People change

Vivek Shraya, 1981-

Book - 2022

"Returning to the powerful single-essay format of I'm Afraid of Men, Vivek Shraya summons her signature wisdom to reflect on a topic she's uniquely qualified to explore: reinvention. Growing up surrounded by Hindu lore, Vivek Shraya first learned to model change after gods who assumed various forms and humans who believed in being born again and again. As a child she worshiped Sathya Sai Baba, an Indian guru who claimed to be the reincarnation of a beloved spiritual master. As a teen she adored Madonna, an idol and a shapeshifter in her own right. But after enacting her own transformations--motivated by both survival and creative expression--she came to see change itself as sacred. People Change is a thought-provoking meditat...ion on reinvention from an artist who has actively refused a single, static shape in both her career and in her personal life. With great intelligence and candour, she mines her own experience to get to the heart of what motivates us to change and what limitations and cultural myths trap us in place. What emerges is a lesson in embracing our multiplicity, honouring the many different versions of ourselves, and celebrating the beauty of transformation, both inside and out."--

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306.768/Shraya
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2nd Floor 306.768/Shraya Due Apr 7, 2024
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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Musician and artist Shraya (I'm Afraid of Men) weaves savvy cultural criticism with raw personal reflections in this masterful investigation of reinvention. Even as change is acknowledged as inevitable, Shraya interrogates the negative connotations attached to the concept of transformation as something inherently superficial and unnecessary--pointing out that "the phrase 'reinvent the wheel' is generally preceded by the warning 'don't'." Yet reinvention, she argues, has played a pivotal role in the histories of everyone from pop stars to gods, as well as her own. Looking to examples from her life, she celebrates the positive impact that change has had on her growth; her divorce from her partner, for instance, "unexpectedly allowed me to fall in love with her again and again," and her coming out as trans, she writes, only reaffirmed her certainty "that I want to keep changing." As she gracefully flits from meditations on the self to Krishna (the embodiment of "multiplicity") and Madonna's 1998 "comeback" album, Ray of Light (a symbolic victory over the "shadow of controversy... that landed on her career during her Sex book era"), she offers a poignant exploration of identity and the ways it can be transcended as an act of resistance. This makes an enlightening case for embracing change during a time that needs it most. (Jan.)

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