Alok Vaid-Menon

Alok Vaid-Menon (born July 1, 1991), also known mononymously as Alok (often stylized in all caps), is an American writer, performance artist, and media personality. Vaid-Menon is gender non-conforming and transfeminine, and uses singular they pronouns.

Vaid-Menon's work addresses violence against trans and gender non-conforming people and critiques what they consider constraining gender norms. Vaid-Menon has performed in over 40 countries.

Early life and education Vaid-Menon grew up in College Station, Texas. Their father is a Malayali who was born in Malaysia and worked as a professor. Their Punjabi mother Jyotsna Vaid worked as a health care executive; she grew up in Punjab and immigrated to New York in the late 1960s when Vaid-Menon's maternal grandfather Krishna Baldev Vaid got a college job in the United States. Urvashi Vaid, an LGBTQ rights activist, lawyer and writer, was Vaid-Menon's maternal aunt.

Growing up, Vaid-Menon was bullied for their race and gender expression. They said they felt unable to come out on their own terms because as a gender non-conforming person, they did not know they were different until they were punished for it and told who they were. They developed their art practice at a young age in response to this harassment. "Making art gave me the permission to live. I needed somewhere to put the pain." Because they were not able to express themself visually for fear of safety, they began to share their art online and received supportive responses.

After leaving Texas, Vaid-Menon attended Stanford University where they graduated with a BA in feminist, gender, and sexuality studies and comparative studies in race and ethnicity, as well as a masters in sociology in 2013.

In 2019 Vaid-Menon returned to College Station to host a Pride celebration with the local LGBTQ community in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.

Career

Performance and writing From 2013 to 2017, they performed with former Stanford classmate Janani Balasubramanian as a slam poetry collective named DarkMatter, engaging in queer South Asian themes. In 2017, Vaid-Menon released their first book of poetry, Femme in Public, about harassment against transfeminine people. They toured the show internationally, partnering with local trans artists and organizations. In 2019, they completed an artist-in-residence at The Invisible Dog Art Center, performing "Strangers are Potential Friends" and hosting a "Valentine's Cry-In" to explore public grief and alternative forms of intimacy. They have facilitated "Feelings Workshops" internationally. In 2020, Vaid-Menon published the non-fiction book Beyond the Gender Binary.

Fashion

Vaid-Menon has walked for several fashion brands for New York Fashion Week including Opening Ceremony, Studio 189, and Chromat. They have modeled for several brands including Opening Ceremony, Harry's, and Polaroid Eyewear. They have appeared in fashion magazines and editorials including Vogue, Vogue Italia, Bust magazine, Wussy Magazine,

Themes Vaid-Menon's work addresses transmisogyny, violence against trans and gender non-conforming people, and TGNC representation. Writing in Vice, Vaid-Menon said: "The majority of people still believe that trans is what we look like, and not who we are. We are reduced to the spectacle of our appearance." In a 2018 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Vaid-Menon said: "The problem with a category is that you reduce something as celestial as a human being into a word. Words only approximate truth, and art is where we go when we actually want truth." In a 2019 interview with Business of Fashion, Vaid-Menon advocated for the complete degendering of fashion and beauty industries.

Vaid-Menon has spoken about what they call "the international crisis of loneliness," and has sought to create public spaces for processing pain and establishing connection. They have written about using technology as a conduit for intimacy.

Publications Femme in Public (2017) "Entertainment Value" in Unwatchable (Rutgers University Press, 2019) Beyond The Gender Binary (2020) Your Wound/My Garden. (2021)

Selected live performances 2014: Queer New York International Arts Festival 2015: Lincoln Center La Casita Festival 2015, 2016: Public Theater Under the Radar Festival Festival 2017: Centrale Fies Drodesera Festival 2017: Naked Heart Festival Toronto 2018: Keynote Performance - Transgender Europe Conference, Antwerp 2018: Keynote Performance - Gender Unbound Festival Austin 2019: Spoken Fest Mumbai 2019: Keynote Performance—OUTShine EGALE Conference Fredericton, New Brunswick

TV and film appearances Refinery 29 "Love Me" (2016) "The Trans List" (HBO, 2016) "Random Acts of Flyness" (HBO, 2018) Gender Diversity & Identity In Queertopia (Backlight National Dutch Documentary, 2019) "What I Wish You Knew: Mental Health Roundtable" (Netflix, 2020) A Little Late with Lilly Singh (NBC, Season 2, Episode 16, 2021) Absolute Dominion (Film, Post-production) Hannah Gadsby's Gender Agenda (Netflix, 2024)