Boundless Awareness with Pooja Kothari

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“ You don’t need to have a lifelong dedication to activism.  Start today. Start anywhere. I bet if you start today, you can look back on your life and see all of the points in your life that brought you to this moment…Start.”

—Pooja Kothari

Pooja Kothari, Esq. begins her social justice origin story with memories of her father, who helped cultivate her abilities to think critically as a child, her early awareness of sexism in gender-segregated cultural spaces, and her later experiences with racism and internalizing shame as a cis, queer, first-generation Indian-American woman of color. Recalling her experiences as a former public defender with the Legal Aid Society Criminal Defense Practice in Brooklyn, NY, Pooja reflects on how she became more courageous and a better advocate thanks to her mentors Michael Letwin and Azalia Torres, and explains how systemic racism shapes courtroom dynamics and even defenders’ assumptions in ways that can make or break client outcomes. 

She also talks about her relationship with resisting internalized oppression through finding community and “depersonalizing” oppressive messaging, while also resisting internalized patterns of power through developing practices of accountability and self-correction. This journey informs her work as the founder and principal facilitator of Boundless Awareness, where she develops and facilitates anti-oppression and anti-bias curriculum for workplaces and organizations.

Pooja’s storytelling reminds listeners that their activism can start today by identifying and challenging their assumptions.  

This Personal Journeys segment includes:

• Pooja shares her personal journey, including formative experiences growing up as a queer, first-generation Indian American, and the challenges of navigating cultural and societal expectations.
• How Boundless Awareness was created, and its mission to facilitate anti-oppression and anti-bias curricula for organizations, universities, and companies.
• The importance of setting high expectations for behavior and self-improvement in social justice work.
• Addressing internalized oppression, finding community, and resisting dominant narratives about identity, queerness, and ethnicity.
• Insights into public defense, legal activism, and the ways systemic racism and sexism are perpetuated—and interrupted—within the criminal justice system.
• The role of storytelling, critical thinking, and accountability in authentic activism.
• Encouragement for anyone to start their own social justice journey, wherever they are.

Meet Pooja

Pooja Kothari (she/her) is a queer, South Asian, former lawyer and anti-oppression facilitator. She started her career as a public defender with the Legal Aid Society Criminal Defense Practice in Brooklyn, NY where she still lives. She spent seven years advocating for her clients in all aspects of the criminal case, from arraignment and bail applications, investigations, plea negotiations, and suppression hearings and felony and misdemeanor jury trials.

In 2016, she started her company Boundless Awareness to equip organizations with the tools to engage in open, respectful dialogue and make decisions rooted in equity and belonging. She creates experiential exercises to advance the discussion in a fun, interactive and compassionate way.

Pooja uses the depth and breadth of her experience to present DEIJ work at the intersections of race, disability, sexuality, gender, socio-economic status, etc., examining the histories and existing structures of oppression through a multimodal pedagogical process. Her workshops are experiential journeys, custom-built to address the unique concerns and experiences of each client organization.

Pooja is a cis, queer, first-generation Indian-American woman of color, and a mother of two Black and Brown cis-girls. These identities infuse her work with an authenticity and urgency. With compassion and vulnerability, she harnesses the power of shared humanity to interrupt bias and foster truly inclusive spaces.

Follow Pooja

You can connect with Pooja on LinkedIn, on instagram @boundlessawarenessllc, and by visiting her website: boundlessawareness.com.

More from Pooja

Throughout my childhood, adolescence, and young adult life, my dad always brought me into the discussions the “uncles” were having at community get-togethers. He wanted me to listen and to hear what I thought about their political and social discussions. I think I learned critical thinking from those experiences, and of course, critiquing why the women were always in the kitchen and not part of those discussions.

In college, I was more interested in equity and justice, and I always knew I wanted to do human rights work, which led to more education and finally working at legal aid. Personally, I always felt different where I grew up – in a majority white area with one foot in the indian community and one foot in white schools and PWIs. Coming out as queer while being Indian was very confusing and difficult. Building my queer POC community and my chosen family was another pivotal experience.

Those experiences were the building blocks for my activism. I had people in college, grad school, and at Legal Aid who really educated me on Palestine and from those conversations and my own experiences, I was able to see the clear link between freedom in the US and freedom in Palestine.

Michael Letwin is and was one of my biggest mentors in the area of Palestine. I learn so much from his knowledge, his experience, and his courage in the face of massive backlash over the decades. He knows his north star and inspired me to know mine. It hasn’t wavered since.

I want everyone to be able to say “I accept that I have racist thoughts and beliefs, and I’m curious about anti-racism”.

Name Drops and Appreciations from Pooja

Her wife and kids, her parents, Michael Letwin, and Azalia Torres at Legal Aid Society.

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Social Justice Origin Stories is produced, edited, and hosted by Relando Thompkins-Jones