98.42.74.203: No citation for religious identity.

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No citation for religious identity.

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[[File:Thenmozhi Soundararajan 20170811-7574 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Thenmozhi Soundararajan in 2017]]
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2017}}
'''Thenmozhi Soundararajan''' is a [[Dalit]] rights activist based in the United States of America.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/12/thenmozhi-soundararajan-dalit-women-art-and-activism|title=Thenmozhi Soundararajan: fighting the Dalit women's fight with art and activism|last=Holpuch|first=Amanda|date=March 12, 2015|work=The Guardian|access-date=2017-08-05}}</ref> She is also a [[Transmedia storytelling|transmedia storyteller]], songwriter, hip hop musician and technologist.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite interview|last=Soundararajan|first=Thenmozhi|interviewer=Laura Flanders|title=Creating Technology by the People, for the People|date=March 20, 2017|publisher=[[The Nation]]|url=https://www.thenation.com/article/qa-thenmozhi-soundararajan/|access-date=2017-08-13}}</ref><ref>{{Cite interview|last=Kowtal|first=Asha|last2=Soundararajan|first2=Thenmozhi|interviewer=Sonia J. Cheruvillil|title=The Journey towards Liberation|date=May 2, 2014|access-date=2017-08-12 |url=http://www.thefeministwire.com/2014/05/asha-kowtal-thenmozhi-soundararajan/ |publisher=Feminist Wire}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
Thenmozhi Soundararajan's parents are from a village in rural India and experienced [[Caste-related violence in India|inter-caste violence]] there. Her father is a doctor and her mother was the first woman from her family to get a college education.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/can-art-dismantle-a-centuries-old-system/40513|title=Can Art Dismantle a Centuries-Old System?|last=Sathian|first=Sanjena|date=April 14, 2015|work=OZY|access-date=2017-08-12|language=en}}</ref> She learned from her mother that she was a Dalit while at school. She had been reading about how the [[Bhopal disaster]] affected [[untouchability|Untouchables]], asked her mother some questions and was told that she, too, came from the community.<ref name="elle">{{cite web|url=http://elle.in/magazine/still-i-rise/|title=What it means to be an 'Untouchable' in 2017|last=Soundararajan|first=Thenmozhi|date=July 29, 2014|website=Elle India|access-date=2016-05-29}}</ref>

Soundararajan publicly revealed that she is a Dalit when she made a documentary film on caste and violence against women as a part of her college thesis at [[University of California, Berkeley]]. She says the decision had many consequences: while fellow Dalits secretly confided in her about their identity, she says that she also faced discrimination from almost all of the Indian professors in her campus, who refused to advise her on projects.<ref name="elle"/>

== Professional life ==
Soundararajan is a filmmaker, transmedia artist and storyteller. Currently, she is the Executive Director of Equality Labs, an [[Ambedkarite]] South Asian progressive power-building organization that uses community research, cultural and political organizing, popular education and digital security to fight the oppressions of caste apartheid, Islamophobia, white supremacy, and religious intolerance. She was also the executive director of Third World Majority, a women of color media and technology justice training and organizing institution based in [[Oakland, California]]. She is also a co-founder of the Media Justice Network, and Third World Majority is one of the network’s national anchor organizations. In that context she has worked with over 300 community organizations across the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://conference.aidindia.org/frontpage/speakers/thenmpzhi-soundararajan-panelist-caste-issues-session/|title=Thenmozhi|website=AID Conference|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160701181411/https://conference.aidindia.org/frontpage/speakers/thenmpzhi-soundararajan-panelist-caste-issues-session/|archive-date=2016-07-01|url-status=dead|access-date=2017-08-13}}</ref>

Soundararajan has used storytelling to speak about casteism within the [[Indian diaspora]]. She has worked with bassist [[Marvin Etizioni]] on her debut blues album, ''Broken People'', which was a collection of liberation songs about people belonging to the Black and Dalit community.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dalitcry.org/special_reports/still-I-rise.htm|title=Still I Rise|last=Soundararajan|first=Thenmozhi|website=Dalit Cry|access-date=August 13, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://scienceandfilm.org/people/307/thenmozhi-soundararajan|title=Thenmozhi Soundararajan|website=Sloan Science and Film|language=en|access-date=August 13, 2017}}</ref> Her essay and a photo series about her Dalit experience in the United States was published in ''[[Outlook (Indian magazine)|Outlook]]'' magazine.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/the-black-indians/281938|title=The Black Indians|last=Soundararajan|first=Thenmozhi|date=August 20, 2012|work=Outlook India|access-date=2017-08-05}}</ref>

In 2015, the [[Robert Rauschenberg Foundation]] included her in their first group of Artist as Activist fellows.<ref name=":0" /> She has used this fellowship to work on #DalitWomenFight, a transmedia project and activist movement.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2015/11/04/women-fight-to-dismantle-indias-destructive-caste-system/|title=Women campaign to dismantle India's destructive caste system|last1=Booth|first1=Katie|date=November 4, 2015|work=Women in the World in Association with The New York Times|access-date=August 13, 2017|last2=Maloney|first2=Alli|language=en-US}}</ref>

Soundararajan has been involved in the curation and creation of [[Dalit History Month]], a radical history project.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://roundtableindia.co.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8123:dalit-history-matters&catid=119:feature&Itemid=132|title=Dalit History Matters|last=Dalit History Matters Collective|date=April 1, 2015|publisher=Round Table India|access-date=2017-08-05}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.firstpost.com/living/ambedkar-jayanti-2017-heres-a-look-at-dalit-history-month-to-explore-forgotten-narratives-3383696.html|title=Ambedkar Jayanti 2017: Here's a look at Dalit History Month to explore forgotten narratives|last=Maneck|first=Ankita|date=2017-04-14|work=Firstpost|access-date=2017-09-11|language=en-US}}</ref> Its goal is to share Dalit historians' research, which is a deviation from many scholarly projects which have studied Dalit history without leadership or collaboration from Dalits.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://theconversation.com/selfie-is-not-a-dirty-word-68966|title=Selfie is not a dirty word|last=Gonsalves|first=Roanna|date=November 17, 2016|work=The Conversation|access-date=August 13, 2017|language=en}}</ref>

In 2020, Soundararajan began hosting the podcast, "Caste in the USA," in which she explores caste discrimination at American campuses, offices, and households, through conversations with individuals who have first-hand experience with casteism in America.

== Further reading ==
* Soundararajan, Thenmozhi; Varatharajah, Sinthujan. ''[http://theaerogram.com/caste-privilege-101-primer-privileged/ Caste Privilege 101: A Primer for the Privileged],'' The Aerogram, 2015.
* Soundararajan, Thenmozhi. ''[http://www.huffingtonpost.in/thenmozhi-soundararajan/i-m-a-proud-dalit-american-and-this-is-why-i-marched_a_21661340/ I'm A Proud Dalit-American And This Is Why I Marched]'', Huffington Post, 2017.
* Gaikwad, Rahi. ''[http://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/An-equal-music/article14580390.ece An equal music]'', The Hindu, 2016.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links==
*{{commonscat-inline}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soundararajan, Thenmozhi}}
[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American women activists]]
[[Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni]]
[[Category:American artists]]
[[Category:American hip hop musicians]]
[[Category:American women songwriters]]
[[Category:Ambedkarites]]
[[Category:Dalit activists]]

Thenmozhi Soundararajan - Revision history

98.42.74.203: No citation for religious identity.