Transmission: Raji Aujla (in Punjabi)

“Not too long ago, humans and nonhumans lived in co-dependency. We intuited, breathed, and created together. Their offspring was mine and my offspring was theirs.” In an intimate letter from an older generation, Raji Aujla links gender-based oppression, economic logic, the invisibilization of non-Western forms of knowing, and environmental destruction. “Dispel this illusion of our current worldview,” she intones, “by thinking about revolutionary, radical love that impacts our very social and political structures.” Aujla’s powerful rejoinder to capitalism and colonialism spans personal and collective experience across generations. “Artists-in-Presidents” is initiated by Constance Hockaday, curated by Christine Shaw, and commissioned by The Blackwood (University of Toronto Mississauga). Podcast production by Vocal Fry. Transmissions are released every Friday from August 6–December 17, 2021. To view the portrait gallery, access ASL videos and transcripts, and for additional information about the project, visit www.artistsinpresidents.com and www.blackwoodgallery.ca. Raji Aujla is the founder and president of Willendorf Cultural Planning and editor-in-chief of Newest Magazine, sister companies that focus on better representation and inclusion of IBPoC voices in Canadian arts and culture. She has been a cultural builder, curator, creative director, and advocate in the Canadian arts sector for the past ten years. Prior to this, she worked in journalism, spending tireless hours researching and developing stories focused on racial, gender, and caste injustices. Throughout this experience, storytelling has been her greatest superpower to help bring together people of different backgrounds and beliefs and to empower her generation to design a better future. She believes that the arts have a transformative power to bring people together and build empathy.
 Photo and Video: Nithya Thayaal Assisted by: Adad Hannah Punjabi translation and voiceover: Surjit Kaur Producer: Aakanksha Luthra Photo hair and makeup: Sangeeta Bhella

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