Tanya Selvaratnam is a writer, artist, and an Emmy-nominated and multiple Webby-winning producer with more than twenty-five years of experience in the arts & social justice.
I am proud to have worked on this tribute video about Senator Harris for Glamour Women of the Year. https://www.glamour.com/video/watch/kamala-harris-tribute
Please read this editorial I wrote for The Art Newspaper about artists throwing down their gloves and getting political:
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/comment/for-the-arts-there-s-only-one-choice-in-this-election
And this one I wrote for SheKnows about what was at stake for domestic violence survivors in this election:
Follow Arts for Biden-Harris on Facebook and Instagram:
https://www.facebook.com/ArtsForBiden/
https://www.instagram.com/artsforbiden/
Terrific article on the track record of Biden and Harris on the arts:
https://hyperallergic.com/586354/joe-biden-kamala-harris-arts/
Please also check out this conversation with the filmmakers of SURGE (Hannah Rosenzweig and Wendy Sachs), Jana Lynne Sanchez of Texas, and special guest Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DEL, Biden campaign co-chair). I moderated and am proud to be an executive producer of SURGE, now on Showtime and Amazon. https://www.facebook.com/ArtsForBiden/videos/548254519258305/
The publication date of my book Assume Nothing: A Story of Intimate Violence is scheduled for February 23, 2021. Publishers Weekly announced the sale to Harper. Assume Nothing has been optioned by ABC Signature/Disney Television Studios and is in development with Joanna Coles as executive producer.
And sign up for my mailing list at the end of this page and follow @TanyaAuthor on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for updates. In the meantime, you can see advance praise in this piece by Virginia Heffernan in the Los Angeles Times and this conversation with Miss Universe Zozi Tunzi about the signs of an abusive relationship.
I helped produce Night of Solidarity - stories, songs, and conversations to stand with survivors of domestic violence, deepening understanding of this issue and offering solutions. Hosted by Tamron Hall and featuring Melissa Benoist, Shan Boodram, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Gloria Gaynor, Carrie Goldberg, Angelique Kidjo, Padma Lakshmi, J.R. Martinez, MILCK, Chanel Miller, Tony Porter, Rachel Louise Snyder, Zozibini Tunzi, Gabrielle Union, and more, the event premiered on May 13, 2020 on Refinery29's YouTube channel: bit.ly/nightofsolidarity
I wrote a piece for the New York Times about “Where Can Domestic Violence Victims Turn During Covid-19?”: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/opinion/covid-domestic-violence.html
In connection with the piece, I had the following conversations:
With Miss Universe Zozi Tunzi on Instagram Live
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-hUR6dAyKZ
And on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=667036417381211
With Alison Stewart for ALL OF IT/WNYC
https://www.wnyc.org/story/tanya-selvaratnam-domestic-violence
With Selina MacKenzie for Talk Radio Europe
https://www.talkradioeurope.com/clients/tsalvartnam010420.mp3
With Dr. Lisa Coleman, as part of NYU Womxn100
https://www.nyu.edu/about/university-initiatives/nyuwomxn100.html
With Jenna Flanagan for METROFOCUS on WNET:
I produced a documentary by Catherine Gund about her mother, the renowned art collector and philanthropist Agnes Gund, who sold a $165 million Lichtenstein painting to start the Art for Justice Fund to fight mass incarceration. AGGIE had its world premiere at Sundance 2020: https://www.sundance.org/projects/aggie. Then, it played at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, CA, and at MoMA as part of Doc Fortnight, and made the festival rounds. In October 2020, the film opened virtually at Film Forum in New York and dozens of cinemas around the country.