Jaspreet Kaur, better known as Behind the Netra for her poetry is a spoken word artist from East London focused on sharing her thoughts on gender issues, historical topics and taboo subjects both in the Asian community and wider society. By day, she is a History teacher at a secondary school in central London, with an academic background in both History and Gender Studies. Her work aims to tackle issues related to gender discrimination, mental health stigma, decolonisation and more. As well as performing poetry, Behind the Netra also provides workshops and motivational talks for all ages.
Over the last year she has performed at different shows around London including Box Park Shoreditch, Theatre Royal London, Oxford University, SOAS Uni, Paul Robinson Theatre, City Hall and shows for charity events for women’s issues and charities such as What You Do Matters, Newhams Asian Women’s project, Billion Women and others. More recently she performed at the NHS annual conference and spoke at TEDxUCLWomen. It’s been an incredible year for Behind the Netra, being in the national #thriveon advert with Idris Elba, working with the UN on the HeforShe campaign and being nominated for the BAME Inspiration of the Year Award for her work in poetry and teaching. The end of 2016 brought Behind the Netra the title of one of the Top 10 Inspirational Sikh Women in the UK.