Actor Kalki Koechlin, senior advocate Saurabh Kirpal, author-activist Urvashi Butalia, and director Alankrita Shrivastava are among the speakers participating at the upcoming third edition of 'Rainbow Lit Fest -- Queer and Inclusive'.
The two-day festival, to be held on December 9-10 at the Gulmohar Park Club here, seeks to discuss queerness, find common ground and stitch more informed narratives about the LGBTQIA+ community.
So, exploring themes of love and the law, social hierarchies and identities, the relationship between mythology, literature and culture, the overlap between queer rights and feminism, among other things, the conversations during the festival aim to unravel queer history, acknowledge present realities and work towards a hopeful future.
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"After the Supreme Court verdict on marriage equality, there is a greater need for the community to come together and voice their views. Conversations around lived experiences are extremely essential in giving the community a sense of space, identity and belonging, while also informing the audience of queerness and the expanse of love and choice," said Sharif D Rangnekar, director and founder of the festival, in a statement.
The festival will open with a session by director Jaydeep Sarkar, maker of the queer docuseries "Rainbow Rishta". Other such spotlight sessions will feature Kirpal, Koechlin, London-based mythologist Seema
Anand and pioneering gay poet Hoshang Merchant.
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Other prominent speakers include actor Mona Ambegaonkar, queer feminist activist Jaya Sharma, poet-queer activist Akhil Katyal, author Poonam Saxena, LGBTQ+ rights activist Rituparna Borah, author Niladri R Chatterjee and lawyer-activist Rohin Bhatt.
As many as five films, including the award-winning "My Mother's Girlfriend" and "Muhafiz", which cover different aspects of queerness, will be screened at the festival. Mumbai-based Tamasha Theatre is set to perform "Be-loved", an intriguing saga exploring love and freedom through a queer lens, for the first time in Delhi.
It will also feature queer artists such as musician John Oinam and band, drag performer Lush Monsoon, Geetanjali & Katukaleen rendering Kumaoni folk music, trans performer Avatari Devi as well as Gayathri Sharma and Bhadra Sinha in a Bharatanatyam production representing the Ardhanarishvara philosophy.
Besides performances by queer artists, the festival will also see queer-run enterprises at work through stalls and pop-ups and a bookstore run by the 'queer-friendly' Kunzum.
The organisers will also announce winners of the first-ever Rainbow Awards for Literature and Journalism during the festival.
