The Brown Box

ranijeyaraj-sg
  • 5.0 (1)
  • SOCIETY & CULTURE
  • UPDATED BIMONTHLY

This podcast celebrates the lives of Brown women in Singapore, capturing the rich spectrum of their experiences. Through intimate storytelling, we reclaim hidden histories, challenge stereotypes, and explore identity, belonging, and marginalization. There’s no single “Brown woman” experience—we're a kaleidoscope of cultures and perspectives. By sharing our stories, we shape a more inclusive future. Join me as I unpack The Brown Box. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. Dipa Swaminathan On Building Dignity for Those Who Build Our City

    MAR 3

    Dipa Swaminathan On Building Dignity for Those Who Build Our City

    Dipa Swaminathan, founder of It's Raining Raincoats, is in our podcast chair this weekend! 🎙️ A Harvard-educated lawyer, mother of 2 boys, Dipa is also Akka (big sister) to thousands of migrant brothers here in Singapore. This episode is about building dignity for those who build our cities.  Press play to hear about: 🟤 Dipa the bossy child (and a ruler-wielding moment you won't forget)  🟤 Her father — her best friend  🟤 Waiting tables at a steakhouse in Nashville  🟤 The origin story of It's Raining Raincoats — with a detail she's never shared before  🟤 The heart and power of her volunteers  🟤 Why she's in awe of the younger generation  🟤 Migrant workers — their resilience, pride, and love for their families  🟤 The dangers migrant workers face and Dipa's prayer for them  🟤 Burnout and the real toll of caregiver fatigue  🟤 What's next for IRR — and for Dipa herself Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    51 min

  2. FEB 23

    Grace Kalaiselvi: Bringing Brown Stories to the Stage

    Who gets to stand under the spotlight makes a difference.  In this episode of The Brown Box, we sit with Grace Kalaiselvi — theatre actor, director and educator. We talk about family, absence and survival, and how theatre became a way to make sense of it all — and how Grace, when she couldn’t see herself in the stories on stage, began creating them herself. 🎧 Listen to hear about: • Grace’s early family struggles and how theatre became her escape • Her journey from Tamil theatre to English theatre, and the challenges she faced • Her realisation that there was little space for brown faces in English theatre • The founding of Brown Voices to tell more Indian stories • Her creative process — from idea to opening night • Her most recent play, ‘Invisible’ • Advice to other aspiring actors who want to join her under the spotlight Listen now — link in bio. #thebrownboxpodcast #singaporetheatre #sgpodcasts #singaporeartists #southasianvoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    25 min
  3. Sofie Buligis's Love Letter to Being Celup

    FEB 3

    Sofie Buligis's Love Letter to Being Celup

    In this episode, Sofie talks about the word celup, as she grapples with her own celup-ness and what it means to not fit neatly into the Malay box of the CMIO. Listen to hear about: what celup means, and Sofie’s journey towards understanding her own celup-nessher complex heritage — Javanese, Boyanese and Indian — and why her name leaves her with many unanswered questionsa grandmother who was given a Malay identity card despite being of Chinese and Indian heritagebecoming super duper halal as a form of teenage rebellionfinding belonging in a P. Ramlee filmmusic in her family, a grandfather with a music room, and a household where everyone had to learn an instrumenther admiration for her mother’s fierceness, and her belief in the power of her own softnessthe pain of having to put her Malayness in her back pocketthe lack of roles — and nuance — for brown actors in Singaporeher advice for others struggling with their own celup-ness Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    29 min

  4. JAN 14

    The Storyteller's Gift: Kamini Ramachandran on the Power of Stories

    In this episode, we sit with Kamini Ramachandran, a storyteller, educator, and creative force behind MoonShadow Stories and Storyfest Singapore. 🎧 Listen to hear about: * Her grandfather, the storyteller: a planter from Kerala who lived in Malaya, from whom Kamini learnt to love stories * The wildness of nature 🐍: a cobra encounter at four, the love of a dog named Bobby 🐕, and how he protected her * Cherishing books 📚 that allowed her to travel into her imagination, and magazines that allowed her to travel everywhere else * The living, breathing art of oral storytelling, and why it matters beyond childhood * Why she disdains the idea of “moral endings” in stories, asking her audience to find meaning that is personal and discovered * Nights spent with the Elders of the Temiar, and her time visiting the Orang Asli * The importance of sharing stories — sharing with permission, consent, and acknowledgement * Working with AI 🤖 and realizing that she no longer fears it * Immersive storytelling through projects like Harry Potter and Jurassic World 🎭 * The power of stories to remind you that you are not alone — to ground, connect, and heal 💛 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 3m

  5. 12/18/2025

    Chef Devagi: Recipes, Resilience & Reinvention

    Does your family history live in its favourite foods? Do you see food not just as sustenance, but as legacy, identity, and history — passed from hand to hand, from kitchen to kitchen? If so, this podcast is for you. In this episode, we speak to Chef Devagi, the Spice Queen of Singapore. She shares recipes, yes — but more importantly, stories of resilience and reinvention.
 Listen to hear about: * migration stories that stretch from India and East Timor to Burma and, finally, Singapore * glimpses of 1950s Singapore — kampung life, Waterloo Street hawkers, and walking to Paya Lebar airport to wave at strangers * the letter to The Straits Times, signed “poor student”, that would fund her education * United Nations food rations turned into pancakes, payasam, gulab jamun * HDB stories of food crossing corridors: Chinese, Malay, and Indian families exchanging dishes and ideas * the three women who shaped her — her grandmother, mother, and periamma — and their thosai stalls * how she went from school clerk to cooking teacher, to becoming the Spice Queen of Singapore * original recipes and stories of Singaporean Indian dishes: Thanni saaru, tahu sambal, pink condensed-milk kesari, appam jala/roti jala, and an Indian-style mutton rendang * resilience and reinvention — how Chef Devagi kept moving forward and stayed hungry Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    53 min

  6. 11/25/2025

    Motifs of Belonging: Yulianna’s Search for Malayness

    In this episode of The Brown Box, we chat with Yulianna Frederika, co-founder of Lepak Conversations — an online advocacy platform bringing vital Malay Muslim issues into the mainstream. This is a deeply personal conversation, with Yulianna consciously moving away from the version of herself that tried to fit into the moulds people expected, and towards a more authentic and truthful way of being. We speak about: • Growing up in an interfaith family, with Muslim prayers and Christian music woven into daily life • Her Indonesian heritage — a great-grandmother with royal roots, and a great-grandfather who was an artist • The auntie who shared her room and opened up the world for her • A difficult relationship with her mother, who used her Malayness against her, and whose love language was food • Wearing the hijab, and later understanding the prejudice hijab-wearing women face • Starting Lepak Conversations • Its work supporting Malay/Muslim mental health through campaigns like You Ok Bro? • Speaking up for Palestine • Batik — and finding her way back home through its patterns and stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 10m

  7. 11/06/2025

    Walking the Line: Shibani Mahtani on Truth, Hope, and Singapore

    In this episode of The Brown Box, we chat with Shibani Mahtani, investigative journalist with The Washington Post. We talk about: • Political discourse at the dinner table — her father’s relentless questioning of the PAP vs her mother’s gratitude and how this made her curious about the world • The journey from straightening her curls to embracing them — a two-year process of making peace with who she is, and what that says about belonging in Singapore • “Indians are smelly” — the phrase her Chinese friends taught her, and the jarring gap between lived experience and Singapore’s ‘Racial Harmony Day’ narrative • Being Sindhi — growing up in a tiny diaspora community with no homeland and extended family across the world, and how that showed her there’s a whole world out there waiting to explore • PropertyGuru, curry, and Singapore’s rental racism — uncovering housing discrimination that contradicted the fair and equal HDB quota system Singapore is known for • Reporting in Myanmar, the US, and Hong Kong — how each place taught her something different about racism, resistance, community, and what’s possible • Finding community in Hong Kong’s streets — witnessing shopkeepers opening their doors during tear gas, people buying burgers for strangers, and discovering a kind of solidarity Singapore doesn’t seem to have • What living away, taught her about hope and the fight for a better Singapore Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    55 min

  8. 10/22/2025

    Making Space: Pooja Nansi on Belonging in Singapore

    Making Space in Singapore: Pooja Nansi's Story In this episode of The Brown Box Podcast, we sit with Pooja Nansi, poet, educator, and former director of the Singapore Writers Festival. In this episode, we talk about: * Pooja's childhood in a creative household and her mother's sacrificed dreams as a classical dancer * How poetry found her—from writing about her math teacher to discovering Sylvia Plath's intensity * The electric energy of hip-hop clubs and slam poetry venues  * Mustafa Centre, Mysore Sandalwood soap, and the everyday spaces that mean everything to immigrant communities * Literary gatekeeping and making space for all storytellers at the Singapore Writers Festival * The exhaustion of constantly explaining yourself, of not fitting into neat CMIO boxes * Navigating controversy with nuance—from the Books Actually incident to tensions within her own Indian community Listen to this episode if you believe in the power of poetry, the importance of communal spaces, and the possibility of loving a place deeply while demanding it be better. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    52 min
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About

This podcast celebrates the lives of Brown women in Singapore, capturing the rich spectrum of their experiences. Through intimate storytelling, we reclaim hidden histories, challenge stereotypes, and explore identity, belonging, and marginalization. There’s no single “Brown woman” experience—we're a kaleidoscope of cultures and perspectives. By sharing our stories, we shape a more inclusive future. Join me as I unpack The Brown Box. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information

  • Creator
    ranijeyaraj-sg
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    22
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © ranijeyaraj-sg
  • Show Website
    The Brown Box