For the month of June, The Redstockings Literary Society launched three social media drives for social causes such as awareness about the LGBTQIA+ Community & highlighting queer artists, honoring the healthcare professionals in these devastating times as well as reminding all of the significance that World Environment Day, celebrated on 5th June, holds in the present.
All the Posters were conceptualised & created by The Media Team of The Redstockings Literary Society including Divyanshi Dash, Ekta Singh, Vanshika Garg;
The Team is headed by Pragya Dhiman, Vice President, Redstockings Literary Society.
I. An Ode To Pride: Queer Poets We Need To Remember
Queer people have always been marginalized and erased from history. They tend to be marginalized because of our erasure of them. Thus, it becomes more than important to acknowledge queer folks and their contributions to the society. It’s on us to look up marginalized artists and appreciate them as and when we can. So, here are three outstanding queer poets you can start with:
Yook Woo-Dang
Yook Woo-Dang was a gay South Korean poet, activist and devout Catholic who took his own life to protest discrimination against LGBTQ people by church and society. He died on April 26, 2003 when he was only 18. He could not publish his writing under his own name due to objections about the homosexual content, especially from Christian conservatives. Instead he took the pen name Yook Woo-Dang, which means “a person who has only six friends.” He admitted that he was dependent on six friends: alcohol, cigarettes, sleeping pills, make-up foundation, green tea and a rosary.
(source: Qspirit)
“목련꽃 향기처럼 은은한 우리 사랑.
이 사랑을 고이 접어 오래오래 간직할게요.
언젠가 다시 오시거든 조심스레 드리도록.”
육우당, “사랑을 고이 접어”
“Our love, gentle as a lotus scent.
I’ll fold this love neatly and keep it for a long, long time
so I can give it to you tenderly when you come again.”
Yook Woo-Dang, “Love neatly folded”
(translated by Gabriel Sylvian)
Audre Lorde.
A self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,” Audre Lorde dedicated both her life and her creative talent to confronting and addressing injustices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. Of her poetic beginnings Lorde commented in Black Women Writers: “I used to speak in poetry. I would read poems, and I would memorize them. People would say, well what do you think, Audre. What happened to you yesterday? And I would recite a poem and somewhere in that poem would be a line or a feeling I would be sharing. In other words, I literally communicated through poetry. And when I couldn’t find the poems to express the things I was feeling, that’s what started me writing poetry, and that was when I was twelve or thirteen.”
(source: poetry foundation)
“Love is a word another kind of open—
As a diamond comes into a knot of flame
I am black because I come from the earth's inside
Take my word for jewel in your open light.”
Audre Lorde, “Coal” from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde.
Iftikhar Nasim
Iftikhar Nasim was a gay Pakistani American poet. Having moved to the United States to escape persecution for his sexual orientation, he became known locally for establishing “Sangat”, an organization to support LGBT south-Asian youths, and internationally for publishing Narman, a poetry collection that was the first open expression of homosexual themes in the Urdu language. Nasim was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 1996.
(source: wikipedia)
“My color two shade
Darker than an average white man
Is not accepted anymore.
My café ole color, once I was so proud of,
Is a guilt trip for me now.
My ethnicity has become a crime.”
Iftikhar Nasim, “Poem”
Written by Divyanshi Dash
English Honours
Bharati College, University of Delhi
II. An Ode To The Covid Warriors
With the increasing strain on our healthcare providers and the scrutiny they have been subjected to in the recent months regardless of the hard work they have put in for us, the Redstockings Society deemed it necessary to convey our gratitude towards these relentless covid warriors. A note of appreciation towards their tireless work in these two years is the least we could do.
III. World Environment Day
The drive for World Environment Day was an attempt to remind all, of the significance that thinking about our environment plays in today’s world.
The three initiatives made sure the society was in touch with social causes that need to be attended to in the present time; the team shall keep trying to bring forth such initiatives in future as well.
Written by Paromita Sarkar
Editor-in-Chief, Redstockings Chronicle
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