Classical dance & music as decolonized healing tools

TAKE 2~ Heal & create joy in community to decolonize in 'small' but meaningful ways

Excuse the glitch in the last email ~ read this one :)

It’s easy to feel jaded, disillusioned and frustrated at the state of the world especially in the earlier waves of one’s political awakening. It’s understandable to hyper-focus on all the oppressive systems and feel like the world is a “horrible place” but this rage is all consuming and not the basis of our movements. It’s also the result of being socialized under individualism where we default to feeling alone and exceptional in our suffering. Political praxis is about practicing the values of liberation TODAY and NOW because the means is all we have. Our movements are about focusing on all the beautiful, resilient, joyful things in our world that are worth loving and fighting for because this is what gives our life meaning and purpose. How we show up in our every day lives, particularly in our relationships, is an embodiment of liberation.

It’s been 6 months since the birth of Cosmic Anarchy! WHO WOULD HAVE THUNK THIS WAS POSSIBLE, NOT ME LOL. So thank you for being here down to unlearn, learn and build together. I’m taking a break from workshops this month to do some creative housekeeping. But to celebrate the 6 month-aversary, I’ll do series of newsletters featuring decolonized, political healing tools that allow me to find joy, hope and ecstasy while coping with navigating capitalist, colonial systems.

This is also what I guide folks in doing in our 1 on 1 sessions. TODAY I’ll cover:

1. How I’ve accessed ancestral healing through traditional dance + music rituals

• COMING NEXT: Art, creativity & food practices I’ve found to ground in community regularly even when I’m overworked PLUS ecological co-regulation with nature!!

1. Returning to my roots & anchoring in ancestral healing with classical music and traditional dance

I’ve written a lot about how capitalism deprives you of free will and time. It structures our lives to be highly regimented and monotonous. If we merely obey systems and follow the rigid schedules created for us, after work we have just enough time to shower and pass out but not more so that we may wake up to our own exploitation or reach out to each other and forge resilient community networks.

Life under capitalism is monotonous/ repetitive to deprive us of time & drive emotional numbness

Political praxis is about noticing where we have some agency in our lives & reclaiming it the best we can. Every bone in my body tells me to isolate when I’m bogged down by work or to immerse myself in endless distractions that are not necessarily helpful like doomscrolling on social media and disassociating- this is how oppression operates. I’ve had to step back and think very critically about what capitalism/ colonialism DOESN’T want me to do and use lessons from our collectivist cultures and political praxis to guide what I do want to do with the little time I do have outside of work. Our ancestors have already devised beautiful, resilient cultural traditions and community practices that are meant to be tools of intergenerational healing. To this end- I’ve tried to find community spaces to reconnect with my roots through music and dance since I moved to Nashville and this is how I’ve returned to Kathak- one of hundreds of classical Indian dance forms.

Oil on canvas, a painting depicting a Kathak dancer performing with a Hindustani classical music ensemble using the Sitar and Tabla. Credit: CATF Pakistan, Mahnoor Shah, Maryam Mughal, Mazher Ali

By breaking down what makes traditional South Asian classical dance & music so special to me- I’m hoping you can find something that makes you feel just alive. Even if in the smallest ways, you need something to run towards not just something to run from. And our cultures have always found infinitely complex ways of creating meaning in community.