“My Body Is Not a Temple”

Gayatri Lakshmi Narayanan

South Asian | Minneapolis, MN | she/her/hers | Non-Profit Sector

Grounded in the intense waves of grief and collective power in 2020, I collaborated on this piece with Jenny Zander and Dania Marin-Gavilan to locate and heal at the intersections of brahmanical patriarchy and colonization in my body. I invite all my relatives to learn about the anti-caste struggle, and I give gratitude to Yogesh Maitreya (author of photographed book, ‘Flowers on the Grave of Caste’) and Nrithya Pillai, who’s dance and voice have been so crucial to building power for anti-caste consciousness among Indian ‘classical’ dancers. May the waves of 2020 bring us deeper into our bodies to heal, transform and move towards collective liberation across interconnected struggles.

Gayatri Lakshmi Narayanan (she/hers) is a dancer and healing justice organizer. She is committed to serving abolition and anti-caste movements, and invites her community to be in relationship with her art as a practice of interrupting Brahmanical patriarchy and healing from white supremacy.