With gritty yet deeply poetic description of a sexual assault will make you see through the victims eyes. This makes the solution and reclaiming of identity that much more beautiful. 

"So then what happens when your home, when your body is attacked? What happens, say, when you thrust something as dark as sexual abuse, molestation or rape onto a person? It makes you feel robbed, like you don't even own your body, they own it, and you're living in it on rent. And this feeling of homelessness within the body isn't restricted to only sexual violence, domestic violence can make you feel just as far away from yourself..." 

The courage that it takes to tell a story like this is hard to understand. Rupi masterfully weaves her own story, told in a raw yet gentle way, powerfully pulling the audience into her art. It is awe inspiring how she links her own outlet for healing, writing poetry, to the poetry inherent in Sikhi, "Even our names are picked from poems written hundreds of years ago. When I decide to marry, it will be poetry that will bond that marriage. When I pass it will be poetry that will mark my departure. And so it comes as no surprise, I think, that I would use writing poetry as a means to reclaim this body. To find home here again. It was this writing of poetry that lead me to find love, for myself." 

Listen to the whole talk and don't hold your tears back if they start to emerge, they will be tears of bairaag and of healing.  

 

 

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