The Rainbow Lit Fest – Queer And Inclusive, seeks to be inclusive, bringing together different identities and sections of society to explore common ground. The hope is that ultimately we collectively stitch together more informed narratives about diversity. Sitting pretty much at the intersections of alternative and mainstream, the Fest is a mix of different forms of expression such as prose, poetry, art, music, dance, films, talks and discussions. 

The LGBTQIA+ community does not exist in isolation and finds itself up against the common binaries that women and other identities face. Be it patriarchy, depiction and profiling through generalities in the media to the class and caste system, the Fest hopes to engage with these truths to share stories and ideas that hopefully stitch together a more informed narrative of diversity, existence and co-existence.

In our short journey of less than two years since we hosted our first festival in December 2019, we have engaged with over 130 authors, scholars, activists, musicians, poets, artists, politicians, filmmakers, scriptwriters, students, teachers and more. While the debates, discussions, talks, films and performances have been engaging and educative, over 80 per cent of the delegates have been queer, representing the rainbow, belonging to locations as far as Moirang in north east India and Boston in the USA.