What started out as a shy hello between two teenagers eventually blossomed into a dynamic partnership. The two of us never thought we would cross paths yet alone eventually share a common passion to create a safe space in a community close to our hearts. While we were and still are two very different individuals with unique arts experiences and backgrounds, we are operating in the same niche community and are able to see eye to eye on issues in this space and help drive our team towards impactful change.

While large social movements, such as #MeToo, have surfaced over the past few years in several known communities and workspaces around the world, we felt people always addressed these topics in a larger context but never in the context of our niche Indian Performing Arts community. We both knew that this community deserves change specific to its need. When we first began speaking to members of our community the most common response we received was “but what do you want us to do about this?” This was a fair response since the responsibility to implement change had always fallen on institutions and organizations up until now, not the individual. Therefore we wanted to craft an approach where every stakeholder is given an actionable role and shared responsibility in reshaping the Indian performing arts community.

While we both grappled with unearthing solutions to these intersectional issues in the community, neither of us ever thought we would have space for our individual, everyday voices to be heard, let alone have the opportunity to create a space to help more people like us, people in our community, feel the same way. We tried to find various ways to make sense of the #CarnaticMeToo movement in the context of the Indian Performing Arts, and a lot of it involved having fruitful and sometimes difficult conversations with family, friends, and colleagues, and local organizers about these happenings. Several conversations led to frustration and dead-ends, yet others led to conviction to uphold accountability and wonderful ideas. 

During the #CarnaticMeToo movement we had worked simultaneously within our circles to open up conversation and ideate how to implement change. Two years laters when we crossed paths again, by happenstance, we realized that we were both frustrated to see little change actually happen and shared a common desire to be at the forefront of it and help our community begin to heal. First and foremost our goal was to turn this charged issue into one that unifies our community rather than dividing it further. As members of the “next and upcoming generation” in the Indian arts, we felt a sense of ownership and responsibility to do something - a way to prevent narratives and instances of misconduct, and forge a healthier future for our community.

“You aren’t thinking big enough!”

“You are thinking too big, that will never happen!”

These common criticisms constantly echoed in our background as we searched for solutions.  Where then is the balance? We had to create something that was “just right” - inclusive, collaborative, welcoming, and most importantly, real & honest. The silence after the #CarnaticMeToo movement prompted us to realize that we need to give members of this space actionable, practical, and culturally relevant ways to heal & respond meaningfully. The #CarnaticMeToo movement taught us that the first step to sharing narratives publicly was vital but not enough to keep conversations going, and definitely not enough to demand change from authority figures and organizations. 

With every conversation, it became more apparent than ever that sexual harassment does not happen in a vacuum, and rather in a larger fabric of systemic workplace misconduct, intersectional issues, masked under culture and tradition. Every issue, micro-aggression, ignored inconvenience, and “simple” favor needed to be addressed along with egregious offenses that were brought to light during the #metoo movement. We also knew that these issues go beyond just the Carnatic music community and are relevant to all Indian Performing Arts communities. Therefore, we wanted to create a global space where honest conversations were normalized, welcomed, and accessible to anyone, regardless of their “public voice” in the community.  

Our answer was to create a grassroots organization that relies on its own community to come together to institute change rather than relying on existing persons and organizations in power to do so, as we tried during the initial #CarnaticMeToo movement. In 2020, CAREspaces was born to first reveal explicit lessons that the history of #metoo movement taught us, and then begin a journey of repair and recovery.

We are building a community that is the first to truly listen to survivors and their needs, through a peer support model, a form of healing and recovery that allows members of our community to provide support to one another. We are the first to encourage and value the learning that stems from shared experiences and actionable conversation. We are the first to begin the long journey of crafting accountability in a space where safety, ethics, and conduct are often implied but never truly articulated. We are the first in making sure the Indian performing art forms can truly reap healthy collaboration and can remain sustainable for many generations to come. 

Thank you for being among the first to be here, to listen, to care, and to initiate change.

We hear you. We see you.

-Neha & Janani