Talking about LGBTQIA+ poetry and art in the midlands
Open Minds Birmingham Group - May 24
Each time I stroke her hair
She pulls me closer
And I ask,
‘What will we do
The next time we meet
We will plant more flowers
And carry the fragrance home
Poetry and art can be powerful ways for us to communicate our experiences as LGBTQIA+ people. When we describe something in words or in images, it can also be a way for other people to see themselves in the world. In saying this, it’s not always easy to find diversity in the poetry and art that we see.
For our May Midlands group, we brought along images and poetry from https://gaysifamily.com/ and https://orinam.net/ who are both based in India. We wanted to see if the experiences of LGBTQIA+ people based in India would make sense to us here in the UK.
We seemed to find useful things in all of the poetry that we read. Some of the poems made us feel sad, some reminded us of our relationships with other people, and some of the poetry made us annoyed or confused. The poem “My Name Is A Spell” by S Dhakshayini was an intense read that talked about migration, colonialism and how we can hold on to our strength even when we are being oppressed. It sparked a lot of conversation. The poem seemed to reveal it’s meaning the more we looked at it.
The poem Every Weekend by M Rahman was more lighthearted and was about the poet’s experience of dating. People like the way the poet described the frustration and boredom that come with dating but also how they finished the poem feeling hopeful that they would eventually find the companionship they were looking for.
We also looked at some of the art work in the zine produced by Orinam which you can access here. We talked about how it is still hard to find ‘normal’ images of same-sex, trans or non-binary representations of us in images and stories. Access to these kinds of images might have helped us feel more accepted in our communities if we had seen them when we were growing up.
It ended up being a rich and full discussion and even people who thought they didn’t like poetry enjoyed reading the works that we brought to the session. We will be using an activity like this again in the future!
If you're interested in learning more about our Birmingham, London, or online meetups, feel free to get in touch. We usually meet towards the end of each month, with more details available on our Eventbrite page.
With warm wishes,
The Open Minds Project
We usually meet on the last Wednesday of each month and if you want to join us at an Open Minds Meeting, please visit the Events page on our website.
