Female writers have historically been denied their due, and in Columbia University in New York in 1989, five students tried to hang a 140-foot banner on the university’s Butler Library to push for more inclusion and diversity. Thirty years on, there is another banner today, one that bears the names of eight women, this time sponsored by Columbia Libraries. Among the eight women of colour featured on the banner is A Revathi — writer, stage actor, and trans rights activist.
Revathi’s name is in esteemed company. The other writers featured are Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Gloria E Anzaldua, Diana Chang, Zora Neale Hurston, Ntozake Shange and Leslie Marmon Silko.
Writer and activist Revathi
The 1989 banner celebrated Sappho, Marie de France, Christine de Pizan, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Bronte (intended to cover Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte), Emily Dickinson and Virginia Woolf. The second banner was put up in March 1994 and bore the names of Sappho, Murasaki Shikibu, Mirabai, Gertrude Stein, Virginia Woolf, Zora Neale Hurston, Simone de Beauvoir, Toni Morrison, Leslie Marmon Silko and Sandra Cisneros.
Speaking to TNM, Revathi says that she knew her book was being studied in various universities, but found out about the banner from one of her former students who is currently pursuing his PhD at the university.
“He told me that they have been having readings of my book for two days. When he sent me the details, there was no limit to my happiness. Because in my lifetime as a transgender person, from being beaten up by rowdies and cops, have been tortured, have been ostracised by my family, refused property, to overcome all that to become a writer, an actor - I feel this is a huge victory for all my hard work,” she said, thanking the university on behalf of her community.
Revathi is the author of Unarvum Uruvamum (Feelings of the Entire Body) and The Truth about Me: A Hijra Life Story. “Revathi merits social and historical recognition both for her activism and inspirational writing on gender identity,” Butler Banner wrote in the post introducing her work.
In this interview with TNM, the writer and activist had spoken on the struggles she has faced as a transgender woman. Watch: