DIDIHOOD ~ Issue 11

Happy New Year Didis! 

We just had our first meeting of the year to establish our goals and begin executing plans for our 2019 events and we are so excited to share everything we've got in store. The big milestone we are most looking forward to is launching our mentorship program. So for any of you who have yet to sign up as mentors and/or mentees, fill out this form on our website so we can add you to the list! 

Meet the Didis:

Kicking off a new year of our Meet the Didis series, we have Toronto-based journalist Anupa Mistry. Her bylines can be found in The FADER, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, NYMag and more. She has also interviewed the likes of The Weeknd, Solange Knowles and Pusha T. 

Tell us about how you got into music and pop culture writing: 
I initially wanted to be a serious political journalist, but I quickly realized that the personal discipline and rigour required for a job like that wasn't a good match for my personality! But that inclination toward deciphering the ways of the broader world did fuel my interest in arts journalism — "There's no such thing as political art." I'd always used music and fashion and art as a way of connecting to a world outside of the small bubble I grew up in, in Brampton, Ont. At the same time, I knew Brampton was a pretty unique place (in the global context) to grow up due to its demographics, class profile, infrastructure, etc. So basically, an impulse that has defined my career from the start has been using arts narratives to document and understand the social fabric of a place, on the local and national level. I'm more interested in complexity than representation. 

What kinds of challenges have you faced throughout your career as a WOC navigating the industry? 
It's always been difficult to be taken seriously as a woman, especially because I started out writing about rap and club music; in Toronto both scenes were/are dominated by men. Women are competitive and I'll include myself in that; it took me a long time to stop operating from a scarcity mindset. I think that because I don't physically or socially present myself in certain relationships with people who I've genuinely connected with over the years — particularly my OGs, I reached out to a lot of older Toronto rap writers who are still my friends to this day. I'd also like to point out that, in some respects, I think I've benefitted from certain privileges — I'm very aware of the fact that South Asian people (and other non-black people) are considered more "acceptable" representations of diversity, over black Canadians and Indigenous people. This is why I find a lot of discourse about diversity and representation frustrating: it's supremacist in impulse, versus equitable. 

What advice would you give to young South Asian women who want to become writers or journalists? 
The only good advice is to read widely, talk to people who are different than you, and write every single day. 

What's next for you? 
I'm currently in production on a pop music docu-series that will air on Netflix. I'm slowly getting back into writing after some time away to rehabilitate and think. It's been nice to slow down and work more intentionally. I've started a newsletter to stay in touch since I'm off most social media for the time being (you can subscribe at https://anupa.substack.com/) and I just put out an informal and fun three-part podcast about creative sustainability called Burn Out, which I think I'll resurrect in the new year. 


What we're reading: 
The New York Times piece titled, The South Asian Artists Making Their Mark on the Western Scene, was a great piece to read as 2018 came to an end. Before 2013, the Met, the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim had never featured a solo exhibition of a South Asian woman, and that's finally changing. 

And Vice featured a piece on Raj Khaira's Pink Ladoo campaign called, Why These South Asian Desserts are Fighting Sexism. 

What we're listening to: 
The Brown Girl Works podcast is a new podcast that launched in November. Each month, a South Asian woman will be featured and she will discuss how she built her career and the obstacles she faced along the way. 

--Nikkjit Gill 

Issue 11 

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