Queer East

Examining the multifarious meanings behind queer and Asia, Queer East presents a cinema night that showcases a collection of LGBTQ+ short films and artists’ moving image work made by East and Southeast Asian filmmakers from the UK and across the globe, along with an artist Q&A.

Through cinematic expressions of collective and individual experience, the programme explores how these filmmakers visualise identity as a complex and fluid entity, to shine a light on our never-ending search for a sense of belonging, and question what it means to be queer, Asian and migrant today.

From The Daughter Of A Dictator

Yasmeen Audisho Ghrawi

/‘jes.mɪən/ /’aʊdiʃəʊ/ /’ʁrɑː.wiː/ lived and cautiously thrived under a dictatorship for almost two decades. Through personal anecdotes Yasmeen unpacks the politics of the last 20 years inviting us to reflect on our experiences of individual and collective power through an ‘other’ frame. We find ourselves confronted with the question and dilemma: is living in a democracy becoming so different than living in a dictatorship?

‘From The Daughter of a Dictator’ is a one-person show exploring the personal journey of migration from Baghdad to Beirut to Berlin to Britain.

Written and performed by queer Iraqi/Syrian/Assyrian performer and theatre-maker Yasmeen Audisho Ghrawi and devised in collaboration with artists Emma Bonnici, Charly Monreal, and R.M. Sánchez-Camus.

June 23

Event Venue Makerspace at Portland Works

Run Time 18:00-19:00

Tickets £10 | £7 | Free

All The Beds I Have Slept In

This energetic company of refugee performers reveal the seam of kindness and care that lies within their experience of being forced to leave their homes to seek asylum in the UK. From a flat in North London to the exercise yard of a Greek detention centre, the play is a shout-out to all the real people who helped them, exploring the hospitality of strangers, the intimacy created between friends when family is absent, and how to stay hopeful in a scary world.

- Lyn Gardner, Stagedoor

MUSIC ACROSS BORDERS:

DIGITISING SOUTH ASIAN MUSICAL HERITAGE

Dr Radha Kapura, Department of History

Mixed Snacks

Event Venue

Check Website Run Time 15:00 - 16:00

In this panel discussion, Dr Radha Kapura will talk to Faraan Ifran (Founder and CEO of Saarey Music) and John Ball (musician and North Indian Classical Music expert) about music, digitisation and heritage across the Indian-Pakistan border. Together they will address the question - can online repositories of music help subvert the borders created by the 1947 Partition?

Tickets £5 | £3 | Free

The discussion will be accompanied by a live musical performance.

ITS ROOTS, ITS WOUNDS, ITS FLOWERS:

Shagufta K Iqbal & Evie Muir

Event Venue DINA Run Time 14:00-15:30

DIASPORA FORUM

Diaspora Forum is a platform to draw our focus to the diaspora and its allies, sharing different practices from arts and community works. Two inspirational practitioners, Shagufta K Iqbal and Evie Muir, join us and share their works and projects.

Tickets Free

Canine Teeth

Ayse Balkose

Event Venue

Makerspace at Portland Works

Run Time 19:00-19:50

Ayse’s one woman show illustrates the journey of a Turkish woman, Elif, who is trapped in a society and her struggle to adapt to a landscape of conflicting values. The voyage of the character is told poetically and captures Ayse’s personal experience and the change in the society’s attitudes toward women by using several generations of women’s interpersonal dynamics.

Tickets £7 | £5 | Free

Theatre/Storytelling/ Spoken Word/Music/Video

Cushion Eurasian Society

Event Venue DINA Run Time 21:00, 22:15

Delve into an assortment of performance treats with Sam Reynolds and Jasmine Shigemura Lee, aka Cushion Eurasian Society! The two-strong society present this cabaret variety show of sorts, exploring growing up as queer Eurasians in the UK, with comedy, dance, live art and more. Tuck in!

Tickets £7 | £5 | Free Cabaret 18+

June

Eastern Margins

Event Venue DINA Run Time 22:30-02:00

Eastern Margins is a collective showcasing sounds from the Margins of East & South-East Asia.

They’ll be traversing the full scope of experimental club sounds - with a live performance from ĀN Jí, and DJ sets from Dirty K, Arya R & Adanko.

Tickets £5 | £3 | Free DJ 18+

@easternmargins