👋🏽Hello 2023...
👋🏽Hello 2023...
Wishing everyone had a gentle start to 2023...
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Listen to an audio version of our newsletter here 🌻
Hi folks,
I committed to write the introduction for this newsletter and I must confess that I sat for a very long while with writer’s block. I sat and I wondered. Ok, I did not wonder. I sheer panicked.
I panicked about how I could make this quirky and fun? I worried. I worried about boring people. I asked myself, what do I even have to say that can be so important? Will I be able to do justice to the task in the time that I have? Will I adequately and correctly occupy the white space given for these words? And the thought frenzy continued so on and so forth.
Amidst this panic it slowly occurred to me that I always follow this dysfunctional cognitive pattern regardless of the situation – I worry about putting something out in this world, I directly correlate my work to my self-worth, and have a thousand doubts about my capabilities in a millisecond.
This is not a new revelation or an epiphany to me. I have known for a while that this is the prototype of how I exist. But maybe, this is how we all exist to a degree – our tribes, communities, and society at large.
Maybe we do not know how to slow down. Maybe we are scared to slow down. Maybe we do not want to slow down. Maybe we are not allowed to by our larger structures. Who knows?
So, all panic aside – I have decided to share a moment of stillness with you all. A moment of my eyes soaking in the warm glow of my lamp, my ears tuning in and out of Abida Parveen Ji’s “Yaar ko Ja-Ba-Ja Dheka”, and the aroma of Sweet French Earl Grey infusing my atmosphere.
Wishing you all a moment of sweet standstill or two.
With love,
Huma
📖 Transformative Justice Reading Circle - Organising for abolition and community accountability
We were thrilled to be joined by Kelsey from the Cradle Community for circle 4 of our transformative justice reading circle! We had enriching conversations about navigating conflict, the carceral state and abolitionist responses to violence.
Our summary and reading resources are up on our website!
Highlights from Unpacking the Roots of Brahminical Violence - Publishing Dissent: Stories, History and Rights with Yogesh Maitreya
In December, in collaboration with Literature Must Fall, we hosted ‘Publishing Dissent’; the first in a series of events unpacking the roots of Brahminical Violence. We were joined by writer Yogesh Maitreya in conversation with Koonal Duggal.
As the founder of Panther's Paw Publication, an anticaste publishing house, Yogesh believes it is crucial to publish Dalit literature to open up the Indian imagination to Dalit/Bahujan work.
He discussed the importance of translation as a political act for Dalits to engage, build community and be in dialogue, as well as literature being a blueprint for how we wish to live.
The Indian imagination has always lived within the caste framework so it doesn’t develop. We need Dalit stories to help develop this.
— Yogesh Maitreya
Meet our team! 👩🏽💻
Meet team member Sristi Gautam, a gender rights advocate currently working with The Nia Project based in London. Sristi is motivated by the personal and professional experiences embedded in the intersectional understanding and framework of women’s experiences. She is passionate about creativity and is rooted to the ideology of believing in universal consciousness through universal compassion 💛
What book are you currently reading?
I am currently reading ‘A new earth’ by Eckhart Tolle. The book was on my list for a long time and I had intentionally decided to keep it as one of my first reads in the new year. This book is special because it transcends the limitation of human understanding of make-believe interpretations of religions and discusses the essence of humanity which is aligned to the spiritual belief that I follow. I would definitely recommend this book to give you a profound insight into understanding things from a wider holistic lens while also taking care of the individual/unique thought processes!
What is one thing you would like to share with the world?
I guess it would have to be the beauty of feeling collected when you’re rooted to something eternally special in life- for me that would be my faith system, where we believe in universal consciousness through universal compassion. If I could, I would share the experience of what it feels like to experience my human-ness and experience the omnipresence of a divine aura that I know is looking after me.
What is your favourite thing about The Rights Collective?
The women of The Rights Collective! — the driving force that keeps the collective together and the will to keep exploring life through a variety of experiences and a constant effort to keep learning from each other. I think there are very few spaces where we can talk about inhibitions in an open manner and not treat them as limitations but as a tool for growth. To me, TRC is that space- a space that allows you to be you and to navigate through that experience with mindfulness, compassion, kindness and love for each other!
📚Things we’re engaging with right now…
🗞️NEWS: Solidarity to workers! One of the biggest industrial actions took place in the U.K last week where thousands of workers including teachers and nurses, demanded a better deal. MP Zarah Sultana outlines why we need collective solidarity for this historic movement — read here.
🗞️NEWS: Day 2: Here’s what we know about the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria. Geneva Abdul reports for The Guardian. Read here.
🎙️PODCAST: This new BBC Radio 5 podcast by Josh Baker on the Shamima Begum Story sheds light on the schoolgirls journey into Syria.
🗞️NEWS: A fresh round of violence by the occupying force in Jenin has spread fear in Palestine as Israel’s most-right wing government ever comes into power. Jehad Abusalim writes about the West Bank for Novara Media.
Most of our spaces, workshops and events are free but if you feel called to contribute to the community and invest in sustaining our work, please donate here.