Performances
Talks
Truth Dream
Join us for a day of stories and theatre centred around the TRUTH DREAM project — a photo exhibit developed by Payana, in collaboration with Maraa, a media and arts collective. Payana is an organisation that works for the rights of people who identify as sexual minorities in Bangalore. The TRUTH DREAM project featured the fantasies and dreams of trans community members above the age of fifty.
The evening will begin with a book launch of Kannadi/Mirrors in Bangalore, by Rumi Harish, artist, writer and activist in conversation with Chandini Gagana, Founder at Payana and Ekta, Co-Founder of Maraa Collective. They will talk about Kannadi/Mirrors — a book inspired by the stories of community members who participated in the TRUTH DREAM photo exhibition. They will share their experience of putting the book together and the larger experience of challenging common perceptions of stigma, discrimination and prejudices that continue to affect the community of sexual minorities. The book will be available for purchase at the venue at a nominal price, that will go towards supporting arts and culture work at Payana.
The conversation will be followed by a showcase of Talki — a play based on the memories and experiences of trans people in Bangalore produced by Payana. The play takes us through their everyday practices – from food, fashion, fantasy, joys, and lamentations. Talki is not an actual word in any language; it is a word from the spoken language of trans people. All actors in the play are above the age group of fifty, tracing the struggles, violence, and discrimination they have endured, and how they continue to live with dignity and pride.
We will have a 30 minute break between the book launch/conversation and the play for a round of light refreshments.
This event has been conceptualised as part of the programming around the VISIBLE/INVISIBLE : Representation of Women in Art through the MAP Collection exhibition.
Bookings
Bookings are closed for this event.
Rumi Harsh
Rumi Harish, a trans man and queer is a musician and writer. He has worked in the social justice movement of sexuality and gender issues for the last 23 years. After intense practicing and performing music along with crisis intervention work for the LGBTQIA + communities, during a personal crisis he was suggested by a therapist to take up painting while going through transition of his voice. He started painting and got into it as inseparable like his relationship with music and writing. At 50, now Rumi is deeply involved in developing queer and trans cultures and arts. He is also a poet and a playwright.
Chandini Gagana
Chandini Gagana wears many hats, as an activist, writer, poet and performer. She is the founder of Payana, an organization dedicated to working for the rights and safety of sexual minorities. Chandini Gagana is a Kannada poet. She is a founding member of Payana a transgender support group in Bangalore, She is an award-winning poet and her work is taught at several universities her first book was called “Manada Kannu” (Eyes of the Mind). Her poems are also part of The World That Belongs To Us – An Anthology of Queer Poetry From South Asia. Chandni conceptualised Truth Dream, a photo exhibition featuring the dreams and desires of the transgender community, above the age of 50. In Truth Dream, she takes the role of Shakuntala, who is waiting for her love Dushanta in a dense forest.
Ekta
Ekta co-founded Maraa, a media and arts collective in Bangalore in 2008. She works there as a practitioner, researcher, curator and facilitator around issues of gender, labour & caste in rural and urban contexts. She has been making films around labour, migration and cities since 2009. Her films focus on the inner worlds of workers in the context of migration. She has also co-founded a theatre group called Freeda, in Madhya Pradesh to tell stories on her own terms, from her lived experience and worldviews.
