Worlds Words Weave: Queer Explorations towards Constructing Reality on Our Own Terms

Members of the NLS Queer Alliance (NLSQA), a student collective at NLSIU, will be speaking at the Bangalore International Center on 20th May from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM.  The session titled “Worlds Words Weave: Queer Explorations towards Constructing Reality on Our Own Terms” will be an interactive one with the conversation linking anecdotes, polemics, popular culture, legalese and semantics in general. The session will entail 5 speakers from the NLSQA talking about words like family, joy, etc and their meaning to queer individuals.

NLSQA Speaks | About the event 

“Through this conversation, we seek to explain what words mean to the queer community and highlight how language has historically deprived the queer community of participating in public discourse. While at the same time, we shall endeavor to reclaim and redefine these words.

The Queer community has been thrusted into hypervisibility following the widespread publicity of the Marriage Equality petitions in the Supreme Court. The hearings saw the usage of many terms, concepts, and identities integral to the Queer experience. However, the meanings of these words got distorted and confused as they went through the grapevine of petitions, media coverage, and popular discourse.

Language and vocabulary are important tools in any social movement. It sits at the epicenter of any hegemony. The pervasive power of language is visible in how we write our laws and our stories. When the speakers of the language cannot find words to describe themselves, it is imperative that we embrace new words and the worlds that they weave. The fight for the recognition of the rights of queer people seeks to challenge this semantic and linguistic cis-heteronormativity.

Through this session, the NLSQA seeks to reach out to the wider community, highlight the power of language, showcase the queer usage of everyday words, explain what certain words mean to queer individuals, and most importantly, draw links between pop culture, the law and colloquial language.”

About the speakers:

• Dhawal M, Convenor, NLS Queer Alliance, and third-year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student
• Sarthak Virdi, Student & Member, NLS Queer Alliance, and second-year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student

If you are interested in attending the event, please RSVP here.