Who was the writer of an episodic play from which Yoni Ki Baat was inspired?
Yoni Ki Baat Yoni Ki Baat, roughly translated from Hindi as "Talks of the Vagina," is a live performance of monologues by women of South Asian origin. The project was inspired by a production of Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues" by the Kimaaya Theatre Company in Bangalore, India. "Yoni Ki Baat" was conceptualized in 2003 by South Asian Sisters, a non-profit collective of South Asian women based in the San Francisco Bay Area. At the time of its founding in 2003, the Bay Area was home to a critical mass of South Asian social justice organizations with which the South Asian Sisters collaborated. This included Trikone, the oldest South Asian LGBTQ magazine in the world, Narika and Maitri, supporting survivors of domestic violence in the South Asian community, ASATA (The Alliance of South Asians Taking Action) and many other community groups. The arts organization Yoni Ki Baat was co-founded by Sapna Shahani, Vandana Makker, and Maulie Dass in this climate of social justice organizing. As of 2012, South Asian Sisters have had eight unique scripts assembled from separate calls for submissions.
Radhika Vaz Radhika Vaz (born 1973) is an Indian comedian and writer. Born in Mumbai, Vaz worked as an advertising executive in Chennai and has done her Masters in advertising from Syracuse University, New York. Vaz went for improvisational theatre class, and she said this helped her start off as a performer and a writer; she trained at Groundlings School (Los Angeles) and Improvolution (New York). In 2014, she performed in New York and in the Indian cities of Mumbai, Bangalore, Kochi, Gurgaon and Delhi in September for her act "Older. Angrier. Hairier"; she has done a play "Unladylike: The Pitfalls of Propriety". She is a columnist for "The Times of India". Vaz cites Patrice O’Neal and Bill Hicks as her inspiration for her show.