With Donald Trump’s latest immigration ban and crack down on women’s reproductive rights on their minds, when Pune-based poets KC Vlaine and Anirudh ‘Eka’ drove by the Trump Towers in their city, it became more than just a landmark.
“Its a representation of the hate, the xenophobia present in us,” says Vlaine, a sound engineer by profession who dabbles in slam poetry on the side. His poem ‘I Came Here to Hate’ describes his epiphany at the Trump Towers: If “powers that be” want us to hate each other so much, maybe we should try love.
Anirudh, a writer and a software developer, plays with the imagery of the iconic photograph of a monk immolating himself during the Vietnam War in his poem ‘Descendants of Fire.’ He wants all Trump establishments around the world to become a place of discussion and deliberation between all people, to fight the common enemy: fear. “Trump is just a manifestation of that fear,” he says.
Producer: Divya Talwar
Editor: Kammaljiit Kainth