you know, I wasn't getting a pat on the back, you know, and I really felt as if I was like a white man who went to Harvard, and I wrote that book, I would have had a very, very different experience, I would have been a prodigy, I would have been so many other things that I was, I didn't get, I didn't get those things, and there's a part of me, whether it's because I'm an immigrant, whether it's because I'm abuse, whether it's because I'm a woman, whether it's because I'm a fucking South Asian Muslim woman, you know, like, I never received the acknowledgement, a lot of my abuse was that this like, this withholding of love withholding of abuse, withholding of care, sorry, and, and only being met with abuse. And I think all of those things, you know, forced me to one start writing a book at 12 years old. But really to start, I think, considering myself an artist and considering myself as somebody who had something to say, I was never given that opportunity through education or through like formal, you know, formalities, like, you know, I was raised right, or I had the right networks, or like, I didn't, I don't have any of that. And I say that often because I think one I really want to encourage anyone who's listening that has a story to tell, to tell it and to feel we all exist in so much insecurity if I can be a moment of security than I would like to be that. But you know, I really felt from a very young age that I had something to say it's probably because of my very exceptional circumstances that nobody else was acknowledging. And so I had to either like write it down. And with like a bird everything is I'm I'm the main character but I'm also all of the characters. I'm taylean all of her her surroundings. And, you know, like, everything that I was experiencing, she became a pocket almost for that experience for that feeling for that emotion. I didn't have words for that I was sexually abused as a child, but I knew something was wrong. And I knew that something was off, I knew that I wasn't like other people. And that was very apparent to me from a very young age. And I think all of that really, you know, all of these ingredients, you know, and really also like having a father that's deeply politically principled. And then having a mother who's like, quite devious, and, and, and repugnant and ugly, and mean, just mean spirited. He mean, and I don't think that that's all she is. But that's all I kind of experienced of her as a mother. And that really formed who I am, and who, how I write how I think about the world, like my mom is the main character and everything that I talked about.
Anjali Rao 07:52:49
Well, thank you, thank you, I'm just sitting with whatever you've shared. And it's, you know, I always think that we always go to the, the, the, quote, unquote, the lighter things that form. But it's actually the dark, the shadows, that actually form our form our inner world in so many ways. And that really informs our inner world and shapes our inner world, and looks like it has, you know, sounds like it has done that for you, and what brilliant excavations and manifestations of those, that shadow work that you have done that is formed by your lived experiences that has created the work. So I appreciate you sharing, and I'm really grateful for that. And I also want to, like take in take what you said about, you know, the immigrant experience and how much that informs who we are as, as a as a people, and each of us have different, you know, experiences with that. Not all immigrants have similar experiences, of course, but but there is there are some certain threads that runs through and one of that is the feeling of the fear not enough to write, to express to take take up space, if you will. And seems like you had that feeling that you have something to say which is important, and valuable at a very young age. Has that changed for you as you grown older, and as you have gained more experience and held space for others? Has that changed in the world for you?
Fariha Roisin 07:54:31
Yeah, I think like when I started when I moved to the US, I became I mean, I was all I was probably already insecure, but it's an insecurity just kind of, there was something about the United States, where I felt incredibly because I left Australia, because I felt like a big fish in a small pond. You know, not because I was like flashy or and I think that because my ideas were too big. And I was just too big, you know, they couldn't contain me. So I wanted to live in a country where I could feel challenged by myself, you know, I really want I really want to ascend as a human being. And, you know, us for the, for the for better or for worse in America really like, you know, I think quelled something inside of me made me smaller than more afraid. And I think it has a lot to do with the fact that there's no like, No, you know, especially when I moved here like 2009 ish, there wasn't any kind of comprehension about what a South Asian person is. There was no there was we just weren't we just didn't exist. We just sort of invisible. Yeah. pletely invisible. Yeah. And I felt as if I had to be silent. You know, I think that like, oh, you know, also educating yourself realizing that you know, this country's established on such horrifying realities and you know, anti blackness is so present in our society that I also often felt as if I couldn't speak because my voice wasn't, you know, marginalized enough almost. And there were situations also, I should be completely honest, where I've been silenced. And I've been shut down. I've been canceled. I've been, you know, I've experienced a lot of weird things on the internet, being a person who's vocal and I think all of that kind of made me smile. cuz I've been writing publicly for a long time now. And like throughout my 20s, and through through a very, and I was on the internet sort of like, the internet for me because I felt so isolated. So I didn't really have a lot of like people skills. Mike, when I moved here, I was very naive. And I was just, I think, like, very open in ways that I really like about myself. But it was not good in the situations that I was in. I experienced a lot of manipulation. And I don't know, it's just I think that that's caused me to feel a lot of impostor syndrome, I've developed a lot of like, my, because I feel people's feelings when people are judging me, I feel like it's a reflection of me, and that I'm actually at fault. And that's also the workings of my abuse. So I've had to do so much work to be like, people can think whatever they wanted to me. It doesn't matter. I have to be okay. And myself. And that is an everyday journey. And yeah, so...
Jivana Heyman 07:57:46
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Anjali Rao 07:58:45
100%, that sort of reaffirmation and sort of a reclamation is an everyday practice. And for those of us who have experienced any level of abuse or trauma that's even more compounded, so I understand that. And thank you for sharing that I'm sure the listeners also would, are appreciative of your courage and naming so many things I want to take, I want to take a moment to also acknowledge, you know, the horrendous pull up politics of the United States and how it has impacted all the world and what's going on in Gaza and Palestine. Some of the things that I often hear from people is that we are a because we live geographically so far away, what can we do? Is there anything that we can do which is actually effective? What are some of your thoughts in that? How can we really be in solidarity,
Fariha Roisin 07:59:44
we can decolonize and we can actually do the work in ourselves to to remove ourselves from the shackles of capitalism and, and colonialism and just Imperial ideas, Western imperialism, we can remove ourselves, you know, like, the more I learned about India, the more grief I feel about myself and my family, because we were stripped away from that, that kind of cultural, economic, like the wave in India was before it was colonized was an it was like Disney princess. Beauty, you know, and like the I think of the land also, I think of like, when I go to Bangladesh, it there's dust everywhere, and it's humid and the land is not arid, it's not supposed to look like that. It's a it was actually one so fertile and green. And my father remembers that time. So it's not that distant in our memory. And I agree with that I will never know the land that I'm from, and I feel a deep resentment that I have to do something about. And I think that everybody needs to get there. They need to be pushed into a place of like, No, you actually can't be watching idly anymore like that. It is your responsibility, how you function within capitalism. And I think like very simple things like the Palestinians on the ground are telling us everyday how to exist right now. We're in a we're in a boycott from January 21 to January 28. We're on a boycott, you know, like it's just trying to exist as much as we can outside of the Almost capitalism and I, I've been in sort of a group called degrowth, it's not sort of It's a group called degrowth. It's an international movement. And I write about it and who is wellness for, there's a chapter about degrowth, the end, and degrowth, so much of the philosophy is that, you know, we actually, as a society have to start paring back, we have to start consuming lists, essentially, in every way. And I think boycotts are a really beautiful beginning of that, you know, like, untethering yourself, like, you know, all the things that we know about recycling, composting. You know, working with the land, like actually existing with the land having a relationship with the land. As Californians, we're lucky we get so much access to the land, but there are more and more ways that I want to be in the land, I want to learn how to farm, I want to, you know, learn how to be with the Earth, I want to learn how to cultivate it. And learning that these are our like, responsible, like, our responsibility as human beings. And I think as settlers, you know, what is the United States really existing, and I think this is in any space, really, but like working with indigenous folks like having a direct relationship. And like, also having a direct relationship with the Global South, you know, having, I know, more and more people are going back to where their parents or their grandparents were from, and I'm trying to, I know, so many people, so many of my friends that have lived in India, so many of my South Asian friends that have lived in India, and it's more accessible now than it ever was before. And honestly, like, we know, like we're seeing, we're seeing what's coming out of these countries, it's exciting to be like, what they didn't want us to be, we can slowly start returning to this original kind of blueprint, or outside of European colonization. And that's our responsibility to do that work.
Anjali Rao 08:03:47
I completely agree, I think, I think anti colonial, like you talk about doing and I want to bring that in also, co creating anti colonial spaces of care, I mean, more than a buzzword? What does that really mean? What does that really look like? How can we manifest that together? How can we really define ourselves beyond the colonial gaze, which we have, I mean, I grew up in India. So I grew up in India, I just came back from India, like less than three days ago, so I'm just really jet lagged right now. But I see right now, there is such a juxtaposition of like a pride in what has happened, what's happening, the economic, the cultural, the boom, so to speak, in India, as well, as you know, the Hindutva sort of the usurping of that, that pride and, you know, it's a very complex sort of phenomenon, which is happening in India. So, but and I think we need to also hold this tension with how do we create that identity or actually reclaim that identity of being? Being outside the colonial case? How do we create something outside the colonial case? What are your thoughts on that? I know you, you've written a, you know, books and articles on that. So I really want to see hear from you what, what are some of your vision and learnings from that?
Fariha Roisin 08:05:26
Like thinking outside of the colonial gaze,
Anjali Rao 08:05:31
yeah, like for, especially as we, the people who are listening here are typically Yoga practitioners, or Yoga teachers, and do Yoga is far more than just wellness, but it is a part of the wellness sort of practices. So my question is, how do we build spaces of care which are intentionally anti-colonial?
Fariha Roisin 08:05:55
I mean, with Yoga practitioners, it's like how do you have relationships directly to India? Do you have relationships on the ground with people that you're working with? I've always felt like it was kind of slimy that you know, Yoga studios charge $150 Now it's way more but like, you know, for, for, for information that is not theirs, you know, information that they who knows where they got that information from or you know, but you know, this is like this desire this western obsession to commodify to commodify everything and we're here to what do we do with it? I think that we have to have responsibility to where these two where this information comes from and and really I think trying to create relationships with non Casitas you know, like, spirit, like deeply spiritually reverent and active places in India, which I know exist and and have existed for the literal existence of, you know, Brahmanism. And, and like, you know, supremacy in Hinduism. And yeah, I think that there's, there's a lot of space for us to start imagining what that looks like, what does it look like to be responsible? I think that that's what we're asking ourselves, what does it mean to be principals as people? We've never, we've always been told that this is the status quo. This is just the way that things are, right. And for the first time in the history of mankind of humankind, we're realizing that that's a hoax. And like that, that actually, that's not true. And the people have the power with the majority. And so how can we unify? And I think that like, groups like are like hidden that fuzz and like the hidden data movement, rather, and like, and the desecration of like, of humanity, that Fascism is in fascism, just like, you know, it appeals to I watched cast last night by Ava DuVernay. And, you know, there's a there's a whole section on India, and I met God, I was weeping, you know, watching and let go. Just be like, acknowledged in a Hollywood film. It was like, Oh, my God, it was so beautiful, honestly. But, you know, this idea of, I kind of lost my, my, my plot, but I think it was just talking about the way that passes just been. Do you? Are you gonna remind me?
Anjali Rao 08:08:57
Yeah, I know, you were talking about fascism and caste and how those have also formed, and how we can see how we can be in solidarity with like, for example, caste abolishing and be anti colonial. And I think that's where you're generally going, Yeah,
Fariha Roisin 08:09:18
that, that these, that, actually, that is how we need to do it, we've been showed a dirty, dirty method, you know, sort of like the mafia methods, or, you know, like this. And now we're actually being forced to reckon with ourselves and fast reckoning with ourselves, like, I know that, you know, as just the same thing that Trump has done in America, or like the way that white supremacy is utilized. You always target the poor, you target, you target the people who have every right to feel angry, which is why class solidarity is so important. You know, I don't think leftists or liberals actually care enough about class solidarity, but it's actually so significant to, you know, to acknowledge that this isn't a corrupt system for everybody. So if we agree, if we have to, if we want to change one part of it, we have to change all of it. And that is actually exciting to me. I think that that's where we're heading. I think it's inevitable, I think that humans are is and Gaza, what's happening in Gaza, what's happening in Palestine is a perfect example of where we, we there's too many witnesses. Now. That's just too many witnesses. And so it's, you know, we we are fed up and we are understanding that our governments don't care by and large, whether you're a Democrat or a Republican, my dad's been saying this to me for decades, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, because a liberal person is always going to end up siding with the oppressor because they want the status quo. And so what does it mean to be revolutionary? In this time? I think a lot of people unlearn whiteness, you know, we were all guilty of it. And whiteness is an as a method of extraction. That's, to me what whiteness is, you know, like, I actually think whiteness is just racial, it's on racial. Absolutely. It's it's, it's an identity. It's a belief system and a A lot of us need to unlearn that
Anjali Rao 08:11:38
you know, in your in your bio I read liminality is a big part of your work. And that is one of my favorite things to talk about, because I think it's not often understood and not often tapped into as an actual process of evolution of transport, you know of unfolding rather. So can you talk about and yet people are always very, sort of not not only just skeptical, but wary of that space of not knowing of, of transition. I want to ask you, what, what are some of your what, first of all, why is that word in your bio, because that is a very key word. And the fact that you put put it right up in, the first paragraph itself shows that you're really interested in inquiring about it. So tell me why that is so important to you, I
Fariha Roisin 08:12:32
love that you notice that it must mean something new to them, as you said. I mean, liminality, I think if we all lived within the strangeness of it, all of the in between and the materiality of it all. And we understood the layers, if our human minds, which I think we are designed to do, I think we're far more capable than we allow ourselves to be, if we were able to just hold the multi dimensional state of all things, I think we would just be more evolved. Because we, we are such binary thinkers that everything's this, that, that is good. And it's actually limiting, you know, it's limiting us, it's so many others, it's limiting society. You know, I think also just like in terms of socialization, and, and, you know, like, I was raised, really, you know, I've turned 11, on, on into asthma, one. So 911 was a huge part of my, like, understanding and awareness of myself as a Muslim person. And so, socialization is so key, if you tell people that they're bad, they're gonna think that they're bad. And then that's either going to cause them to do bad things, or it's going to cause them to hate themselves. Either way, it's poison. And I just think that, you know, what we're also seeing is the propaganda machine, the machine that tells us, this is bad, this is good. And that's not liminal thinking. To me. It's, it's, it's binary thinking, and it's uninteresting. I'm just bored of it. And anyone who wants to meet me there who can like meet me in conversation and can meet me? I'm just way more interested in that than anything else, you know, I'm not here to be right. I'm not here to prove myself with anything. I'm not really interested in that. I want to know what you think. And, you know, like, it's just an exchange the Add at all like it. We've we've lost that. And actually, they like, I was just, I'm going on a bit of a tangent, but I'll bring it back. You know, I think about how like, Starbucks in is like the only place it's openly they don't really let coffee shops like be open late. There's not a culture here for that. I at least I don't feel like it is whereas like, in Bangladesh, that's that's the thing. Are they're talking, they're exchanging ideas. And they I think, I don't remember where I heard this. But, you know, in the US, they've really done that specifically, so people don't radicalise so people don't have communion. So people don't exchange ideas. So they don't, you know, class, again, goes back to class, there's no relation. You know, everything's about keeping us in a little tiny box where we exchange you know, like this, like robots. But, you know, we're actually very expensive as humans and so it's our it's just our responsibility, I think, to be there at all times, just to be in that expensiveness. I don't know if that answered your question, but it
Anjali Rao 08:16:04
did. It did. And I will never really thought about that. That, you know, yeah, you're right. Coffee shops and meeting places are not really open late, not beyond the work day and there is a certain amount of you know, time and you're absolutely right. In India, also like Bangladesh, we can so many places are available to meet people and again, it's changing in the bigger cities because of Because of capitalism, and all of the things, all of the things that I mentioned. So I think that's a big part of wellness also, you know, like the collective awareness and building of community that relationship building relationality with the within the, within the system. Which brings me to the question of your book, you know, who is wellness for? Like I said, Yoga is a big part of the wellness sort of paradigm, though, it's more than that. What would what were some of your thoughts in writing the book? What is the feedback that you've received? What is the process that you have gone through to, you know, to write this book? Because I think it's a very important question that you're asking. And you're delved into in the book.
Fariha Roisin 08:17:20
Thank you. Um, I also wanted to add that, like, the only places that are available for us to like, go and hang out, it is like, bars, bars. Yeah. So it's like, again, you can, you can't really exchange ideas when you're exactly. Exactly like and revolution can't be made in those places, because you're not lucid? Yep. It's wild, um, who is wellness for i? The journey and it, you know, I, I started kind of thinking this question in 2014 2015. And because I was going through my own mental health journey, which I write about, and it just made me really question all of a sudden, just like, this feeling that I've never really voiced, which was, why has Yoga been capitalized by Wes like this? Like, how is that allowed? Maybe I like very, I'm very grateful that my dad, like, had introduced me to someone like Vandana Shiva, very young, so I was very aware of, of like, just internet intellectual property, you know, in the debate over who gets to own something. And especially when you're being colonized to who, what is who's, you know, and I think that all I really wanted to do. And then I ended up doing more was that I wanted to just like, show people that this is a very unjust system, especially if you could 415 million Indians live under the below the poverty line, the Human Rights poverty line. So that's more or less than the US poverty line, right? It's, it's the world's global index. And it's so it's just like, so it's like, $1. And it's crazy, you know, like, it's, it doesn't make any sense. But this is a billion dollar. Yoga is a billion dollar industry that is not owned by Indians. No, it just didn't make any sense to me. And it didn't make sense that white people had created yet again, another system another way. And this goes back to, you know, like India, every year that India was colonize. It was taking out $40 billion worth of resources. From India, this is from non data by murgee. That's his statistic. So $40 billion worth of resources for over 200 years are taking so just that that's that and like that's not even like the last 100 years. Now we've got billions of dollars still in another way being funneled out of India, not put back into the economy not beat back into the people not put back into the communities not put back into protecting and making sure that the people who who this culture this faith this spirit is from are taking care of that bare minimum. Why is that not a consideration of the West? How can you call yourself developed? How can you call yourself enlightened and not think that that is a responsibility that you fucking have in it? It annoys the shit out of me still. This day? I even writing about it didn't help. I'm still whenever I talk about what I'm just like, because I I do think shaming is useful and I think people need to hear this very quickly. Not to change into oh my god, what, but in to be shamed into doing something about it. We all shame mm. Follow us and assume is a very useful experience. And I think while it has, as you know, like, it's it's a distills that feeling because everything is yours. Of course, what do you mean? Well, yeah, this Yeah, that is that is whiteness, not yours, and if we can share it absolutely. And Indians do want to share it, that's Indian culture. Indians are not profitable there. That's not that was not the that's why all of these nations were able to be colonized they, they accepted it to a certain degree, they accepted the invitation. They didn't accept the abuse or anything that comes with it. But they accepted the invitation in a lot of ways. And I think that we, we gave parts of our society away unknowingly, and in hope for something more. And what colonizers do is that they just just want it all. They share any of it with you, you know, there's no equal trade, they want to manipulate you into thinking that you are, you are unworthy, and therefore it is theirs. And I just wanted to point that out. I just wanted to say this is very, this is a very unequal system. And I don't agree with it, and I don't like it. And I think that we have to stop this. And it's, it's really to stop this.
Anjali Rao 08:23:09
Yeah, I mean, it's interesting that, you know, I just came back from India, like I said, and I always find it sort of, I don't know what the word is, but disheartening, sometimes to see the the whole commodification of Yoga, being replicated in India, like you go there, and you see big billboards of power Yoga and gym culture and all of that. It's just the importing. Yeah, it is the importing of this whole thing is gone there. And now, if I were to, I mean, I teach Yoga philosophy and Yoga history. So if I go there, I tell people, what I do, people still don't know that Yoga has a philosophy and a history. They're like, what does that really mean? So this is India, right? I'm talking about parts of India, I'm talking about you know, the metropolitan cities, there are pockets which are no which are still sort of your very deeply into the, the teachings, but parts of India, which is completely bought into the whole capitalistic framework of Yoga, which kind of breaks my heart and I have to continuously either educate or just kind of, like, stop myself from getting burnt out and burnt up. It is, it is an uphill task for you to do that, to the to do that work. And that's why I feel it's important to have conversations like these to just listen to the people who are doing the work and uplift your work of, you know, anti colonial wellness. And, and actually activism in these spaces, you know, do activism is given this, this, this label that, oh, we have to go out and take billboards, you know, take big banner signs, and that there's a place for that also, and there's a place for disruption. And there's a place for healing, and it's a place for art, and I wanted to bring that in. Because, you know, art and activism is very close to my own personal art. As a dancer, I want to ask you, what would what is the what is your take on the role of art and activism?
Fariha Roisin 08:25:24
I mean, I see I see it sort of as Nina Simone. I think one said, it's just like, and I think a lot of Black artists, Black radical artists, James Baldwin is another one. It's you can't divorce. Yeah, art from activism. They are the same thing. And I think that capitalism wants to tell you, you know, like, oh, like art is art. Yeah. But what is art without something to say? Yeah. And, you know, like art.
Anjali Rao 08:25:58
Yeah. Exactly. Art is an expression of an idea. And that idea has to can be anything and that's, that's the best part of our job. Right. So, yeah, so any other thing that you want to talk I know we are going to be running out of time. So any other thing that you know you want to sort of uplift in this moment about your work or any other thing that we haven't talked about?
Fariha Roisin 08:26:22
No, I'm just really enjoying the flow. So whatever else you if you anything else you want to ask me? I'm okay,
Anjali Rao 08:26:29
great. Well, we just have a few more minutes. I want I want to close with your own practice of care. You know, we're all going through such sort of tumultuous heartbreaking times as being witnesses. And we are, you know, relatively safe in the, in the United States. When we look at things that are happening in Gaza and Palestine and Sudan and Congo and you know, all those plays all all those countries how do you how do you practice care so that you can just be in generate all the important work and radical work? What do you do to take care of yourself?
Fariha Roisin 08:27:17
I really try and in this took me a couple of months, like, I mean, October, November, it wasn't until end of December maybe that I started to, like, realize that I had a body but needed air. I am understanding that sometimes disassociation is a part of my my experience, you know, and that's okay. And as long as I return back to myself, and I'm currently in the place of returning back to myself, and that's been really nice. So it's like, what that looks like is having ritual of you know, like praying every day waking up and praying every day, taking a lot of moments for silence and self reflection, because I am a deep processors, and I think that when I'm just like going and going, I don't get a chance to just let the body's wisdom exist, you know, and just be and guide me, I have so much body wisdom that I'm only just realizing, you know, that like how we naturally want to be that's who we are, and shouldn't resist that being. And I think, yeah, like, I really tried to return to that person and return to that gut, return to this place of not turning away from myself not rejecting myself really trying to move towards myself. When I feel you know, I have a lot of emotion. So when I feel emotion, I don't like instead of you No, reprimanding myself for like, you know, being mean or critical. I'm really trying to move with love, and with a lot of care, and tenderness, things that I was never given. And I feel like I can give them to myself, and I really am worthy of that. And that has been really life changing for me. I can do this for myself. But he else needs to do it for me. In fact, it's very, very worthwhile and kind of the only thing I need when I can do it for myself, and actually need anybody else to do it. Yeah, no,
Anjali Rao 08:29:39
thank you. Thank you for sharing. And thank you for all your brilliant work. And, you know, I really look forward to seeing more things that you are generating, creating, rippling out into the world. And I'm really grateful for your time and your energy and your vulnerability and courage and sharing all of the things that you've shared. So thank you so much for Yeah,
Fariha Roisin 08:30:08
thank you. Thank you so much. I want to say that I would love folks to buy who as well as for Tobias survival takes a wild imagination, and to read myself stack. It's very hard roshi.sec.com Yeah, you can find me there
Anjali Rao 08:30:28
antastic and we'll add all these links into our show notes as well so that people can continue to, you know, learn, learn and listen to your very important voice. Thank you so much, very much for joining. Thank
Fariha Roisin 08:30:43
you Anjali.
Anjali Rao 08:30:52
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Transcribed by https://otter.ai