To the Streets

This event, originally scheduled for November 3, has been postponed to Friday, November 13. It will take place at the NYU Kimmel Center for University Life, Room 804/805.

What strategies are current movements using to end violence, reclaim space and resources, and call for justice, and how do they intersect? Thenmozhi Soundararajan and Vee Kay present on the 2014 Dalit Mahila Swabhiman Yatra (Dalit Women’s Self-Determination March)—a four-month long march, which traversed hundreds of miles and multiple Indian states, to demand an end to caste-based violence. Shaktii Mann, a member of the The Audre Lorde Project‘s TransJustice project, speaks about the organization’s annual Trans Day of Action for Social and Economic Justice, when Trans and Gender Non-Conforming People of Color and their allies take to the streets of New York to call for the end of profiling, police brutality, war, prisons, housing and employment discrimination, and other forms of oppression. Writer, researcher, and activist Soniya Munshi (INCITE! National Collective and CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community College) moderates.

RSVP using the form below. Non-NYU guests, please note that a photo ID may be required to enter the building. If this poses any issue, please email apa.rsvp@nyu.edu.

Co-sponsored by the NYU Center for Multicultural Education and Programs.

 

Photo by Thenmozhi Soundararajan, “Dalit Women’s Self-Respect Yatra begins in Kurukshetra at the feet of Dr. Ambedkar!,” February 27, 2014.

Vee Kay is a Dalit woman scientist, writer and educator. She grew up in a strong Dalit activist household listening to stories and learning her people’s history of oppression. Outside that safe space, however, she experienced a profound lack of acknowledgement of the abusive structure of caste. She asserts that this attitude mounts an effective denial of not only her own existence, but of the some three thousand years of history of her people. To make herself visible as a Dalit woman, she constantly writes to educate and organizes around Dalit issues. She believes Dalit women asking questions and taking action can shake the foundations of caste feudalism. She is also a strong advocate for science and education as a means to dissolve old oppressive ideologies. She has a Masters from University of Pennsylvania and a PhD in Biochemistry from Dartmouth College. Her scientific achievements have been awarded by the Federation of European Biochemical Societies, the Geisel Graduate Fellowship and won the Provost Award for Interdisciplinary Innovation.