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Khushboo Gulati is a young, queer, Desi artist. She works in a range of mediums including graffiti and textiles. I met her when we were both studying at UCLA. Since our first missed coffee date she has taken on the systems of oppression and apathy through her vastly popular Chai Talks, a gathering of South Asians to discuss issues and pertinent topics for the diasporic community, and, of course, through her art.

This is what she had to say about her art and her work:

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Desi. Rooh afzah. Soul spirit healing. Queer ajeeb brownness unearthing ancestral heartbeats, affirmation, medicines, & stories. Eye am whole, an ocean of love, vast gifts, raised by a village.

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Eye craft the creation stories I and my communities needed to see as a young flower/seed that unpack self hate & affirm sweet brown sugar queer desi dark divinity — us. Art as healing, eye create to survive in the diaspora, with all this trauma, nostalgia and desire.

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Amrood and mango stories, stories of uprootedness, creation of new worlds/parlok to navigate our present reality. Visions that upset the setup, challenge poison meant to harm our spirits, eye create through my mother/earth/sister/chosen & blood families/the cosmos.

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Mendhi dancing into fearless portraits of you, me, us, transforming into street styles graffiti beats into graphic portals. Space star, we are magic and more.

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Check out more of her work on her tumblr and find her on Twitter @teenaankhen.