The Learn Togetherness program by Kolkata Centre for Creativity celebrates the Pride month through art and cultural reflections of artists and performers from the LGBTIQKA++ community and its allies in India. After two vibrant and eventful editions, KCC announces the third edition of Learn Togetherness (2023), curated by noted inter-disciplinary artist Sujoy Prasad Chatterjee.

Learn Togetherness aims to provide arts and cultural opportunities to queer artists, artivists, and performers. In turn, it fosters connections between the community through the exchange and sharing of artistic skills, exhibitions, public screenings, performances, and panel discussions.

In the 2023 edition of Learn Togetherness, the theme What is in our gait? The Performative and Queer features selected responses and opinions that addresses the aspect of the performative (if any) in the LGBTIQKA++ community. What does it mean to be performative? Is it a dialogue? A form of struggle against the heteronormative? A tool for the queer token? A form of being and behaving that is common to all, including the heteronormative?    

What is in our gait? The Performative and Queer  

The theme invites one – irrespective of their sexual preferences - to identify, decode, explore, and discuss the omnipresent existence of the ‘performative’ through the queer lens. LGBTIQKA++ is a living movement with a rich history — constantly disrupting accepted notions of gender and questioning the traditional knowledge system. The queer performativity plays a key role in reshaping mainstream ideas while simultaneously breaking definitive boundaries. The attributes of the performative are celebrated, desired, and behaviorally incubated within the queer spectrum. However, sheer identity mockery triggered by precarious orthodox ideas and myths prevail within the general mass. 

The selected Visual artists and Performance artist's works acknowledge and portray the potentially performative and transformational emotions of varied representations of diverse gender and sexual identities. 

Program Schedule: 24 June - 05 July 2023

LT III: What is in our gait? The Performative & Queer

Curated by Sujoy Prosad Chatterjee

Venue: 4th Floor, KCC

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24th June - Saturday - 6:00 - 7:40 PM : Inauguration Day

1. Opening of the exhibition featuring 17 selected visual artists who responded to the theme: ‘What is in our Gait? The Performative & Queer’ via the LT III Open Call. 
[Selected Visual Artists: 
Anup Let, Archan, Nabarun Raha, Pallavi Aseri, Prasenjit Chandra, Sahitya Dutta, Subhanil Roy, Suchandra Das, Utpal Halder, Rudra Kishore Mandal, Indrani Banerjee, Sebabrato Mandal, Deepak Dhiman, Adhidarshan T, Sawan Taank, Jugal Kumar, and Lakshya Bhargav ]

2. 6:20 PM - 6:40 PM - হাত দেবেন না, Pls - A performance by Sangram Mukhopadhyay 

3. 6:40 PM - 7:40 PM - Panel Discussion: Why do we need the boxes? Moderated by Sujoy Prosad Chatterjee. An insightful conversation with Adman Kanchan Datta, activist Bappaditya Mukhopadhyay, scholar and poet Abhirup Mukhopadhyay, and actor Solanki Roy to talk about the "boxes" that obstruct our gait in all places.

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25th June - Sunday - 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM  1. Film Screening 1: 6:00 - 6:20 PM -  ‘I Could not be Your Son, Mom’, Directed by Sohini Dasgupta

2. Film Screening 2: 6:30 - 6:50 PM -  'The Sorrow of Love’, Directed by Sohag Sen

3. 6:50 PM - 7:30 PM The Film Screenings will be followed by a discussion between the two directors. 

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26th June - Monday- 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM  - ‘On Writing Queer’ - a talk by writer and pedagogue -- Dr Niladri R Chatterjee 

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28th June - Wednesday- 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM 

1. Film Screening 3: 6:30 - 7:00 PM - ‘HOME’ by Sujoy Prosad Chatterjee. 

2. 7:00 PM - 7:30 PM  - Conversation between the director and actor Joy Sengupta on Home. Followed by a poetry reading session by Sujoy Prosad Chatterjee & Joy Sengupta.

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30th June - Friday - 6:00 - 7:40 PM 
1. Film Screening 4: - ‘Gay India Matrimony', Directed by Debalina Majumdar. Followed by a discussion session between Queer feminist activist, Minakshi Sanyal a.k.a Malobika and the director of the film. 
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1st July - Saturday - 6 PM - 7 PM 
Selected performances reflecting the theme from the ones submitted via LT Open Call. Performances: 
- Radhapriya Gupta (Music) - Is there a "queer" way of breathing?
- Naaz B (Drag artist) - Colouring our world- The boundless palette of Gender and sexuality.
- Zameer Kamble (theatre performance) - Kuroop

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2nd July - Sunday - 6 PM - 7 PM 
Selected performances reflecting the theme from the ones submitted via LT Open Call. Performances:  - Aritrika Mitra (Guitarist) - Kalbaisakhi
- Sneha Ghosh (Movement Artist) -  Bhoy
- Anup Let (Performance Artist) - মেয়েলিছেলে/ Feminine Boy
- Santoshpur Anuchintan (Theatre performance) - Letters to the Unborn Children of Fatima Jahan

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4th July - Tuesday - 6:30 - 7:30 PM
‘Haq to Mujhe bhi Hain’ - A solo performance by Nivedita Bhattacharya 

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The Visual Art Exhibition continues till the 5th of July, 2023.

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