Artwork by Manasi Parikh
Here’s some more good news, Gaysi family: We’re now welcoming entries for the 10th edition of Dirty Talk – our very own open mic show!
At Dirty Talk, you get to be the star in your very own production. What are you good at? Singing or dancing? Acrobatics? Not talking? Talking dirty? It doesn’t matter what it is that you do; if you can entertain, the stage is yours for the taking. Everyone is encouraged to submit their work and share their voice. So whip out your calendars and save the date: November 25th in Mumbai!
Now for the theme: Do you think a city can be like poetry? We believe a city can be one’s great love – embracing you with its magical evenings, its lights and sounds and crowds; nudging you smile with its idiosyncrasies; making you work for it sometimes, but every so often, bringing you closer to your own centre. No matter how far you travel, your own city will always call to you with its charm and nostalgia. In this way, cities can be the love of our lifetimes. And like every great love, our cities carry many stories within.
And so, this is the fundamental idea behind Queer-O-City, our theme for the upcoming Dirty Talk! We envision a lively evening full of stories about the cities we inhabit or visit, intersecting with memories and experiences of our queer selves — moments, needs, conversations and desires.
The theme, more specifically, will focus on tales from towns across the country, as they mingle and mix with our queerness. It could be, for instance, about a blind date in Lucknow, or about local queer bars in different parts of the country, the specific local cultures they follow, what they look like, the language and songs that celebrate same-sex love, or perhaps, hidden stories of self-expression, conversations between partners, curiosities during exploration that are geographically specific and so on.
Our idea is to facilitate a culmination of unseen and untold stories — personal or fictional or even someone else’s account! — from across the country and bring them together for a wider perspective, a specifically Indian sharing and an evening of fun, togetherness and abandon. Gaysi comes from the idea of being gay and desi, so this special 10th edition of Dirty Talk will take us back to this root and give much reason to celebrate it together!
We are inviting artists both from within the queer community and outside to come forward and perform. The possibilities are for these performances are immense — it can be a short story, slam poetry, a song, a dance piece, a monologue, a silent piece, stand-up comedy or any other performance style that suits your method of communication.
And so, without further ado, we invite you to take over our stage! If our idea interests you, send us an email with your name and a brief synopsis of your performance for Dirty Talk 10. Make sure you read the guidelines and fill in the submission form! We await your responses!
For those of you who do not wish to perform onstage or cannot travel to Mumbai, fret not – we have solutions for you too! If you feel your story deserves this platform, send it to us and we’ll find a storyteller for it.
The deadline for the submission of the abstracts/ideas is November 4th, 2017. So hurry up and write to gaysifamily[at]gmail[dot]com.
