Arpita is an artist, facilitator and social changemaker. She is Brown, neurodivergent, queer, intercaste, femme, third culture kid from the Global South. She is a child sexual abuse survivor and lives with C-PTSD. Arpita uses labels to empower herself, and composts her experiences of trauma to cultivate safe and empowering spaces. She strives to co-create experiences rooted in kindness, authenticity and interbeing with nature.
‘Tending the flame’ is a nascent initiative that cultivates safe spaces. These safe spaces uplift community through community guidelines and agreements that ensure safety, authenticity, inclusivity, curiosity, equity and interbeing. They are constantly evolving organisms that value flattened power structures, and strive to maintain a balance of values and needs for all their members. ‘Tending the flame’ invokes community gatherings around firelight. It invites keeping the flame of spirit alive. It celebrates the place of humanity within nature as the bearer of fire, and tends to ways of human-nature symbiosis.
