Episode 5: Divya Kandukuri

Drawing on the Third World and Black feminist histories of the concept of "empowerment", Dreams, Dialogues and Disruptions is a 5-part series that explores the idea of power as the capability to make things possible. We speak to guests from diverse fields and representing a variety of standpoints to think through how empowerment manifests in contemporary India.

Empowerment is the process by which unequal individuals and collectives can become capable of making things possible for themselves as well as their communities. It is a way to think about power through a different preposition — power to and with, rather than power over.

What does it mean to have the power to act?
In what ways do we share power with each other?
How does power mediate our relationships with infrastructures, commons, bodies and imaginaries?
Find out on Dreams, Dialogues and Disruptions.

Episode 5
DIVYA KANDUKURI

In this episode, we speak to Divya Kandukuri about the power to heal through telling stories.

We talk about rewriting narratives of personal and collective histories from an anticaste feminist perspective.

ABOUT THE GUEST
Divya Kandukuri is an Ambedkarite feminist activist, trainer, writer and media practitioner. She is the founder of The Blue Dawn, a mental health collective that upholds anti-caste and feminist politics in its functioning. Currently, Divya also works as Research and Programme Coordinator at the feminist publication house Zubaan, and archives feminist and women’s movements in South Asia.

Learn more about her here.
Access The Blue Dawn here.

WORKS CITED
Calvès, Anne-Emmanuèle. “Empowerment: The History of a Key Concept in Contemporary Development Discourse.” Revue Tiers Monde, 2009/4 No 200, 2009.p.735-749.

Lorde, Audre. “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.” 1984.‘Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches.’ Ed. Berkeley, CA: Crossing Press, 2007, 110-114.

Prasad, Kalekuri. “For a Fistful of Self-Respect.” 1990. ‘Steel Nibs are Sprouting: New Dalit Writing from South India’ Dossier II Kannada and Telugu, edited by Satyanarayana, K. and Susie Tharu, translated by Bhanutej, N., HarperCollins, 2013, pp. 602–3.

Raman, Sowjanya, Ratna Velisela, Swathy Margaret Maddela, and Indira Jalli. “alisemma women’s collective manifesto.” 2002. ‘Anveshi: Research Centre for Women’s Studies’, 6 February 2014.

Access a bibliography of Urmila Pawar’s writings here.⁠

ABOUT THE HOST Kamayani Sharma is a writer, podcaster and translator focussing on visual art, culture and media. Formerly a text editor with Art India, Teaching Fellow at Ashoka University and researcher with Sarai-CSDS, she develops and manages the audio programme for Sharjah Art Foundation and runs ARTalaap, South Asia’s first independent visual culture podcast. Sharma contributes critical and creative writing to publications worldwide. She was a finalist at the International Awards for Art Criticism 2020, won the RedInk Award 2023 for print journalism in the Arts and the Art Writers' Award 2024 presented by Pro Helvetia and TAKE On Art magazine.

The "Dreams, Dialogues, and Disruptions" podcast series has been developed as part of the New Delhi edition of the travelling exhibition ‘Empowerment – Art and Feminisms’ by Kunstmuseum Wolfsberg and Goethe-Institut South Asia.