Violence

“Demons in Paradise” Shifts Away From Prevailing Sri Lanka War Narratives

November 15, 2018

Jude Ratnam didn’t realize he would be telling his own story. Initially, Ratnam set out to make a film about the Sri Lankan Civil War, using the railway connecting the Sinhalese-dominated south and the Tamil-dominated north as a springboard for his explorations. “You can’t rationally understand the process of art-making,” Ratnam told Kajal. “But one … Read More

The Fragmentation and Murders of Queer Brown Men in Toronto

November 8, 2018

Eight men were murdered in Toronto, their bodies dismembered and placed into more than dozen fiberglass garden planters on a residential property on Mallory Crescent. This was the same Leaside neighborhood where self-employed landscaper and occasional mall Santa Bruce McArthur worked. Fragments of bodies were found in a wooded area adjacent to the property as … Read More

Chaya Bhuvaneswar’s “White Dancing Elephants” Revels in Your Discomfort

October 8, 2018

There is strange fascination in pressing an old, yellowing bruise, still tender. It begs for repetition and simultaneously unsettles. Chaya Bhuvaneswar’s debut collection, White Dancing Elephants revels in this discomfort, veering through short stories ranging from the speculative to the queer, the mythic to the historical, the pleasurable to the sexually violent. Centering the voices … Read More

Remembering Oak Creek

August 6, 2017

In America, compassion is earned through death instead of existence. In August 2012, when the Oak Creek shooting happened, I was called for jury duty. Here’s how it works: you get pulled into a courtroom with a bunch of other people. Participants who are most likely to show neutrality in the case are cherry-picked for … Read More

Gurbaksh Chahal And The Brown Cult Of Abuse

August 19, 2016

Someone actually called him the real life “Mr. Gray.” Gag. Gurbaksh Chahal, CEO of Gravity4, snot-nosed princeling, and prodigal tech entrepreneur was convicted of domestic violence after being on probation since 2014. The young mogul kicked his former girlfriend 117 times in 30 minutes after she reportedly went to Vegas with another man. Dozens of articles online attribute … Read More

Our Pathological Fear of Women Like Qandeel Baloch

July 18, 2016

The murder of the outspoken Pakistani social media celebrity, Qandeel Baloch, has left millions of people enraged and shocked within the country as well as the diaspora. Baloch first rose to popularity when she auditioned for Pakistan Idol in 2013. Her dramatic reaction for not qualifying was brought to the attention of hundreds of thousands … Read More

A Letter to Qandeel Baloch

July 17, 2016

Dear Qandeel, I have to start off by being honest. Like half the Pakistani population, I had never really been a big fan. In fact, I was one of the people that would laugh at you, speak out against your actions, and roll my eyes every time a new controversy arose. When I woke up … Read More