PANDEMIC SERIES of NORTHEAST INDIA : LGBTQIA DIGITAL ARCHIVE AND EZINE
Northeast India is a contested region often theorized as “fringes” “periphery” but also as “frontier”. It exists as fringes to a larger centre and also as frontier/gateway to South east Asia. And within it there exist further fringes divided by political, economical, social, cultural, gender, regional structures. In the cusp of these conflicting structures queer and trans people navigate their lives in ways that remain largely undocumented. And the pandemic has drastically altered all of these as most queer and trans people have returned to their birthplace while some stayed back in their cities of migration in dire situations. The problems and distress have multiplied with unique forms of problems for queer and trans people during the pandemic especially the lack of employment in standardized work places. What we are also witnessing as the pandemic continues to unfold is not only the collapse of erstwhile economic prospects for queer and trans people, but deep-rooted class, gender, social and economic inequalities, shrinking health and welfare infrastructure at various levels on the other posing extreme challenges for survival, livelihood, health etc.
Drawing from these pandemic crisis, some stories in the series bring forth, with more profoundness, the lived reality of a positionality among those that occupy the fringes, some tells an intersectional story of multiple marginalization or different identities that one inhabit and hence being pushed to the fringes through multiple axis of social exclusion and the consequential poverty and deprivation within India and Asia. Some stories also celebrate queerness and tranness in their own ways. These multiple stories have shaped a different approach to marginality - intersectional marginality. It echoes the peripheralness of the region and its people in relation to India or Asia and within itself as well and also one’s gender, sexual, class, racial marginalities that cut across throughout.
This Series, ethnographic and narrative styled aims to bring into light lived experiences of LGBTQIA people in northeast India exploring lesser or undocumented stories around health, livelihood, mental health and interrelated issues during the pandemic. The Series in the form of a digital anthology (blog and ezine) also contributes to intersectionality and marginality works on genders, sexualities, race, region, class, ethnicity in the backdrop of the pandemic.
Suggested Themes but not limited to these
- “Migration, Queerness and Survival during the Pandemic”
- Visual Arts, Queerness and Pandemic"
- “Queer Women and Invisible Lives”
- “Queer Bondings, Break ups and Families”
- “Minorities within minorities : Exclusion vs Inclusion”
- “Law, social-customary practices, socio-legal resources and gender justice”
- “Thriving LGBTQIA collectives/organisations in/of Northeast India”
- “HIV, Stigma, Other Sexual Health Issues and the Pandemic”
- “Conflict, Borders, Queerness and Pandemic”
- “Mental health of LGBTQIA people and the Pandemic”
Format and range: Essays, Interviews, Transcriptions of audio recordings/podcasts, Poetry/creative writing, Reflective writing, Visual Arts, Photo Stories, Short Films etc.
Submissions: Original unpublished works may be submitted (abstract or full work) to chinkyhomo@gmail.com. Selected submissions will be published on its Blog, Ezine, Youtube channel and Instagram Page and be remunerated a small sum as Covid Relief.
Wordpress Blog, Instagram and Youtube Channel: The Chinky Homo Project
Curated by Kumam Davidson co-founder The Chinky Homo Project
The Chinky Homo Project