Writing Wrongs: Voices from the Queer Arab Vanguard

Gender non-conforming and sexually diverse people are oppressed, persecuted and erased all over the world. The cultural concepts used to justify this — religious or secular, traditional or imported — are various, as are the histories that got us here. But wherever we live in the world and whatever version of cisheteropatriarchy we live under, the damage done is universal.  

So in this traumatic global context, how does an LGBTIQA+ Arab end up making public art? What are the specific challenges and priorities for these queer artists with Arab heritage, and how do creativity and activism interweave in their work?

Novelist, memoirist and journalist Randa Jarrar, documentary playwright and theatremaker Raphael Khouri, and drag performer, writer and filmmaker Amrou al-Kadhi all join translator and editor Alice Guthrie to discuss and read from their luminous and potent work. Our panel of vibrant queer Arab writers show how queer lives, queer selves and queer expression continue to blossom, against the odds.

This event is pre-recorded and was conceived and programmed by Alice Guthrie.