I craft and share our community stories, cultures, experiences, histories, and possibilities through art, music, media, and movement.
Deepa Iyer, Solidarity Is and Building Movement Project
I always thought I was a "do-er" rather than a storyteller. I was all over the comment section debates and loved sitting around dinner tables discussing ideologies, academia, and culture. I wondered why we've been talking about climate change and gun control for decades but never get up and do something. But from my education, I realized that it was because only one kind of story was being told. The single stories, the stereotypes, the stories that are all too familiar. The right story wasn't being told, the right people were not telling them, the right audience was not listening. That's when I became a storyteller.
What are you most passionate about?
Passion has always been the biggest part of my identity. I speak about everything from Taylor Swift to physics to feminism with sparks in my eyes. I approach every job with utmost excitement. But I think social justice is my lifelong passion. Around age 13, kids find out about how messed up the world is and get filled with angst and adults tend to tell them that's what the "real world" looks like. There are people who accept it and move on, but there are also people who do not resign and imagine a better world. Since I was 13, I've been wanting to live in a better world and realized there aren't a lot of people who will create it for me. Since then, my passion has been doing my part in creating a better world.
Tell us about your podcast! What impact do you hope it has?
I started my podcast because I realized political education in public schools is really minimal. Kids are assumed to be ignorant and told to "not care about politics." However, young people must learn to take action. Because our political education has been neglected, we have turned to educating ourselves using the internet and each other. Yet, some information is not accessible or hard to understand. I hoped that my podcast would provide an accessible, relatable political education for teens. If young people voted, we could swing elections drastically. I hope it inspires young people to be more involved with politics and realize they hold so much power.
What goals do you have for your future?
My college and career plans are always to grow, learn, and become the best version of myself I can be. In college, I want to be really involved on campus, own my experience, and become a member of the community who learns from everything Brown has to offer. In my career, I would like to contribute in my own way to social justice and making a change in the world. I am thinking of doing a double major in Public Policy and something else. In the future, I would like to work in Washington, DC to help shape policy or for a non-profit dedicated to social change.