There aren’t enough safe spaces for queer people to share their stories through art, poetry or comedy. This was the moot question that prompted Abhirami Rao and Rudhra Jayachandran to come up with The Queering Mic, an open mic for queer performers to showcase their work or even just talk about themselves. “The whole point of this is that there are no judgements, no expectations. You’re coming here to perform something you want to in front of an audience who is there to listen to you,” says Abhirami, co-founder of the city-based poetry and storytelling organisation, An Unexplored Mic (@anunexploredmic).
The event was jointly organised by Kizhinja Kaagitham (@kizhinja_kaagitham), an organisation that aims to give amateur writers in Chennai a platform to showcase their work. Through The Queering Mic, the organisers intend to amplify the voices of the queer community and create an environment where they would be comfortable sharing stories with an inclusive, accepting audience.
“While we appreciate allies coming out and telling stories about queerness, we want queer people to tell their own stories, however they want. As a queer person myself, I’m quite shy, I won’t bring up a queer topic that easily unless it’s my closest circle of friends. That’s why we were very insistent, we wanted queer performers only,” says Abhirami.
