Over 50 authors speak at Rainbow Lit Fest

In June, the Festival organized Rhyme & Reason – a national poetry competition in partnership with Gaylaxy Magazine and The Q-Knit.

New Delhi: Digital & One is a two-day online series organised by the Rainbow Lit Fest – Queer & Inclusive. Being held over the weekend of December 5 & 6, the event will see the coming together of over 50 leading authors, poets, activists, scholars, filmmakers, artists, performers and business leaders to discuss a variety of topics.

The line-up of authors and poets from the LGBTQIA+ world include Maya Sharma, Sandip Roy, Dr Akhil Katyal, Saurabh Kirpal, Parmesh Sahani, Michiel Baas, Aditi Angiras and Raga Olga D’Silva, among others. Queer presence from the film world includes Onir, Gazal Dhaliwal, Faraz Ansari and Sridhar Rangayan.

Given the focus on intersectionality and common ground, the festival has panelists such as Alankrita Shrivastava, Dr Saif Mahmood, Tanuja Chandra, Namita Bhandare, Seema Anand, Saikat Majumdar, Madhavi Menon and Priya Paul.

Keeping in mind the festival’s approach to expression, the event will have performances from three queer Indie artists – Smruti Jalpur, John Oinam and Leon D’Souza. There is a puppet show by Varun Narain and poetry recitals by Vishal Ghatge, Shambhavi Devedi and Aditya Tiwari, in addition to stand-up comedy by noted comedian, Navin Naronha.

The Rainbow Lit Fest – Queer & Inclusive started its journey last December with a two-day festival at Delhi’s Gulmohar Park Club. With its success and a footfall crossing over 1200, the platform went on to release a short film – Breaking Notions – involving over 15 voices on the importance of storytelling to break notions and phobias.

It included influencers such as Devdutt Pattanaik, Anjali Gopalan, Sandip Roy, Avatari Devi and Suneeta Rao, with several others. In June, the Festival organized Rhyme & Reason – a national poetry competition in partnership with Gaylaxy Magazine and The Q-Knit.