Created as part of British Council’s India/UK Together Season of Culture 2022, Language is a Queer Thing is an international poetry development programme engaging LGBTQIA+ poets, poetry professionals and communities in India and the UK. Spearheaded by The Queer Muslim Project in collaboration with Verve Poetry Festival, the project has emerged as the only exchange programme of its kind bringing together LGBTQIA+ talent from South Asia and the UK and creating sustainable pathways for cross-border collaborations and creative dialogue between artists and institutions in India and the UK.
Since its inception, the project has brought together 12 emerging LGBTQIA+ spoken word poets from India and the UK to collaborate, create new work and share it with audiences in both the countries with the support of British Council. The poets performed live and on radio, held panel discussions and met with communities to create legacy work addressing shared global challenges through the lens of equality, diversity and inclusion, gender equality, environmental sustainability, and accessibility for underrepresented artists and creative practitioners from LGBTQIA+ communities.Till date, the project has reached over 2 million listeners via BBC Radio programmes and in-person audiences at mainstream literary festivals - BBC Contains Strong Language in Birmingham and Leeds, and Tata Literature Live and Spoken Fest in Mumbai, and Jaipur Literature Festival.
2024
Following the success of the 2022-23 initiative, British Council is delighted to continue our support for the Language is A Queer Thing poetry exchange in 2024-25. This dynamic project unites six LGBTQIA+ poets—three from India and three from the UK—who will collaborate and create new works to be presented at Kolkata Literary Meet in January 2025.
Selected through an open call, the poets will undergo an online programme, community activations and on site residency and festival showcase in India. During the festival, participating poets will engage in public readings, workshops, and discussions, exploring the intricate relationship between language and queerness. Link to apply below. Last date for submissions 21 August 2024.