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Vivek Shraya

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Vivek Shraya (born February 15, 1981) is a Canadian musician, writer, and visual artist. She is a seven-time Lambda Literary Award finalist and is considered a Great Canadian Filmmaker of the Future by CBC Arts.[1][2]

Vivek Shraya
Vivek Shraya, 2021
Vivek Shraya, 2021
Background information
Born (1981-02-15) February 15, 1981 (age 43)
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
GenresElectro, dance, rock
Occupation(s)Musician, writer, visual artist
LabelsSkinsongs
Websitewww.vivekshraya.com

Shraya is dedicated to bringing creative writing opportunities to emerging BIPOC writers through the founding of her award-winning publishing imprint VS. Books, which serves as a "mentorship and publishing opportunity" for these writers.[3]

Shraya is also a director on the board of the Tegan and Sara Foundation, which fights for health, economic justice and representation for LGBTQ women.[4][5]

How to Fail as a Popstar, a web series adapted from her stage play and book of the same name, premiered in 2023 on CBC Gem.[6]

Career

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Music

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Shraya began writing songs at the age of 13 and released her first album, THROAT, in 2002. Since then, she has released a dozen solo albums in a range of genres, including If We're Not Talking (2007), Keys & Machines (2009) and 1:1 (2011). Shraya has also created two albums, Bronze (2015) and Angry (2018), with her band, Too Attached, which she and her brother, Shamik Bilgi, formed in 2015. She has toured extensively in North America, both as a solo artist and with Too Attached, sharing the stage with Tegan and Sara,[7] Dragonette, Melanie C, Team Dresch, Melissa Ferrick, Brian Byrne, Greg MacPherson and Bonjay.[8]

Shraya's 2017 album, Part-Time Woman, a collaboration with the Queer Songbook Orchestra, was named one of the 17 best Canadian albums of 2017 by CBC Arts[9] and longlisted for the 2018 Polaris Music Prize.[10]

Writing

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In 2010, Shraya published her first book, God Loves Hair,[11] an illustrated collection of 21 linked short stories about a brown, genderqueer child growing up in immigrant family in Alberta. God Loves Hair was nominated for a 2011 Lambda Literary Award in the Children's/Young Adult category. Shraya's second book, She of the Mountains, a lyrical novel consisting of two intertwined love stories, was named one of The Globe and Mail's Best 100 Books of 2014,[12] and nominated for a 2015 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction.[13] Shraya was awarded the Honour of Distinction at the 2015 Dayne Ogilvie Awards.[14]

In 2016, Shraya released her debut poetry collection, even this page is white, an incisive exploration of the effects of everyday racism and colonialism in Canada[15] that won a 2017 Publishing Triangle award[16] and was longlisted for CBC's Canada Reads.[17] The Boy & The Bindi, a children's picture book about a young boy's fascination with the dot on his mother's forehead, was also published in 2016. Shraya's first non-fiction book, I’m Afraid of Men, was released in August 2018.[18]

In 2017, Shraya partnered with Arsenal Pulp Press to create an imprint, VS. Books.[19] Through VS. Books, Shraya supports young writers of colour by providing mentorship through the writing and editing processes and publishing a book by a different emerging artist every year. The first VS. title, Téa Mutonji's short story collection Shut Up You're Pretty, was published in 2019.[20]

Shraya's first graphic non-fiction work Death Threat was published by Arsenal Pulp Press in 2019.[21] Ness Lee did the visual art for the book.

Shraya's second novel The Subtweet was published on April 7, 2020 by ECW Press.[22] The book is focused on an intense friendship between two women of colour musicians.

Quill & Quire reviewed The Subtweet in March 2020, concluding that "While it wrestles with the political realities of working in the arts and navigating social media, The Subtweet also elucidates certain social-justice modes of thought. Shraya’s narrative pushes back against the ways mainstream and pop-culture formulations of social justice are used to further agendas misaligned with principles of equity. It critiques the ways in which social-justice rhetoric can be wielded as a weapon for the purpose of self-aggrandizement or the pursuit of personal vendettas. The Subtweet attempts to nudge the reader toward a more critical perspective and to encourage the reader to be more skeptical of what comes out of the mouths of public figures, especially when money and politics are involved."[23]

Shraya's 2022 book People Change was published by Penguin Random House and was included in CBC Books list of "26 Canadian Books to Read for Pride Month".[24]

Media and visual arts

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Shraya has created five short films that have screened at festivals across Canada and internationally.[25][26] In 2016, she released a photo series, Trisha, featuring old photos of her mother displayed alongside contemporary re-creations of the images with Shraya herself as the subject.[27][28] This project has been shown in galleries across North America[29] and a digital version of Trisha has circulated internationally.

Before coming out as trans on February 15, 2016, Shraya made the film, Seeking Single White Male on August 1, 2010. This film depicts a set of pictures of Shraya increasingly altering her features to those more associated with a Caucasian person. The images depict the bleaching of her brown hair to blonde in addition to the constant use of blue eye contacts over her brown eyes.[30] In a post on her website just over two years after the original post, Shraya shares that the purpose behind the film was “to show how the internalization of racism can manifest externally.”[31] An analysis of Seeking Single White Male completed in June 2019 reveals that “The comments incorporated into this video clearly address the existence of racialized conceptions of desirability within the gay community in Ontario, Canada.”[32] Prior to 2010, Shraya altered her appearance to appear more Caucasian in response to the “racialized conceptions of desirability” in the Edmonton gay bars that she frequented. Seeking Single White Male has been shown in multiple screenings including the Vancouver Queer Film Festival in 2011 and the Reel Asian International Film Festival in Toronto, ON in 2012.[33]

Shraya's first theatrical work debuted on February 18, 2020. The work is called How to Fail as a Popstar, chronicling "her journey to 'not quite' pop music superstardom. A reflection on the power of pop culture, dreams, disappointments and self-determination, this astonishing performance is a triumph in finding one’s authentic voice."[34] The play includes original songs written and performed by Shraya.

In 2020, Shraya partnered with Pantene on their global Hair Has No Gender Project, highlighting the importance of hair in a trans or gender non-binary person's identity and transition. The campaign's film included a conversation about self-expression and familial support between Shraya and her father, Mohan Bilgi.[35]

Shraya has also composed music for the television series Sort Of. Alongside Emily Persich, Moël, Terrell Morris, Shan Vincent de Paul and Ceréna, she won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Original Music in a Comedy Series at the 11th Canadian Screen Awards in 2023.[36]

Personal life

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Vivek Shraya identifies as bisexual. On February 15, 2016, Shraya also came out as transgender[37] and announced via her Facebook account that she is now using she/her pronouns.

Discography

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  • Samsara: The Sketches (2002)
  • THROAT EP (2003)
  • A Composite of Straight Lines (2005)
  • If We're Not Talking (2007)
  • If We're Not Talking Single (2008)
  • Keys & Machines (2009)
  • Part Time Woman (2017)
  • Baby, You're Projecting (2023)

Books

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References

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  1. ^ "About · Vivek Shraya". vivekshraya.com. Retrieved 2022-03-13.
  2. ^ "17 for '17: These are the great Canadian filmmakers of the future". 2017. Retrieved 2022-03-13.
  3. ^ "2020 Open Call / VS. Books". vsbooks.ca. Retrieved 2022-03-13.
  4. ^ "About TSF". Welcome. Archived from the original on 2019-04-20. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  5. ^ "About • Vivek Shraya". vivekshraya.com. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  6. ^ Hina Imam, "‘How to Fail as a Popstar’ asks us to make space for failure". Xtra!, October 13, 2023.
  7. ^ "Vive Le Shraya" Archived 2007-02-13 at the Wayback Machine. SEE Magazine, August 24, 2006.
  8. ^ "Bonjay and Too Attached on the limits of 'diversity'" Archived 2018-07-18 at the Wayback Machine. Now, May 23, 2018.
  9. ^ "The 17 best Canadian albums of 2017". CBC Music. Retrieved 2018-07-25.
  10. ^ "2018 Long List - Polaris Music Prize". Polaris Music Prize. Archived from the original on 2018-06-25. Retrieved 2018-07-25.
  11. ^ "Vivek Shraya launches his first collection of short stories" Archived 2012-09-24 at the Wayback Machine. Xtra!, May 5, 2010.
  12. ^ "The Globe 100: The best books of 2014". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2017-03-01.
  13. ^ Gentes, Brian (2021-03-15). "2021 Lambda Literary Award Finalists Announced". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  14. ^ "Alex Leslie wins 2015 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBT Emerging Writers". Quill & Quire, June 8, 2015.
  15. ^ "Review: Vivek Shraya's even this page is white".
  16. ^ "Vivek Shraya wins Publishing Triangle Award | Quill and Quire". Quill and Quire. 2017-04-28. Retrieved 2018-07-25.
  17. ^ Taunton, Paul (Dec 19, 2016). "CBC Canada Reads 2017 announces longlist, including Katherena Vermette, Vivek Shraya, André Alexis". National Post. Retrieved Feb 2, 2017.
  18. ^ "Vivek Shraya's new book I'm Afraid of Men set for fall 2018 | The Star". thestar.com. Retrieved 2018-07-25.
  19. ^ "Vivek Shraya gives writers a path through barriers with VS. Books – Broken Pencil Magazine". brokenpencil.com. Retrieved 2018-07-25.
  20. ^ Sue Carter, "Téa Mutonji selected as first writer under Vivek Shraya’s VS. imprint with Arsenal Pulp". Quill & Quire, December 11, 2017.
  21. ^ Death Threat.
  22. ^ Shraya, Vivek (7 April 2020). The subtweet: a novel. ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-77041-583-6. OCLC 1121630522.
  23. ^ "The Subtweet". Quill and Quire. 2020-03-05. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
  24. ^ "26 Canadian books to read for Pride Month". CBC News. June 7, 2022. Retrieved June 8, 2022.
  25. ^ "Toronto artist Vivek Shraya asks an important question in 'What I Love About Being Queer'". Nightlife.ca. Retrieved 2018-07-25.
  26. ^ "Screening: Canadian Shorts". OUTeast Film Festival. Archived from the original on 2018-07-26. Retrieved 2018-07-25.
  27. ^ "Why this trans artist is recreating photos of her mother | CBC News". CBC. Retrieved 2018-07-25.
  28. ^ "On Becoming My Mother". Canadian Art. Retrieved 2018-07-25.
  29. ^ "Vivek Shraya's "Trisha" Blurs the Past and the Present". Retrieved 2018-07-25.
  30. ^ Shraya, Vivek (1 August 2010). "Films". Vivek Shraya.
  31. ^ Shraya, Vivek (7 August 2012). "Seeking Single White Male: Two Years Later and An Open Letter". Vivek Shraya.
  32. ^ Liu, Yilong; Park, Soyang (June 2019). "Confronting Ambiguity: Reading the Intersection of Racial and Sexual Marginalization in Rex Vs Singh and Seeking Single White Male". ProQuest. ProQuest 2331236046.
  33. ^ Shraya, Vivek (1 August 2010). "Seeking Single White Male". Vivek Shraya.
  34. ^ "How to Fail as a Popstar · Vivek Shraya". vivekshraya.com. 18 February 2020. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
  35. ^ Daniel, Sarah (2020-11-24). "Meet Pantene's new Canadian ambassador, Vivek Shraya". Fashion Magazine. Retrieved 2022-06-08.
  36. ^ Connie Thiessen, "2023 Canadian Screen Awards: Comedic & Dramatic Arts". Broadcast Dialogue, April 14, 2023.
  37. ^ "Girl, It's Your Time: Trans Artist Vivek Shraya On Finding Freedom and Wholeness". Autostraddle. 2016-05-19. Retrieved 2017-03-01.
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