_format-1500w.png){kind=logo}
Photo by Joe Mazza – Brave Lux
Today we want to re-introduce you to one of our Statera Blog contributors, Anu Bhatt! Our blog contributors offer up their unique voices and perspectives to our audience in the form of short essays, vlogs, interviews, and other creative content. Anu’s vlog “Seeking Agency” centers around the mental health challenges that women face in the arts industry and is part of our larger Statera Community Conversations series.
Bhatt is a StateraArts member, an alumni of our Chicago Mentorship Chapter, and a multi-faceted actor, dancer, and playwright. Amongst many other accomplishments, Anu’s autobiographical one-woman show Hollow/Wave, which was first produced in Chicago, has toured off-Broadway at the United Solo Theatre Festival in New York City. In her first two vlog episodes, Anu shares her experience with that process, the challenges she faces as a South Asain actress, and what she sees happing in her community in regards to mental health and wellness. Read more about what makes her compelled to do the work she does below!
StateraArts: What lights you up?
Anu Bhatt: I love that feeling of connection: to nature, to people, to stories. It makes me feel alive.
Anu Bhatt in “Hollow/Wave” (Silk Road Rising 2018)
SA: What is your "WHY"? Meaning why do you do the work you do - your personal mission.
AB: I want to create an environment where people who look and think like me feel safe and included. As a kid, I never saw enough representation in the media to make me feel like my body was beautiful, or that the challenges I have experienced were shared by others. Now, I want to create that sense of belonging for myself and others.
SA: How is your "WHY" integrated with your contribution to the Statera Blog?
AB: With Statera, I have the platform to talk about topics that I think we should be talking about more: mental health, body image and cultural sensitivity. My aim with the Statera vlog is to foster that sense of connection and belonging among womxn and artists, and to collectively unlearn scarcity mindset and unhealthy comparisons amongst ourselves.