The Outspoken Showcase 
LaVianca
“The Outspoken Showcase” is a double feature of two outstanding artists coming together to put on one showcase. With Asha, you will experience a powerful spoken word poetry performance about inter-generational healing titled “Not Your Masi’s Generation.” With LaVianca, you will explore a multidisciplinary performance that examines womanhood and empowerment titled “The Truth About Pussy.” Learn more about each show and its artists by scrolling down.
“Not Your Masi’s Generation” was born out of a search for inter-generational healing. This spoken word showcase is an exploration of the East African Desi diaspora and the impact of the 1972 exile on future generations. ASHA takes the audience on a storytelling journey of reflection and radical dreaming. In Gujarati, Masi means Auntie. Join ASHA on her quest to honor the ancestors, while confronting the challenges of dreaming beyond the past’s limitations.
In Gujarati meaning hope and Swahili meaning life.
ASHA is a queer, disabled, multidisciplinary artist, abolitionist educator, and child of the East African Desi diaspora currently located in the Bay Area of California. She has been featured on the cover of Content Magazine, KQED Arts, and many of the prominent poetry events in the Bay
Area, as well as an active speaker, emcee, and performer at numerous rallies and marches for civil and human rights. Her TEDx tells her own personal story of identity through poetry.
She published Crawling in my Skin in 2019, a Kafkaesque exploration of the mind and mental health
through the metaphor of ants, which was featured by Brown Girl Mag in 2021. Her latest book release, Not Your Masi’s Generation, a memoir-like workbook that tackles mental health and healing from inter-generational trauma. Currently she is using the book to run workshops with
students in order to support their emotional learning and build the bridge between academics, the arts, and mental health.
ASHA was a public school teacher for the last 10 years in the Bay Area until she lost her job defending students who were abused by SROs. She trains teachers throughout California on educational equity, policy and healing. Her dream is to establish her own K-12 school rooted in
restorative practices, art, and social justice based standards.
ASHA consistently uses her platform to voice out against injustice and to speak up for those
who have been marginalized and silenced for centuries.
Asha Sudra website »
Asha Sudra on Instagram »
“The Truth About Pussy” is an interactive performance of song, dance and poetry showcasing a provocative stance on womanhood and empowerment.
LaVianca Asante’ Ledbetter,(1993-) is a North Carolina native, author, and creative whose passions lie in the betterment and healing of the community utilizing art. She is an alumna of The University of North Carolina at Pembroke with a Bachelors’ of Science of Mass Communications and believes that life should be spent living, provoking freedom and challenging perspectives for the betterment of future generations.
“The Truth About Pussy” is a long way from her southern roots and pushes the envelope with a provocative stance on womanhood and is just the beginning of breaking barriers and generational curses.
Showing at: You Vs. Yourself
Show Time:
Saturday 4/27: 2:30 – 3:30pm
Saturday 4/27: 7:00 – 8:00pm + Talk Back
Sunday 4/28: 7:00 – 8:00pm