Ms. Shruthi Kannan (Broadening Narratives)

Description

Shruthi Kannan, 36, is a Chicago-based labor organizer in SEIU Healthcare’s childcare division, a vocalist, and a former early-childhood teacher. The interview includes discussion of her birth in Bhilai and upbringing in a joint Brahmin family in Chennai, immigration to the Northwest Suburbs at age thirteen, and the long path as she adjusted from Fremd High School to the University of Chicago (history and South Asian studies). She describes discovering she was queer as a child before coming to the US, coming out as a teen, and transitioning in her late twenties, with community support through Trikone Chicago. She dives into nearly a decade teaching toddlers and preschoolers at the Southeast Asia Center and Mary Crane Center, COVID-era strain on the childcare system, and her shift to union organizing. She recounts lifelong Carnatic vocal training, recent performances with the band Do the Needful, and curating a vocal set for Steppenwolf’s Dream Babies. Other topics discussed include: caste and “purity” in classical music, the solace of cooking, fond memories of Indian train travel, and the desire for everyday ease and connection as a trans woman.