Raveena is Accepting Applicants to her Mutual Aid Grant for Underrepresented Musicians
Evan Dale // Nov 3, 2021
Listen to any Raveena song and you’ll hear kindness. Stretching back to the roots of her public releases when in 2016 she dropped both debut singles, You Give Me That and Johnny It’s the Last Time, there’s more than just the one trait to notice in her sound that’s rarely audible through a musician’s auditory aesthetic. Amongst kindness, too, there’s the expected intricacies of love, the detailing of lust, and the ever presence of inescapable immersion in wide-ranging emotion. But, throughout her half-decade career, she’s established something else – something deeper and ultimately defining not only of her music, but of the way she utilizes the pedestal that music has granted her. It’s in the juxtaposition between a gentle touch to her tone and a powerful exploration of social issues for which she stands; between kindness and purpose; between her voice and her voice.
Her 2017 debut EP, Shanti shined with a thematic stance of feminine power and self-love, using a carefully curated take on particularly mellow R&B not to necessarily explore love and relationships with another, but to explore herself as an individual with or without anyone by her side. Her 2019 debut album, Lucid, took that self-love, exploration of inner power, and experiences with overcoming her past to find peace at new heights. Songs like Nectar beam with her personal detailing of womanhood, folding mother Earth and maternal instinct in with the meditative wave of her voice and fluttery of elongated synth chords. Stronger still stands today as an anthemic ode to her and all women’s own strength and an ability to overcome trauma in her past through poetry in motion. And Mama – an homage to her own mother and grandmother – explores the courage and strength of immigrant mothers in particular, even coupling it with a music video that weaves in imagery of her maternal line. In 2020 she released the music video for Headaches that through her on-screen relationship with Hitomi Mochoizuki, aims to break gender stereotypes and, as bisexual, herself, shine a light on the fluidity of romantic relationships.
Through the mosaic of those particular explorations of strength and identity from which she comes and towards which she relates – through a proud display of her own South Asian and Indian heritage which she has greatly detailed and thanked in interviews and editorials past; through a publicly nonconforming stance on gender roles and support of the LGBTQ+ community which she is a part of; through the inner feminine strength and power in womanhood she so often explores in her music – a public discourse on social and civil liberties began to take center stage not only in her music, but in her social media presence, and real world, too. Just yesterday, she partnered with Instagram to shine a light on her relationship with Hindu festival of lights, Diwali, educating her followers on the subject in the process. And just a day before that, she launched the application process for the first cycle of her Aurora Loving Kindness Project.
The first round of mutual aid applicants are applying for a musician wellness mutual aid grant that ‘prioritizes Black and Brown women and gender-queer artists with audio-based soundscapes, providing micro-grants and mentorship.’ As a first generation, bi-sexual, Indian woman and artist, she’s aiming to support those with a complex identity like her own who can in turn shine a light – like she does – on the art of underrepresented peoples.
‘Half of the mutual aid is reserved for Trans, Gender Queer and Gender Nonconforming relatives. This mutual aid is dedicated to the health and wellness of musicians and its use is entirely up to the recipients' discretion. Eight recipients will receive a one-time $1,000 micro-grant with no follow up needed. Additionally, they will be offered one 60-minute virtual mentorship session with Raveena.’
In this sense, Raveena is offering much more than just money. Mutual aid, after all, doesn’t only benefit the masses by utilizing non-governmental nor charitable social support, it expands the role of aid beyond the fiscal realm. As Raveena says, ‘mutual aid uses direct action to highlight that everyone deserves to have their basic needs met. Everyone also deserves to tap into their purpose and thrive beyond survival. Only we will free ourselves. Our chains are interlocking and our freedom goes hand in hand. Solidarity is the heart of’ exactly what it is that she and her team are striving for with the Aurora Loving Kindness Project. By not only offering financial grants, but mentorship to artists that can see at least part of themselves in her, Raveena is proposing those eventual recipients the time to expand their own art, the insight to learn about infusing their music with a pride in their identity, and to feel propelled to grow because – with Raveena as proof – there is such a wide-ranging audience yet to be tapped into whose tastes lend themselves to the sensitivities of someone whose music is as complex and socially motivated as Raveena’s.
November 6, 2021 is the deadline for applicants to submit their work to the first mutual aid cycle of the Raveena Loving Kindness Project, which will review and respond to all applicants by December 1st. So, if any artist you know id fitting of the criteria and has a voice of their own that deserves to be elevated, please pass along this message and the links attached to it.
