SA
Anjali! I’m so happy to be here with you this morning/evening. Can you tell me how you’ve been feeling this week?
A
Yes, me too!! I’m doing good at the moment! Feeling good with a couple of projects this week involving working with nice and real people. It can be so weird and lonely working solo on projects for extended periods and last week I was really feeling that! Especially working w ppl who share identities & values feels comfy and exciting at the moment 🙂
SA
So good to know you are feeling safe and cozy in the spaces you’re working in right now. If you were to use your five senses to describe your spirit, what would it sound, look, smell, taste, feel like?
A
That is a great question. Wellll… sounds like cicadas and crickets chirping at the moment. I’ve been hardcore living a country life lately. Looks like when you’re riding in a car and you’re staring at moving trees and it all just looks gradient green and blue, blurry but meditative. It smells like really sweet and spicy lovely fragrant pussy. Tastes like very gingery masala chai. Brewing a cup every morning has brought me spirit for so long. I just found some fresh lemongrass I’ve been chopping into it lately. Mhm. And feels like velour. I’m wearing a velour turtleneck.
SA
I’m hearing spicy, smooth, settled yet stimulated. I love learning of the intricate details that make up how artists I love feel. It reminds me of how I first stumbled upon your work – the first time I ever engaged with your work was through Sonia Prabhu, who is our amazing designer at Studio Ānanda, they were sharing the music video for . This was before I knew anything about Diaspoura or anything about you, sweet Anjali – but something about that track and the visuals were so hypnotic to me and it became a song I meditated to, worked to, cried to, danced to. Then I met you in person one day in the Playground Annex and you were telling me about a Spotify walk out you were organizing and I was so struck by the duality of your art making – how you are very much walking the walk.
How does art making inspire your organizing, and how does organizing inspire your art making?
A
Wow, thank you so much for this joyful affirmation and acknowledgement of the efforts that I’ve tried so hard to merge into an artform or whatever. An interdisciplinary course of sorts. The projects I’ve released have been put out very intentionally and it feels so good to have that translate over to folks watching and listening. Grassroots organizing was the way I came into songwriting and publishing. I was the youngest of our organizing cohort, and my co-organizers were truly some badass queer mentors… They and the youth I worked with helped me believe in myself while dreaming for a radically different society. My first performances were during our after school program or fundraisers for it.
There are a lot of break-through revelations I had in that moment, and continue to have, which I don’t find a ton of representation for in the art and music world. (the project Glisten was on) was a concept I conjured out of that desire. Community banning together and leaving toxic systems in the dust. Breaking format in the art world, and creating projects that could bring my loved ones closer to me and each other. Organizing has harvested the lessons I bring to my art, and my art has nourished me to sustain the effort of organizing. I’m imagining a spiral outwards and hoping it will keep going.. Cycling into each other. It’s definitely much easier to look back at it than to be in it. Am i making sense??
SA
Wow – yes. So much of this work is so process oriented and moves at varying paces, stepping back only really ever happens once the process comes to an end to a degree.
It’s so beautiful learning about how grassroots communities have nourished and fostered you from such an early age. How do you avoid burn out when you do this work? Around the time that the whole world seemed like it was organizing this year, there was so much collective anxiety where folks were feeling exhausted by the amount of work that needed to be done, a lot in the community going above and beyond and not necessarily taking care of themselves in the process. But to create new worlds, we need rest, we need rejuvenation and moments of stillness and quiet. How do you incorporate that into your practice?
A
Absolutely, I hear you. Burnout is it’s own war to end. I truly think it matters where we’re putting the energy we devote, and moving with intention can radically shift the amount of drainage and suffering we feel with this heavy, seemingly enormous, work. It is so important to notice how much being in right relationship with (1) each other, (2) the land, and (3) ourselves can make it easier for us. Spreading hope, living our dreams, and modeling authenticity, integrity, and wholeness is a part of this work just as much as action-planning, demonstrating, fundraising, and educating. I think an analysis of the work we’re doing, moving away from charity models and indulging in trauma porn (wink wink), embodying our values with the things we already find pleasure in doing for others (and being anti-capitalist about it, not commodifying the movement) – that can be a very healing and rewarding journey that doesn’t involve getting burnt out and shutting down to forget about reality.
SA
Eee yessss. Slowing down to really meditate on what we are called to instead of blindly jumping into anything and everything without intentionality. You touched on intentionality earlier and I truly do believe that with organizing, if it isn’t mindful and thoughtful, that’s when burn out appears.
As we come to an end, I want to extend such a huuuuuuuuge heart of gratitude, Anjali – for all the ways you’re helping me, personally, understand myself and the world around me more.
We usually end our interviews by asking, what are 3 – 4 things helping you stay grounded lately.
A
Thank you, Prinita!! On that note, it is so enjoyable to witness your journey and practice – building beautiful loving community through Studio Ananda and beyond. I am excited for you and our friendship! I’m counting that as something keeping me grounded. Some other things… by Stevie Wonder has really grounded me this week. What a liberating album. The 3 cats I get to see in my COVID-pod and their wildly different personalities are definitely grounding. Cats have such clear boundaries and offer some real mentorship for confidence-boosting!! And long-distance running has been grounding me as a personal routine, although it feels like I’m flying off the ground when I get into it. Feeling my breath get hard and being able to sustain it is so rewarding! <333
Anjali Naik is the singer, songwriter, electronic producer, and new media artist behind . Raised in a highway hotel in rural South Carolina, Diaspoura brings forth a fresh perspective at the intersections of the poor, Brown, and gay South, while collaborating with other independent talents locally and beyond borders. Follow Anjali here.