Meet Jyoti.
Educator, writer, founder.

Children are clear-eyed and brilliant thinkers. My work takes that seriously.

I work at the intersection of childhood, culture, and learning. I bring research, arts education, media literacy, and participatory practices into programming, educational resources, public conversations, and frameworks that make cultural knowledge more visible. My practice moves across classrooms, cultural organizations, media, and community spaces, creating ways for children and grown-ups to notice, question, interpret, and make meaning together.

It began with skin color.

giving a presentation at TEDxSugarLand, standing beside a large screen displaying a book cover and a quote. The quote reads: "The politics of skin color run deep, inked on our souls—each time in our mother tongue." An audience is seated in front of her, and there is a patterned black and white backdrop on the wall.

In 2012, I founded The Colo(u)rism Project. Soon after, TEDxWomen invited me to speak about skin color, media and identity.

I’ve continued to challenge dominant narratives and explore the power of cultural work to advance social justice. Over time, my focus turned toward children—and their grown-ups.

Watch the talk that shaped my independent work.

An origin story

Soon, I realized children were asking questions about skin color that adults struggled to answer. So I wrote a book.

Read more

My work and words as seen in

Wirecutter logo with black text on a white background.
A black-and-white sketch of a dog with pointed ears and a long snout, facing sideways.

  • “…engaging primer on embracing differences that deftly combines a narrative with hands-on learning.”

    —Kirkus Reviews

  • "…address[es] a topic that, it turns out, is critical for kids to grasp before taking on racism: colorism.”

    —Kelly Glass for The New York Times Wirecutter

  • “I’m getting so much interest, I’m going to make another round. I’ve never done that before!”

    —SHELBY KRETZ, Founder, Little Justice Leaders Subscription Box

  • "shows us how to notice differences and what to do when someone speaks to you wrongly."

    SHULI DE LA FUENTE-LAU, Founder, Asian Lit for Kids, mom of a girl

  • “…provocative and sensitive … variety of developmentally and culturally appropriate experiences and explanations…”

    — Social Justice Books, A Teaching for Change Initiative

  • “…the content is profound and through the activities children can think and learn by themselves…"

    —FUMIKO MATSUYAMA, Mom of twin girls

Then, the work led me to culture.

After taking the book on the road, reading hundreds of journal articles, and having numerous candid conversations, I began asking bigger questions.

My second book, Yesterday, Nexterday: An Activity Book about Culture, is grounded in the belief that children do not simply inherit culture. They interpret, repurpose, and participate in making it. Through play, art, media literacy, and participatory practices, we can create space for their ideas to emerge—and listen to what they have to say.

Watch my 3-minute pitch for the book.

My superpower?
A few different ‘ways of seeing.’

Through creative problem-solving

My background in advertising has trained me to look at problems from multiple angles, spot patterns, make unexpected connections, and engage audiences.

Through a transdisciplinary lens

With MAs in Media Studies and Liberal Studies (Urban Education and Feminist Studies), I connect ideas across disciplines that are often considered separately.

Through collaborative leadership

I bring people, perspectives, and ideas together through curiosity, facilitation and shared inquiry—making room for rigorous thinking and collective action. And joy. Always Joy!

Children gathered around a park table listening to a woman giving a presentation, with colorful bunting flags hanging above, surrounded by trees and benches.
A collage of four screenshots from television and online broadcasts. The top left shows a woman with shoulder-length black hair wearing a red patterned top, speaking or reacting. The top right shows a partial view of a woman with black hair and a plant in the background. The bottom left is a TV news segment featuring woman and man hosts, with a headline about a spelling bee champion. The bottom right displays a child's drawing of a tree, a person, and a blue ball.
A group of middle school students and their teacher posing in a classroom, holding a book titled 'Different Differenter.' They are smiling and wearing school uniforms with burgundy shirts.
woman in a black and purple sari seated in a dimly lit tunnel at night

I am an Indian-born, New York–based scholar-practitioner, writer, and educator exploring cultural visibility with children, youth, and their grown-ups.

My transdisciplinary practice spans education, media, and public engagement. I am the author of Different Differenter: An Activity Book about Skin Color (2019), and my work has taken me from schools and universities to TEDxWomen and the Jaipur Literature Festival in India. I have been featured in Bitch Media, The Washington Post, Time Out New York, and Radio Free Brooklyn, and have written for Romper.

Before beginning my independent practice, I worked in advertising and nonprofit management. I hold master’s degrees from The New School (Media Studies) and CUNY Graduate Center (Liberal Studies), and a BFA in Applied Art (Visual Communication) from College of Art, Delhi.

I live in Washington Heights, on the ancestral homelands of the Weckquaesgeek people and in the neighborhood widely known as Little Dominican Republic. I dabble in taking street photos, writing visual poetry, and designing crochet jewelry.

Photos: Emmanuel Abreu