In-Person: MY DEAR COMRADES by Sunu P. Chandy

Please join us for an in-person event to celebrate the release of MY DEAR COMRADES by Sunu P. Chandy! For this event, Sunu P. Chandy will be joined by Atena Danner and the conversation will be moderated by Starr De Los Santos. 

Please note: Pre-registration for this event is required. By pre-registering, you are verifying that you are fully vaccinated and will wear a mask throughout the entirety of the event.

In this poetry collection, Sunu P. Chandy includes stories about her experiences as a woman, civil rights attorney, parent, partner, daughter of South Asian immigrants, and member of the LGBTQ community. These poems cover themes ranging from immigration, social justice activism, friendship loss, fertility challenges, adoption, caregiving, and life during a pandemic. Sunu’s poems provide some resolve, some peace, some community, amidst the competing notions of how we are expected to be in the world, especially when facing a range of barriers. Sunu’s poems provide company for many who may be experiencing isolation through any one of these experiences and remind us that we are not, in fact, going it alone. Whether the experience is being disregarded as a woman of color attorney, being rejected for being queer, losing a most treasured friendship, doubting one’s romantic partner or any other form of heartbreak, Sunu’s poems highlight the human requirement of continually starting anew. These poems remind us that we can, and we will, rebuild.

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Sunu P. Chandy (she/her) is a social justice activist through her work as a poet and a civil rights attorney. Sunu is the daughter of immigrants from India, and currently lives in Washington, DC with her family. Sunu grew up in Chicago (Beverly/Morgan Park) during junior high and high school. Sunu’s collection of poems, My Dear Comrades was selected for the 2021 Terry J. Cox Prize, and published by Regal House in 2023.  Sunu is also the legal director of the National Women’s Law Center, and a board member for the Transgender Law Center. Sunu is a graduate of Northeastern Law School and Earlham College, where she majored in Women’s Studies and Peace and Global Studies. Sunu also completed her MFA in poetry at Queens College, City University of New York.

Atena O. Danner is a poet and cultural worker, insisting upon Black liberation & boundless curiosity. Her first poetry collection, ‘Incantations for Rest’ was released this summer.

Starr De Los Santos is the Senior Coalition Manager at Women Employed. She is in charge of developing and advancing comprehensive strategies to build, activate and engage new and existing statewide coalitions in pursuit of specific policy and public education goals. Starr oversees the Time to Care, Illinois Full and Fair Wage, and Equal Pay Day Chicago coalitions.

Accessibility: This event will be at the bookstore, which is a wheelchair accessible space. Face masks are required. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis. For questions or other access needs, please email [email protected].

Host or Publisher Women & Children First