Growing to love yourself for who you are and the world for what it is, is a complicated endeavour. It entails shedding past obsessions and habits, regardless of the comfort they offered you. Poets Ranya Warren and Suhani Shah hold the prism their own experiences to the sunlight of words and rhythms to portray the multifaceted being of self-love and growth.
Warren retells her childhood in bittersweet melancholy, going back to her parents’ split and touching up on her issues with her own body. In an age where body positivity has morphed from an inclusive movement to just a hashtag on the internet, Warren illuminates us that simply looking at yourself in the mirror and redundantly uttering the words “Your beautiful” doesn’t make the gut wrenching self loathing disappear. It’s still there, it’s still palpable. In the same breath, she tackles the world’s indulgent fantasies of fair skin. She empowers women to be themselves, and more importantly, be vulnerable. Because we’re all told to be fierce, confident, gorgeous women all the time. Warren argues, why can’t we just be human.
In Counting Stars, Shah narrates the all too familiar phases we go through from childhood, to puberty and then adulthood. From the escapist imaginations of us being pilots, detectives, international spies, our juvenile expectations of unending happiness, to the sudden crashing understanding of the real world Shah hits all the soft spots we had as little kids. The harsh reality of the system obsessed with success and the brutal killing of passion as we know it, an experience we’ve all had. Coupled with her phenomenal stage presence, we’re glued to her performance, as she takes us through the emotions of becoming an adult.
You don’t want to miss out on these impactful artists, because their voices speak too much truth to be ignored.
