Schedule 2023 – Rainbow Lit Fest

Rainbow Lit Fest – Queer & Inclusive

December 9 & 10, New Delhi

Day 1 Saturday, December 9

The Rainbow Lit Fest – Queer & Inclusive is for adults. We don’t have any child-friendly sessions. Please make note of this to avoid an awkward situation of being refused entry.

Gates open at 10:30 am. Registration from 10:30 am.

venue:	The Playground
	The hosts for the day are Parvati M Krishnan, Zayan & Sharif D Rangnekar
11.00 – 11.15 am	Opening Ceremony
11.20 – 11.45 am	SPOTLIGHT TALK Rainbow Rishta Jaydeep Sarkar in conversation with Sharif D Rangnekar
11.50 am – 12.15 pm	SPOTLIGHT TALK Sex, Love and the Law Saurabh Kirpal iin conversation with Rohin Bhatt
12.20 – 12.50 pm	SPOTLIGHT ON HISTORY The Homophobia Project Erased Us Remembering Saleem Kidwai Recallers: Anjali Gopalan, Sandip Roy & Jamal Kidwai
12.55 – 1.40 pm	PANEL The ‘Objective’ Relationship of Law with History, Mythology, Literature, Culture and Society Time, place and various influences of a period shape minds, society and eventually laws and what is acceptable. Given this fluidity, how do we address laws or challenge them? Saurabh Kirpal, Vrinda Grover and Dr Alka Pande in conversation with Swaja Saransh
1.45 – 2.30 pm	PANEL Of Homes and Families Not all homes are what homes are safe places to start with. Homes for many queer folks turn out to be closets, stuffy spaces, a place with no care. Is blood truly thicker than water? Why do we still want family and a home? Why do we even care? Rituparna Borah, Mohan Sikka, Priyakanta Laishramin, Raghavi in conversation with Ankur Paliwal
2.40 – 2.55 pm	FILM My Mother’s Girlfriend (English) directed by Arun Fulara
3.00 – 3.45 pm	PANEL Desire, Discrimination and the Queer Journey Is marriage the only way to self-actualisation? What about strong foundations built on safe homes, access to healthcare, education and jobs? What about the re-imagination of the self? Is there a pecking order to queer rights? Saurabh Kirpal, Jaya Sharma, Dr L Ramakrishnan and Swaja Saransh in conversation with Sandip Roy
4.00 – 4.45 pm	PANEL Queering the Narrative through the Gaze Women and queer folk have largely been erased from history. The pen has always been in the hands of men who may have been responsible for this erasure from history books. Is the lens in story-telling changing? With women and queer writers and film directors growing in numbers, are narratives being queered? And queered enough? Alankrita Shrivastava, Neeraj Churi, Deepti Mehrotra and Ankur Paliwal in conversation with Vivek Mansukhani
4.50 – 5.20 pm	SPOTLIGHT ON HISTORY India’s Stonewall Moment Arif Jafar in conversation with Eric Chopra
5.25-5.55 pm	BOOK LAUNCH The Yellow Sparrow by Santa Khurai The author will be in conversation with Rohin Bhatt
	Break
7.10 – 8.30 pm	THEATRE Tamasha Theatre’s Be-Loved
9.00 – 9.45 pm	MUSIC John Oinam & Band

venue:	The Courtyard
	The hosts for the day are Sarvagya and Zayan
1.00- 1.25pm	FILM Gair
1.30 – 1.50 pm	FILM Muhafiz
1.55 – 2.40 pm	PANEL Social Hierarchies and Identities: a Question of Power Equations? An individual carries a variety of identities not limited or defined by sexuality alone. Disabilities, religion, caste, class and region, all play out in who you are and where you stand. How does one traverse through these minefields? Jyotsna Siddharth, Vaishali K, Jean-Baptiste Phou and S Raza Hussain in conversation with Chittajit Mitra
2.45 – 3.00 pm	FILM Beach
3.05 – 3.50 pm	PANEL Of Trans Lives, Depiction, Rights and Understanding Is there enough of an understanding of who a transgender person is and their rights? How empty is the glass even nine years after the historic NALSA verdict? Kalki Subramanium, Dr Aqsa Shaikh, Zayan, Kabir Maan and Santa Khurai in conversation with Raghavi
3.55 – 4.40 pm	PANEL Found in Translation Queerness is not an urban elite imagination of existence. It is rural and regional too. Which is why translations matter as they brings us closer to knowing more about diverse lived experiences. How much is gained and how much is lost in translation? Poonam saxena, Aditi Maheshwari, Kanishka Gupta and Niladri R Chatterjee in conversation with Kinshuk Gupta
4.45 – 5.15 pm	BOOK LAUNCH The Garden Tantra The Author, Vikram Kolmannskog will be in conversation with Adrija Bose
6.10-7.00 pm	PANEL Poetic Justice: Why Verse can get the Better of the Worst Poetry and song lyrics have historically expressed love, gender, fluidity and even the politics of existence and resistance. But has verse lost its way? How and why can poetry play a role in the world of identities and connected human rights movements? Akhil Katyal, Dr Saif Mahmood and Dr Aqsa Shaikh in conversation with Dhrubo Jyoti

Day 2 Sunday, December 10

The Rainbow Lit Fest – Queer & Inclusive is for adults. We don’t have any child-friendly sessions. Please make note of this to avoid an awkward situation of being refused entry.

Gates open at 10:30 am.

Venue:	Playground
	The hosts for the day are Parvati M Krishnan, Zayan & Sharif D Rangnekar
12.10 – 1.00pm	PANEL Love Is… Love is expansive. It has no gender. It merely feels. What does it take to make a relationship? With almost no reference points, how do queer relationships thrive and survive? Rituparna Borah & Amrita Tripathi; Saurabh Kirpal & Nicolas Bachmann; Don Hasar & Shasank in conversation with Ankur Paliwal
1.05 – 1.35 pm	SPOTLIGHT TALK The History, Mystery and Suspicion about Pleasure Seema Anand in conversation with Eric Chopra
1.40 – 2.10 pm	SPOTLIGHT ON HISTORY Life of Queerness Hoshang Merchant in conversation with Sandip Roy
2.15 – 2.50 pm	SPOTLIGHT TALK A Life Like No Other Kalki Koechlin in conversation with Puja Talwar
2.55 – 3.40 pm	PANEL Parental Acceptance, Parental Advisory When a child’s sexuality differs from that of their parents which is apparently the considered norm, it can often be an area of conflict that can devastate the child. How does one embrace a queer child? What are some experiences to learn from? Aruna Desai, Gurcharan Das, and Aarti Malhotra in conversation with Amrita Tripathi
3.45 – 4.30 pm	PANEL Don’t Children Need Queer Literature? Children learn quickly from their surroundings, books and education system. Because they are unbiased, they can learn about love instinctively. What does it mean to live without stories on the expansive and inclusive idea of love, relationships and the self? Parvati Sharma, Sandip Roy, Rituparna Borah, Anurag Kundu in conversation with Chittajit Mitra
4.45 – 5.30 pm	PANEL Feminism and Queerness: do they mirror each other? There is a strong belief that the issues of women are similar to those that queer folks face. The challenge is considered to be the same – patriarchy. And with it conformity. Does this make women allies to the queer movement and vice versa? Urvashi Butalia, Mona Ambegaonkar, Alankrita Shrivastava and Jaya Sharma in conversation with Anjali Kirpalani
5.40 – 6.00 pm	BOOK LAUNCH Launch of Consciously Speaking 2 Nitin Mantri, Aditi Maheshwari, Rituparna Borah and Amrita Tripathi. Facilitated by Sharif D Rangnekar
6.05 – 6.35 pm	MUSIC Bhaadri Laadki Featuring Geetanjali Kalta & Katyayini Pant
6.40 – 7.00 pm	DESI DRAG Avatari Devi
7.05 – 7.30 pm	AWARDS The Rainbow Awards for Literature & Journalism With close to 100 submissions, the 8-member jury has picked four winners for the competing categories of Features and Op-Ed in journalism and Fiction and Non-fiction in literature. The awards include a non-compete category too – The Lifetime Achievement Award.
7.35 – 7.50 pm	DRAG Lush Monsoon

Venue:	The Courtyard
	The hosts for the day are Sarvagya and Zayan
11.00 – 11.30am	FILM Oranges in the Winter Sun The co-writer, Usha Joshi and director of photography, Sarthak Chauhan, will be in conversation with Sarvagya and Divyansh
11.35 am – 12.00 noon	DANCE Ardhnareshvar – An Interpretation Through Bharat Natyam Gayathri Sharma & Bhadra Sinha (Kalakriti Arts)
3.00 – 3.45 pm	PANEL Communicating Change, From In to Out Is workplace inclusion the only responsibility of corporations that profess safer places to work? How can corporations take their beliefs of inclusion into the larger world? What is the role of communications and visible action? Parmesh Shahani and Nitin Mantri in conversation with Ram Sinha
3.50 – 4.35 pm	PANEL Self-love, Choice and Living The term self-love is a millennial one. What does this term mean to them? How is it connected with the self, of being? How does it impact choice, sexuality, gender, tolerance, acceptance and relationships? Yash Sharma, Alexander Balakrishnan, Varsha Verma and Raghavi in conversation with Zayan

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the speakers and performers, or any person associated with the Rainbow Literature Festival – Queer & Inclusive (RLF) in individual capacity or during the festival are theirs. They do not reflect the views or positions of the RLF, the Dwijen Dinanath Arts Foundation (DDAF) or any entity associated with them. Neither the RLF nor the DDAF will be responsible or liable for any views that are false, controversial, defamatory or erroneous. The liability for all views expressed shall vest with the expressor of the said views.