We Are Nothing (And That Is Beautiful): Alok Vaid-Menon at TEDxMiddlebury

Alok Vaid-Menon has a complicated origin story. You could say that they survived growing up in a small town in Texas that tried its best to make them less brown, less queer, and less radical (but failed). You could say that they went to a school (a delusion) at a settler colonial private university in California built on occupied Native American land where they were awarded diplomas in peculiar fields of inquiry like gender, sexuality, and race that has somehow given them the authority to speak about these topics even though you live them, too. You could say that they have lived in many countries working with many queer third world movements. You could say that they currently perform with DARKMATTER a queer South Asian spoken word duo and organize with the Audre Lorde Project, a queer people of color organizing center in Brooklyn. You could list their publications and accolades, the news publications which validated them, the places they have spoken.

But -- what these things will not tell you is how Alok's body, gender, history, trajectory are in a constant state of flux, hypocrisy, and contradiction. These things will not show you a beating heart, a breathing lung, a mind that yearns for something else. These things will not show you their political vision, let alone how it can be embodied. For these things you must read their poetry (returnthegayze.tumblr.com), you must listen, you must become a part of the movement, you must forget everything you were taught about who is the expert, what is knowledge, and what is history. You must argue with them, you must resist with them, you must build with them. Alok identifies as an interruption, will you allow them to proceed?

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)