VIVEK SHRAYA 🆚
@vivekshraya
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Artist. I WON'T ENVY - a new podcast that explores professional jealousy - Nov 27, 2024 🐍 HOW TO FAIL AS A POPSTAR @cbcgem Original Series OUT NOW.
Joined March 2009
Check out the trailer for I WON’T ENVY - a new podcast that explores professional jealousy. FIRST EPISODE TOMORROW! 🐍. Guests: @alokvmenon @WordsandGuitar @teganandsara @Kay__Ray @queenpythia @denimjustdenim and more!. Co-produced w/ @buddiesTO. Sponsored by QTRL.@bonhamcentre.
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it's been 3 years and my parents still dont use my pronouns BUT today my mom offered to give me her old saris. so much of THE WORK with parents, especially poc parents, is finding a way to receive the kind of acceptance/love that they are able to give.
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my mom called to tell me that members of my old religious community have discovered that I am a Trans and tried to offer her comfort / condolences which awk / lolz but my dad on speakerphone repeating “we don’t care what anyone else thinks about you” was everything 😩😭.
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One of the most stressful moments for a Canadian watching US TV is when people get on their beds still wearing their shoes 🙈🤢.
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Miss Shraya: Tenured professor! 😭. Thank you to @UCalgary Faculty Tenure and Promotion Committee, Dean & Provost + external referees. Especially grateful to work somewhere that values my creative practice 😫. Looking forward to taking more risks in life, art and the classroom 🙏🏾
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I’ve thought of killing myself at least once / month in 2020, which is significantly more than usual. I’m sharing this not because I need any support at this time but because I find the lack of reporting around mental health and suicide in relation to the pandemic invisibilizing.
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"Love is love" is deeply upsetting. Trans / queer people don't face violence simply because of who we love.
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because trans existence and gestures of cis allyship are two very different things 🤷🏽♀️
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can i be selfish for a moment?. i feel so sad for artists. projects take months, YEARS to conceive and construct. we do it for us, yes, but we also do it for you. and i mourn all the art that has gotten lost, shuffled, canned in the past two years, and this ongoing trajectory :(.
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i am really perplexed why "trans people are not a burden" only when we are banned from the military.
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🚨 TRANS GIRL ON SEPTEMBER ISSUE COVER OF @quillandquire 🚨. On newsstands now. Thank you @mcpheee, @MrRyanPorter and the q&q team. #imafraidofmen
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40. 🎶Looks like we made it, look how far we've come my baby🎶 . 😮
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“Tonight I’m going to read for pleasure!”. *spends night on phone*.
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After 15 yrs of art/love/heartbreak/self-actualization in TO, I'm moving back to AB in Dec to be tenure-track English prof @UCalgary!
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The best Xmas movie of all time is the Christmas episode of My So Called Life 😭😇🎄
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I wish it was more socially acceptable to directly ask a new person: "Are you seeking friendship?".
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I’ll never forget after my @TheStromboShow taping, @strombo personally offered to get me an Uber home, without me asking, and when I said I already got one, he took the time to wait with me on the sidewalk until my Uber arrived, again, unprompted. Being an ally isn’t that hard.
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one of the central problems with "love wins" is that hate actually wins on a regular basis. to deny this, suggests a system of justice or fairness which doesn't exist for oppressed bodies.
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“Being a queer black woman in America—someone who has been in relationships with both men and women—I consider myself to be a free-ass motherfucker.”.-@JanelleMonae . YES 😭❤️
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Announcing my sophomore novel: THE SUBTWEET. April 7, 2020 @ecwpress. Brown women. Friendship. Music. Jealousy. Social media. Everything I wanted in a book. Hope u feel the same way. Pre-order: Big thanx @jen_knoch & @rachelletofsky. #thesubtweetbook
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I don’t know how to describe how far my parents have come on their journey of “acceptance.”And it really has been a journey, on both ends. One day I’m gay, then I’m getting married, then divorced, then trans—and w/ every change, they have tried to see me and love me. So lucky 😩.
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Truly an honour and inspiration to meet you @JyotiGondek. Thank you for all the incredible work you are doing for this city 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
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I love wearing yellow because of how it amplifies brown skin 🌞🌼.(Bonus: the dress had *pockets*—a working girl’s dream). A thrill to be included in this shoot for @FashionCanada (March issue). More to come 🤫🙏🏾
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I’m Afraid of Men street posters in Toronto are blowing my mind rn. To see a trans feminine voice own her fear (and to name yours) .alongside spaces where we are often scrutinized/attacked the most—public sidewalks—is just 🤯. #imafraidofmen
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Tonight, for the FIRST TIME EVER in my 8 year literary career, my parents are attending one of my book readings. I’m all like 😳 and they’re all like “will there be popcorn tho?” 🙈😂🍿. #priorities #imafraidofmen
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Signed a two-book deal with @PenguinCanada! Proud to be part of the family. Big thank you to @davidjohnross @rachelletofsky & @nwinstanley.
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This summer marks four years since I privately asked friends and family to use she/her pronouns 🤯.
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So I was just rejected for a CBC thing that I didn’t even apply for . AND 230 other applicants were also rejected and copied on the same message . AND now everyone is replying all with jokes . #inboxnightmare 🙈.
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So QTBIPOC protest the presence of police, RCMP and military personnel and the response is cancelling Pride?. I’m not a Pride person but I’m angry and heartbroken for the hundreds of queers in my hometown who deserve the right to publicly and SAFELY celebrate who we are.
BREAKING: 2019 Edmonton Pride Festival cancelled
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SMILEY NO </3
This is Smiley. He dedicated his life to making others smile. Today, his battle with cancer ends. He is our first 15/10. Rest easy Smiley ❤️
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Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but crediting is the sincerest form of respect for the intellectual labour involved with idea generation.
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Thank you for all your kind words. I am going to spend all weekend having LOTS of queer sex because best revenge is DICK.
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As a non-drinker, I always appreciate when dinner guests BYOB, but last night was maybe the first time a friend brought chips and chocolate instead of alcohol to dinner and it’s just really nice when people consider the non-drinkers in the room.
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I want a show where a group of straight men do nice things for a queer man to attempt to make up for the shitty things they/their people have done to gay people.
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This is why so much of my art explores the beauty and complexity of gender. In a world where legislation against the validity of gender identity is being actively pursued, art is resistance.
#BREAKING: Sources tell @globalnews the @OntarioPCParty just passed Resolution R4. @TGranicAllen resolution that says gender identity is not real & “an PC government will remove the teaching and promotion of “gender identity theory” from schools and its curriculum” #ONpoli.
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CanLit: Can we pls talk about the eternal elephant in the room?. We need to see more BIPOC writers on these award lists. Period. How are we justifying list after list that are comprised of mostly white people year after year?.
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Still in shock. Baby's first Canadian Screen Award. 🤯😭🤯😭🤯😭. #CdnScreenAwards @TheCdnAcademy
The winner for Best Original Music, Comedy, is “Sort Of - Sort Of Who She Is.” Congratulations to all! @CBC @CBC_Publicity #CdnScreenAwards
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It’s been interesting to see the acronym BIPOC become so common place this year but I’m concerned about how the acronym continues to be used to avoid saying “Black” / recognizing the specificity of anti-blackness. It’s like “BIPOC” has become the new “diversity” 🙃.
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I know this is a trite and obvious thing to say but I genuinely don't understand why trans people aren't universally celebrated as beacons and embodiments of possibility??.
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Today, on the official release day of I'm Afraid of Men, I especially want to give thanks to women and gender non-conforming people for continually finding ways to adapt and ascend alongside fear. “We are volcanoes.". #imafraidofmen #epigraph .
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Since the book has come out I’ve had a lot of people say to me “I wish you peace” which feels a bit like “I hope you feel better soon” but I’m not the one that’s unwell? If anything, I am the cure. #ImAfraidofMen.
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trans day of remembrance in my hometown. she lived to tell.
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So excited about this adaptation of Little Women.
Hustling is a way of life. Check out the official trailer for #HustlersMovie starring @ConstanceWu @JLo @MissJuliaStiles @KekePalmer @LiliReinhart @Lizzo @IamCardiB – in theaters September.
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Honestly this shocked and broke me a little. But I pushed through because the show must go on and by show I mean clearly queer pain is entertainment / queerness (and the articulation of homophobia) is only digestible as performance. Thank you for this.
I can’t stop thinking about @vivekshraya’s reading last night and how when she got to the point where a friend told her that her high school crush threatened to beat her up, half the room read it as a punchline and laughed.
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Dear gay creatives . Pls pls pls stop telling stories were being gay is the secret / the main plot conflict. It’s regressive, traumatic and lazy. We have so much more to offer!.
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my mom still doesn't use my pronouns but today, for the first time, wished me for #IWD. love is complicated ❤️.
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complicated feelings about trans visibility day but yesterday I found out that my children’s book (w/ @rajniperera) The Boy & the Bindi is going into its SIXTH printing and I’m so moved that this sweet, brown gender creative child is being seen by so many 😭. #theboyandthebindi
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Nine years with this guy today 💕. (I mean the golden retriever not the chihuahua)
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the writer is always working on two books:. 1. the book they are supposed to be writing .2. the book they are writing to procrastinate working on the book they are supposed to be writing . 🙃.
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Overcome to see an album BY a brown trans girl, ABOUT being a brown trans girl, FOR brown/trans people, on @PolarisPrize Long List. Thank u jurors for taking the time to listen. After making albums in Canada since I was 21, I can't express how much this means to me. #Polaris2018
.@vivekshraya & Queer Songbook Orchestra's Part-Time Woman album has been nominated for the #Polaris2018 #LongList.
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there was something very sci fi about having the students in my sci fi class sing "happy birthday miss shraya" for their trans teacher. feeling immensely grateful to be living in this future 🚀😭.
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as original as you think you are, i promise you someone has come before you and said/done something similar years ago, or at the very least, helped create the space for you to be you. respect your elders.
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I recently had a white author see my phone screen and snidely comment "are you posting a photo of yourself" to which I responded "yeah. i'm doing my job." . ultimately, white authors/artists can afford to be less visible, can afford to do less period than poc authors/artists 🙃.
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life hack: . if they don't respect you now, please stop wasting your time trying to win them over. you won't. and if they do respect you down the road, the good news is you will be long over caring about their opinion anyways 😘.
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I had really hoped that COVID .was going to abolish the handshake as greeting 🙃.
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Using they/them pronouns “in solidarity” or as blanket pronouns for everyone is misguided and lazy. Being an ally = making the effort to learn how every individual wants to be addressed. We are not a monolith.
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We need to talk about a very serious issue: . WTF is a smoothie bowl?. Why would they take something that’s designed to make our lives easier and make it harder? Like now you can’t even travel w/ it and you need a utensil to eat it when you could just DRINK a plain ol smoothie??.
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Daily homophobia taught me to hate my queerness. Racism taught me to hate my brownness. This is how we're weaponized against ourselves.
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Love listening to 2 men talk about the gender neutral washroom @teganandsara show. Man 1: I’ve just *never* used a gender neutral washroom before…. Man 2: How about your home washroom?. 😂👏🏾.
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And let's name "hate" for what it really is too: . homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, racism, islamophobia.
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Our deviance, however glorious, goes beyond who we love. Many trans/queer people are alone (not holding hands etc) when we face violence.
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you don't always need to claim to be "the first" for your work to be impactful or important. true impact comes from framing your work relationally, appreciating and honouring the work that has come before you.
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So excited about this! 📺📺📺. #popstarplay.
Huge news! Congrats, @vivekshraya 🙌 How to Fail as a Popstar selected as one of the 119 projects to receive the CBC Creative Relief Fund, and one of the 17 plays to be developed into a television pilot. #popstarplay.
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There’s only one Samantha but….
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Excited to announce inaugural VS. Arts Grant: $5,000 for a musician (/group) in Canada who is Indigenous/Black/POC, between ages of 18-28, to create their debut EP recording + periodic conversations w/ me for music-related support. Deadline: May 15, 2019.
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🙏🏾Queen @janetmock🙏🏾. Thank you for the gift of your words, your wisdom, your care, your generosity, your beauty.
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Here’s a thought: . What if we collectively agreed that this Friday was year end and took the rest of the month off for much needed rest 😩😩😩.
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In rethinking my ideas re: mentorship, age, emergence & access, the 3rd open call of VS. Books is taking a new direction—offering mentorship & a publishing opportunity for a BIPOC writer living in Canada over the age of 50. Deadline: Jan 4, 2021. Info:
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“For a trans girl, wearing red is a defiant choice—red refuses to be invisible. Before I even open my mouth, my red lips echo the color of blood, declaring: I am alive.”. Wrote a new essay for @ELLEmagazine on the power of a red lip. On newsstands now!.
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Surprised my dad in Edmonton tonight so we could watch the game together 😀✊🏾
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In honour of Intl Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia & Biphobia, @PenguinCanada is donating $2 and I'm donating $1 for every pre-order of my forthcoming book I'M AFRAID OF MEN to @teganandsarafdn for 48 hours! . #imafraidofmen #IDAHOT #IDAHOTB
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As someone who has directly experienced this and witnessed at least three other WOC experience this in institutions in the past 5 months alone, I feel shaken and validated by this graphic. Thank you @COCoQC for this vital work. Also “exits” for WOC often = fired/let go.
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I am happy to live in a time where young people feel the confidence to assert their right to be seen and called upon the way they desire 🙏🏾. (Making fun of they/them pronouns is so five years ago 🙄).
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if you are looking for entertainment, visit a card store the day before valentines day and watch men frantically shop for a card.
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I dreamed of seeing one of my books at an airport one day. My boyfriend just sent this to me from Halifax airport 😫💜. #imafraidofmen
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“When you put value into a person, it empowers that person to get in touch with their own inherent value, and then where do they put that value? They put into their work.”.
Michelle Williams on getting paid equally at the Emmys: "So the next time a woman, and especially a woman of color because she stands to make 52 cents on the dollar compared to her white male counterpart, tells you what she needs in order to do her job, listen to her." . Amen.
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Just because something appears easy doesn’t mean that it is. It just means I know how to do my job 🤓.
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"The greatest gift of this life & career has been the opportunity to redistribute our time, energy and money back into the community that we belong to and that we care so deeply for." -@teganandsara . Actually crying 😭❤️. Grateful for everything you have done for LGBTQ people.
Everything! Is! Awesome! .@teganandsara receive their Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards in the final award of the night #GGAward
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