Collection Drive

Dear All,

As most of you know, a few days ago fire swept through the premises where an all-India Sammelan of hijras was taking place in Nand Nagri, East Delhi. 15 people died and more than 30 are critically injured; they are in various hospitals across East Delhi, and in dire need of help.

The need at the moment is for warm clothing, blankets and food items, rather than monetary donations, so we are setting up a collection
drive on Friday, Nov 25th, at the performance event being held at Max Mueller Bhawan.

Please bring whatever items of:
- warm clothing,
- sheets and blankets
- food that will survive handling (eg: don't bring cooked food!)

But if you want to donate money, you are welcome to. We will use the donation amount to buy fruits and fresh food items on Saturday morning, before taking the entire collection of donated materials to the hospitals. 

Nigah Team

Performance Night

Performance Night

Friday, November 25, 7 pm onwards

Max Mueller Bhawan Lawns

3 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi

The Nigah QueerFest is never complete without what we so unimaginatively call ‘the performance night’. However, worry not! Because our shortcoming in the imagination department is more than made up for by the incredible performances we have lined up for you this year!

Join us to cheer these fabulous performers as we close this year's NQF while digging into some hot jalebis and pakoras!

OUTcaste / आउट कास्ट - "अपने दिल में बिठा लो, मैं ऐसा ही हूँ |"

Project OUTcaste by Sumit Baudh is on the subject of caste, gender and sexuality. It is focused on Dalits and Queers.  Baudh collects personal experiences of others through interviews.  He plays select portions of these interviews on earphones, audible only to him.  Reciting them aloud, he becomes a voice medium for somebody who is speaking intimately into his ears. 

Swansongs for Ugly Ducklings...

A little light musical interlude by Anita Roy, who has been coaxed and bullied to ‘out’ herself as a performer!

Dark Desires: tales of love, lust and hidden pleasure

The Kinky Collective brings you face to face with a dark Dominatrix and her submissive Slave as they perform a short theatrical performance about their childhood, their lives, their lust and desires. But not ones to bore you with tales of love and longing, they will reveal their secret, perverted and kinky selves, and welcome you to glimpse the erotic world of Bondage Domination and Sado-Masochism.

Strings of Pride

Gwyneth Mawlong is a lyricist and musician from Shillong, who will be performing her original English compositions for us. She has widely travelled on the merits of poetry & music and formed the highly acclaimed first Indian all female band 'Mermaid'. She also initiated 'Diva's Nite' a musical extravaganza highlighting only female performers and is currently working on her debut album in English.

Gujarish

Bobby Rathore and her group from Development Advocacy and Research Trust (DART) will surely stir things up by dancing to a medley of bollywood numbers, making it almost impossible for you to sit still!

Do come and bring friends!

All Nigah QueerFest events are free and everyone is welcome.

Cheers!

Nigah

Photo Panel: The Politics of Representation

Photo Panel: The Politics of Representation

with Frank Wagner

Thursday, 24th November 2011, 7 pm onwards

Max Mueller Bhawan

3 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi

An illustrated talk by Frank Wagner which will demonstrate that images are not neutral but central to the political debates around the production and dissemination of culture; debates that Nigah is part of in its role as a queer collective using media and the arts to provoke discussion around sexuality, AIDS and gender.

Do come and bring friends!
All Nigah QueerFest events are free and everyone is welcome.

Cheers!
Nigah

The Politics of Representation: Sexuality, AIDS, Gender - curatorial concepts and exhibition practice between Marginalization and Diversity

Experiences of curating the queer exhibitions "The Eighth Square – Gender, Life and Desire in the Visual Arts since 1960" at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne and "Gewoon anders – just Different“ at the Cobra Museum, Amsterdam.

 

Upon displacing masculine/feminine and hetero/homosexual dialectics, queer, transgender and post-colonial movements question the dominant historiography and its forms of visibility. After the AIDS crisis and the absorption of identity politics in the instruments of normalisation, new forms of activism and intervention in the public sphere have been structured which arise from uses branching off from the technologies of production and identity. The lecture will present two exhibition experiences in major German and Dutch art museums and it describes how they differed from each other.

Frank Wagner has organized several shows about gender and sexuality within the last 23 years. The first one - VollBILD AIDS - took place in (West-) Berlin in 1988 and had been the first show about Art and Aids in Europe at that time. The most recent one took place at the COBRA/Museum in Amsterdam in 2008. He will mainly talk about the exhibition "The Eighth Square - Gender, Life, and Desire in the Arts since 1960" which I curated in 2006 at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne. It has been by way the largest show and it was the first queer show in Germany in a museum (about “non-heteronormative”, “marginalized sexuality”), not only of that scale but ever. It shows in a quite plastic way the politics of representation between grand gala and the less glittering sometimes undercover, sometimes pushed aside everyday, which Frank Wagner placed the artworks throughout the whole museum.

Salsa with Subbu!

Salsa with Subbu! 

Wednesday 23^rd November 2011

6 pm slot or 7.30 pm slot.

The Attic, Regal building, Connaught Place, New Delhi (above People Tree shop)
Rajiv Chowk is the nearest metro station.

Even if you have never taken a salsa class before, this will be a great way of learning, having fun and getting into the groove of this sexy latino dance! Subbu will teach you the basics of salsa, fun and easy moves, music & timing, plus a lot more!

So, bring along a partner of your choice, or pair up with someone before the class, or be the coolest by dancing with your imaginary partner(s) and keeping everyone guessing! 

Due to space constraints, the class will be first come first served, 8 pairs max.

There will be two sessions, so you can choose which one you would like: 6 pm slot or 7.30 pm slot.

Workshops are free and open to all!

If you want to participate, please write to us at contact@nigah.org or call 9654979742 to register.

What's Hot, What's Not and Why? Workshop

What's Hot, What's Not and Why?  

with Jaya Sharma

Tuesday, November 22 2011, 6-9 pm

Abadi Art Space, F213/A First Floor, Lado Sarai, New Delhi

As people who challenge mainstream society's norms related to gender and sexuality, this workshop will provide an opportunity for us to interrogate our own notions of whats 'ok' and what's 'no way', what's 'hot' and what's 'yuck', in other words norms that we ourselves might or might not subscribe to. We know that its not just the 'big. bad 'society 'out there' that has and enforces notions of right and wrong, we all do and there are also reasons why we might have such notions - reasons which are not merely personal, but also social. There is a need to continuously reflect on our own ideas related to sexuality in order that we may be able to broaden our horizons and realm of possibilities and also so that those who are seen to be challenging our norms are not stigmatized by us.Three such themes that the workshop will be addressing are promiscuity, bisexuality and kink/Bondage, Domination, Sado Masochism. The workshop will be interactive in nature, triggered by sexy questions guaranteed to make you tingle.

Workshops are free and open to all!

If you want to participate, please write to us at contact@nigah.org or call 9654979742 to register.