Being a product of two countries, Surin gives voice to experiences that take place in what he calls “broken spaces”. Their social advocacy efforts are focused primarily on creating a more socially just society guided by the vision of human rights that may include awareness of socio-economic inequities, protection of social rights as well as racial identity, socio-political stability, experiences of oppression, and spirituality. He has featured at a number of institutions and festivals including the Hiphop Archive & Research Institute and the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University, Institute of Contemporary Arts as an artist-in-residence, American Poetry Museum, African American Civil War Museum, Boston Book Festival and Massachusetts Poetry Festival. Surin has also been a featured speaker, guest lecturer and has curated and moderated panel discussions on topics such as “Intersectionality of Race and Mental Health”, “A Stranger in My Own Home: Black Experiences Within the American Literary Canon”, “Black Lives and Black Poetics Matter”, and “Quitting History: Poets Penning Liberation,” and their work has been taught in public schools and colleges and universities. (Read more…)