Queer Objects: a very (short) history

Queer Objects is an art and community incubator that is composed of queer and allied folx in Guwahati, Assam. We are a loose group of people who are artistically-inclined and seek (queer) community through art making and fun. We are a ‘loose’ group in the sense that each of our collective endeavors activate different sets of organizers and volunteers depending on interest and availability. This flexibility is vital to performing the voluntary community labor that we put in to make things happen. We pride ourselves in responding to local needs and microhistories in our program design and planning.

We aspire to practice anti-majoritarian and progressive community making that is anti-racist and anti-caste. We believe such aspirations –and our striving towards such ideals–shape our queer community in important life sustaining ways. We are also invested in creating radical queer communities through fun.  

Queer Objects 1.0

We first came together during the Queer Objects 1.0 exhibition held from Oct 28th to November 2nd at Gauhati Artist Guild, Guwahati, supported by Zubaan Trust and Sasakawa Peace Foundation. This exhibition was curated by Rishav Thakur and involved more than 34 (mostly) queer artists, performers and creative folks from Assam or based in Assam.

The exhibition team included: Anubhav Deka, Pami Brahma, Raja Deka, Deepak Chetry, Kheya Barai, Parijit Mahapatra, Bhaskar Rabha, Tanumita Chaudhury, Ajay Mahato, Tannaz Mahreen, Chandan J Konwar, Pulak J Das, Rupa Gogoi

Involvement in Pride Organizing

Many of our members were involved in organizing Queer Pride Guwahati (2023) on an individual basis. For example, Kheya Barai (who organized the press meet), Raja Deka (who took over logistics during pride day) and Rishav Thakur (who organized an open mic and then the post pride party along with offering support to Kheya for the press meet). Sarem Timung and Chelsie worked alongside Deepak Chetry in managing the Queer Pride Guwahati’s Instagram handle. Our drag performer, Pixie, was the treasurer of QPG for 2023.  

Even though we as a group did not organize pride, it gave us another opportunity to learn from each other’s working styles while also developing our artistic vision for collective organizing, art making and community building.

Open Mic & drag night fundraiser for Queer Pride Guwahati

During Queer Objects 1.0, we experimented with the open mic form as a way of exploring the relationship between performance, space and community making. We decided to organize an open mic fundraiser for the 10th edition of the Guwahati Pride Walk held on December 8th 2023.

We contributed more than 10,000 rupee earning from the fundraiser – by and for queer community– to the Pride Walk Committee. While this is not much, we are proud to share that this is the largest donation to the fundraising efforts for 2023 Queer Pride Guwahati.

This fundraiser involved the voluntary labors of Kheya Barai (guest list and ticketing), Rupa Gogoi (poster design), Raja Deka (gate duty), Sarem Timung (MC), Debabrata Basumatary (photography), Rishav Thakur (photography and overall organizing).

This was the point when our drag collective took clearer shape under the guidance of Raja Deka and Chelsie. Our performers included Sarem Timung, Anangsha Alomyan, Ryan Ahmed, Pixie, Anandita and Imran Malike.

Our performers involve both drag queen and drag king performances in English, Assamese, Hindi and Bhojpuri music.

Post Pride Party (December 17th)

Our drag collective performed once again –this time on an individual basis as members of Assam's queer community–for the post pride party, which was curated and organized by Rishav Thakur (in their individual capacity). Our performers who took to the stage on the 17th post pride party included Chelsie, Sarem Timung, Anangsha Alomyan, Ryan Ahmed, Pixie, Anandita and Imran Hussain.

Our planning for 2024

We are excited to announce that we are planning to incubate a drag collective in the year 2024. We believe that being with each other, and forming community through fun is a good way for us to move ahead in our first year of existence. We also believe that performing in drag can be cathartic in ways that cannot be predicted for those who have had their genders policed since birth, or simply to create an embodied space of reflection on questions of gender, identity, sexuality.

Creating Safer Spaces: community dialogue on sexual harassment amongst queer & trans folx (January 21st 2024)

Safer Spaces dialogue and workshop  was designed and facilitated by Rishav Thakur. It was held at Anaajoree, Chandamari, which is a transman-led NGO space founded by Milin Dutta.

This workshop was spurred by the urgent need to respond to three incidents of sexual harassment in social media and LGBT WhatsApp groups in Assam. This workshop was designed to start a conversation–and responded to the immediate demands of the community.

We are also excited to continue our work in thinking about safer spaces, especially in the context of the queer community in Assam. As part of this we are planning some workshops and online sessions along with organizing regular meetups in Guwahati.

Priorities for 2025

Queer and trans ecologies