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DarkMatter is an art and activist collaboration between Janani Balasubramanian and Alok Vaid-Menon, known for their spoken word performances and queer/trans South Asian themes.

Background
Janani and Alok met as fellow students at Stanford University in 2009. They both later joined the Stanford Slam Poetry Team and performed in spoken word venues like C.U.P.S.I. (College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational) and other college circuit slams.

The duo cite a lack of representation of South Asian poets, especially queer and/or trans South Asian poets, as an impetus for their decision to form DarkMatter and tour independently starting in Spring 2013. Much of their poetry and activism is inspired by the lack of visibility for QTPOC (queer/trans people of color) including the name DarkMatter, of which they say on their website darkmatterrage.com:

"'darkmatter and darkenergy collectively comprise 96% of the universe, but you can’t see or understand them, except in their effects. we think of our work as politically doing the same–evincing phenomena otherwise understood in their effects. we also think challenging the ways we think about space/time/matter is key to dismantling systems of oppression.'"

Both poets decided to finish school and move to New York, making that the center for their art and activism after their first tour in Spring 2013. As a duo, they run performances, workshops, and speeches for many different community groups.

Poetry
The poets draw inspiration from various sources, including their own emotional journeys, personal experience with oppression, structural systems of oppression, privileges, and the perpetuation of privilege and oppression within activism. Alok began writing poetry in middle school, focusing largely on their emotional experience and developing into more externally political themes in college; Janani entered poetry as a freshman when Alok brought them to their first poetry slam at Stanford.

They see their performance as inherently political. Alok describes their art and poetry as "political cultural work. Political work that is invested in tearing at the fabric of our culture, creating space for people to grieve and experience trauma, creating space for people to feel validated, creating spaces for people to dream up new worlds."

One main topic that they seek to challenge is the concept of "homonationalism" and the violence and oppression done to people of color under the guise of queer activism that predominantly benefits white queers. Alok describes this phenomenon by saying, "Rather than critiquing state violence the gay rights ‘movement’ has readily sought to become a part of it." One example of their poetry addressing homonationalism and the sensationalizing of marriage equality over other queer issues that predominantly affect people of color and/or low-income families is "Queer Rage", performed with the Stanford Slam Poetry Team at CUPSI 2012.

The poets say they were drawn to spoken word and continue to create spoken word art among other forms because of the "long, deep history in black and brown communities in the US as a site of resistance. It is a political form."

Political Work
In addition to pursuing activism and social justice through poetry, both artists are engaged in various community organizations and projects dedicated to social justice. Janani is the Primary Organizer at the Queer Detainee Empowerment Project ( (an Alternative to Detention program for queer/trans/HIV+ immigrants) and current writer for the blog Black Girl Dangerous, an online forum highlighting the experiences of queer and trans people of color (QTPoC). Alok is the Communications and Grassroots Fundraising coordinator at the Audre Lorde Project, a queer people of color activism organization based in New York.