#bowerypoetry
Dee Mandiyan is a queer South Asian writer and performer and featured artist in Sakhi’s upcoming show, “Gender Justice + The Arts: An Asian American Showcase” at Bowery Poetry Club on 7/31! Their passion lies in expanding models of gender, racial, and sexual identity and promoting more complex narratives of those intersections. Much of their time is spent advocating and agitating for racial and queer justice through literature, education and social media. In their free time, they write fiction, tell amazing dad jokes, fight dragons, and obey the whims of neighborhood cats. Catch Dee at our show this month and on Instagram @deemn716.
Can you describe your art / poetry / writing / music and your artistic process?
My writing has a pretty wide range—I started and have done the most formal training in poetry, but have been writing fiction for years and years. Most recently, I’ve gotten into the “creative non-fiction” type of work—reflecting on my own experiences and building a thematic tapestry from them. Process-wise, I’m what some folks call an “immersive” writer, which means I basically hole up in a quiet place and put myself into the exact mood of the piece I’m writing and then bang out words for hours and hours and hours. I’m not methodical about it—it’s something that happens when inspiration and will co-conspire.
What does gender justice mean to you and how does your work explore themes related to gender and social justice?
Gender justice is foundational to my creative process; I define who I’m writing about and what processes they experience internally and externally based on the dynamics of representation and oppression I experience and learn about within my communities. My introduction to social justice was through gender—the constant punishment of how I was performing or not performing gender, the culture clash and the never-ending sense of being neither this nor that but having no other options visible to me. I’m hoping to take my work in the direction of representing more of the gender options available to black and brown people in all their complexities.
Who is an Asian American artist / writer / performer that inspires you and why?
To be honest—I don’t know! There are folks who I’ve seen as similar enough to me for their work to be meaningful, but it isn’t until really recently that I’ve felt a sense of recognition from and community with APIDA performers who have also been figuring out body and gender and survival and struggle and—most importantly for me—solidarity with other people of color. Ayqa Khan, Paul Tran, folks like them ignite me. My partner will say that she’s not an artist or performer but the work she does in justice education, accountability and advocacy is just immense and ever-expanding. What I find really inspirational about how she operates is that she brings everyone around her with her as she learns—so when we talk about accountability as a call to “gather your people,” she’s already there. She’s already brought her whole family with her.
What can Sakhi supporters look forward to seeing from you at Bowery on 7/31?
Folks can look forward to me offering a challenge: how deeply can we grapple with the violence of colonialism as we ourselves perpetuate it upon one body… one body with perfect eyebrows (shoutout to my mama).
What’s your favorite thing about summer in New York?
Summer in New York means all my queer and trans people of color come out of hibernation and treat the train platform like a runway and it’s honestly the most beautiful thing. Queer melanin everywhere. It’s perfection.
