“To encounter Vivek Shraya’s work for the first time — poetry, music, performance, film, art, books — is akin to falling in love. That back of neck tingle; the recognition that we’re bodies built from emotion; that we all have a deep impulse toward call and response; and, like with any compassionate love, it beckons an opportunity to be our best selves and carry that into the world. Shraya, a Toronto-based powerhouse investigating identity, gender, race, place and everything in between, creates work that nips at the margins, tears at seams and is comfortable asking more questions than it can answer.”
“‘The physical book, with bright and bold text on the cover (and the back cover reading ‘Men Are Afraid of Me’), itself plays an important role in the larger, contextual conversation. Reading the book in public—on transit, in a cafe—the cover text doesn’t go unnoticed and it’s hard to shake the knowledge that there are some men who may take the title as an entry point to initiate conversation, or at worst, a confrontational stance. ‘I will say that I think that my editor David Ross’s thinking behind the book [design] was to honour and connect to my broader work as an artist,’ Shraya told VICE. ‘I hope that a lot of people feel empowered by both sides of that title.'”
