South Asian Youth Initiative (SAYI) Virtual Conference 2021: Solidarity, Resistance, and Radical Organizing.
Welcome to the 2021 Virtual South Asian Youth Initiative Conference! On April 10th & 11th, 2020, over a dozen South Asian Youth Initiative partner schools will be presenting this year’s conference. Please join us at SAYI 2021 by registering through this form.
SAYI 2021 features 2 keynote speakers, 7 issue-based panels, 5 interactive workshops, and 4 social icebreakers, as well as a career fair and open town hall! Although the topics that will be discussed throughout this conference will be diverse, they will fall on the spectrum of issues that South Asians and South Asians of the diaspora must be active in solving. The theme of SAYI 2021 is “Solidarity, Resistance, and Radical Organizing,” as a guiding principle in conference planning and preparation.
The conference serves as a forum for activism, discussion, and learning, with a focus on movement building and a better understanding of South Asian issues. Workshops like Grassroots Organizing and Mental Health Advocacy and panels like Migration Advocacy and South Asian American Studies offer the skills to actively improve our home communities and campus lives and give lessons for how to maintain this activism into our careers. Our amazing keynote speakers, workshop organizers, and panelists build on this purpose. You can learn more about them below!
Keynote Speakers:
Christina Dhanaraj is a writer, consultant, and Dalit rights, activist. She was the co-founder of the Dalit History Month project and a volunteer for the Dalit Women Fight. She will talk about how to combat casteism in South Asia and the diaspora, and the importance of diasporic South Asians to be active on issues that impact the subcontinent.
Rinku Sen, the co-president of the Women’s March board of directors and executive director of the Narrative Initiative will talk about how to build bridges across race and class lines in organizing, and ways to rally the South Asian community towards equity for all.
Gender Violence Workshop with SNEHA (Saturday, 10th April, 12:00-1:30 pm EST)
The Gender and Violence Workshop hosted by Sneha.inc is designed to help SAYI’21 attendees conceptualize issues of gender-based violence and inequity in South Asia and contextualize them in specific cultural and social norms. It also offers a chance to engage in scenario-based activities to better prepare to identify gender-based abuse and support survivors near or around them. The workshop offers insight from an on-ground organization working to support South Asian survivors of gender violence especially immigrant women in Connecticut.
Grassroots Organizing Workshop with New York Taxi Workers Alliance (Saturday, 10th April, 6:30-8:00 pm EST)
The Grassroots Organizing workshop will teach participants some of the basic skills of grassroots organizing, like power mapping and base building, in order to build collective power for our own campus and home communities. We will also gain a better understanding of the ideas behind organizing strategy and different approaches to organizing. Organizers at the New York Taxi Workers Alliance will share their decades of experience building their union from the ground up to fight for livable incomes, regulations benefiting taxi workers, and securing emergency aid for drivers.
Mental Health and Advocacy Workshop with MannMukti (Sunday, 11th April, 12:00-1:30 pm EST)
MannMukti’s workshop will cover how classism, cultural competency, and the nature of colleges as businesses are amongst the critical factors that shape students’ access to affirming, affordable mental health services as well as how they can build sustainable student-led movements to advocate for change, especially when demanding diverse personnel and accessibility for inclusive on-campus care.
Storytelling Workshop with 1947 Partition Archive (Sunday, 11th April, 6:30-8:00 pm EST)
The Storytelling Workshop hosted by the 1947 Partition Archive, now numbering at 10,000+ stories from the Partition, is a new, one of its kind workshop that will allow SAYI’21 attendees to learn about the ins