Madras Week 2020: Tales of the Queer City

Madras has always been known as a hub of the arts and cultural activities. But has the city, with its legendary conservatism, embraced the rainbow of queer identities and cultures? To discuss this, an hour-long online discussion ‘Nam Madras kadhai pesalam: Arts, Colour, Queerness and Madras’ was organized on Aug 28, 2020.

The panel discussion was curated by Muhilann Murugan on behalf of Nam veedu, Nam oor, Nam kadhai,  a local social history initiative of archictects and artists conceived by Thirupurasundari Sevvel in 2013. The focus of the discussion was on the involvement and contributions of queer and trans communities to Madras culture, social history and life. It featured filmmaker Malini Jeevarathnam, photographer Harish Subramanian, artist Gokuleshwaran, and activists Jaya and Ramakrishnan. As the discussion proceeded, artist Srishti deftly transformed the content of the discussion to the sketch, reproduced above with permission.

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Nam Madras kadhai pesalam : Arts, Colour, Queerness and Madras . As we all know, Madras has always been known as a hub of the arts and cultural activities. But has the city, with its legendary conservatism, embraced the rainbow of queer identities and cultures? . With @muhilann_ @sarcastic_saroja @hush_o.o_ @gokuleshwaran @sahodaranchennai Jaya ma @lramakrishnan.insta . Thank you so much @madhavchitra for the sketch Thank you so much @kaushikbn for the quote Thank you so much @unsaid_dezires for the Kavithais . On this Madras day, we celebrate the queer side of the city with a panel discussion on the city’s queer arts, activism and culture scene. The focus will be on the involvement and contributions of queer and trans communities to Madras culture, social history and life. Date: 28th August 2020 Time: 6-7 PM Celebrate Art, Colour, Queerness, Madras and much more. #madrasinspired #madraspride #chennairainbowpride #namlocal #madrasheritage #personalhistory #madrasmag #namlocal #31daysofmadrasinspired #namchennai #nammachennai #engaoorumadras #heritage #socialhistory #nammadras #suyamariyathai_perani #madras_social_history_group #madras_life #teastories #nammadras #nampride #namveedunamoornamkadhai #nvok #nam #namveedu #namoor #namkadhai #madrasinspired #madrasstory

A post shared by Nam Veedu Nam Oor Nam Kadhai (@namveedu_namoor_namkadhai) on Sep 2, 2020 at 5:30am PDT

Muhilann Murugan (@muhilann_) is an architect, artist, volunteer with the Madras Literary Society, Nam veedu, Nam oor, Nam kadhai, and Orinam.

Srishti (@anchoredhues_) has been painting for the last 18 years. She has learnt over 35+ styles of drawing and painting from various artists and experiments on her own. She creates artwork that showcase strong ideas of colour. Her passion project explores the different connections between colours and the city.