First published 2023
Kandasamy confronts the machinery of state power through verse that refuses to separate the intimate from the political. Her poems move between bedroom and courtroom, family dinner and protest march, always aware that personal choices become political acts under authoritarian rule. She writes about desire and art-making as forms of rebellion, chronicling moments when the body and mind resist control. The collection explores how caste systems and refugee crises connect to freedom of expression, showing how individual experience reflects broader social violence. Kandasamy practices what she calls solidarity, finding ways to want and create despite surveillance and threat. Her voice carries both tenderness and fury as she documents the cost of speaking truth. These poems ask whether authentic identity can survive in hostile territory, whether art can flourish under repression.
Genres: contemporary, poetry, activism
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: political-resistance, solidarity
128 pages · Paperback · Atlantic Books