Community Initiatives
In a world of existence and co-existence, more happens through collaborations and support. This is something we believe in strongly.
Often and more so now, non-government organisations and collectives, struggle in the final mile to see their efforts come to fruition. What we have seen is that such organisations and individuals have ideas, passion and even human power to pull off meaningful initiatives and events. What they miss is usually funds that help them ‘start work’ or to see a project through.
Between 2025 and 2026 June, we have been associated with a variety of organisations located in different parts of India. We have supported their work in the areas of art, film, theatre, dance, literature and environment.
Queer Intersections | Yoda Press x Rainbow Literature Festival – Queer & Inclusive | 2026
This project holds a special significance for us. Queer Intersections is a new anthology series, conceived together by Yoda Press and Rainbow Lit Fest – Queer & Inclusive (an initiative of DDAF), with a queer and intersectional focus. The first volume explores the intersection of queerness and disability, making space for narratives that are personal, political, and rooted in lived experience. For us, this is not just a publishing partnership. It is an extension of what the Festival has always stood for: creating room for voices that have waited long enough.
Taj Ke Saat Rang Festival | Agra, 2026
What does it mean to be Desi Queer? Taj ke Saat Rang set out to answer that over two days at Kala Kutir, Agra through film, music, performance, art, conversations, and stories. A city known for its heritage, is now getting seen through a queer lens, thanks to this initiative. We are honoured to contribute to an event that helped a community find its own reflection in its roots.
Dragon's Fury | Queer Gully | New Delhi, 2026
LBT+ centric, unapologetic, and with every edition, more itself. Queer Gully’s Dragon’s Fury is Delhi’s one of a kind drag show, showcasing the beauty of free expression. Drag artists, fierce judges, a Y2K Bollywood theme, and diverse audience, this edition has it all. We have supported it from its first edition, and watching it come into its own has been one of the most joyful things we have been part of.
Thirunangai Shamala's Cine Folk Dance Workshop | Chennai, 2026
Thirunangai Shamala opened her cine folk dance workshop at Baari, The Culture Space in Nandanam, Chennai for women, trans, queer and deaf communities, with no fees and no barriers. During this workshop, movement became the shared vocabulary where spoken language could not be the common ground. The following day, participants carried that vocabulary onto the stage at Alliance Française Madras, performing before a live audience as part of the Red Rainbow Festival. What stayed with us was not the performance itself, but everything that had to be believed in for it to happen.
Inclusive Theatre Workshop for Deaf & Trans Communities | Thirunar Archives x Meandyou Foundation | Chennai, 2026
Thirunar Archives and Meandyou Foundation redefined the word inclusion over two days at Spaces, Besant Nagar for deaf and trans community members. Facilitated by Manu Jose, they created a theatre space that was embodied, accessible and genuinely centred on the people within it. We have supported many things. This is one of those rare ones where support felt less like a contribution and more like a privilege.
Nanna Dhwani | ‘Frankly Speaking’ | Bengaluru, 2026
A. Revathi has spent a lifetime turning survival into art. In this single-act performance, directed by A. Mangai and presented at Bangalore Creative Circus as part of Preetiya Habba 2026, that language found a stage. There are performances that inform and there are performances that shift something in you. This was the latter. Grateful we could associate with Revathi.
KASHISH Best Genderation Short Award | Mumbai, 2026
KASHISH introduced a new award this year, one dedicated to short films centred on gender and we were honoured to be the ones behind it. The inaugural Best Genderation Short Award, along with a cash prize of ₹25,000 and the Golden Butterfly Trophy, went to Narmook, directed by Ghazal Zoghinia. A beginning, we hope, of something that endures.
Fear Not | Alliance Française De Delhi x DDAF | New Delhi, 2026
On IDAHOBIT, we co-presented ‘Fear Not – Dispelling Phobia, Fostering Belonging’ at Alliance Française de Delhi — two evenings of rare queer film screenings, live music, stand-up and poetry, curated by The Main Screen – Queer & Inclusive Film Club and Rainbow Lit Fest – Queer & Inclusive, both initiatives of DDAF. The screenings and performances sparked the kinds of conversations that tend to spill out into corridors and continue well past the point anyone expected. This was a testament to how some things come together against all odds.
Face Painting & Photography | KMC Annual Festival | 2026
At KMC’s annual festival in April 2026, we contributed to two activities, face painting and photography, both centered on the theme of Gender & Space, and supported the winning prizes. What unfolded was a quiet, colourful act of expression and visibility in a space that doesn’t always make room for it. Not every form of support announces itself. Sometimes it simply shows up.
Superqueens: The Musical | New Delhi, 2026
India’s first drag musical came to The Piano Man across two nights in April — directed by Vivek Mansukhani, choreographed by Shohini Dutta and Udisha Uniyal, and performed by some of the most compelling voices the Indian drag scene has found. Superqueens was spectacle, yes, but underneath it was something more considered: a belief that the stage is large enough for all of us. We powered this production since its opening in 2025, because we share that belief entirely.
Ek Madhav Baug | QConnect | New Delhi, 2026
A mother. Her son. A love that had to find a new language to name itself. Written by Chetan Datar and brought to life by Mona Ambegaonkar, Ek Madhav Baug is the kind of theatre that does not let you keep your distance. QConnect brought this to Lok Kala Manch, free of cost, open to all who registered, because they felt it deserved to be witnessed. That conviction is exactly what drew us to support it.
KalaRanga | Queer Nilayam | Bengaluru, 2026
Queer Nilayam built KalaRanga on a single conviction: that queer stories deserve space, care and dignity. What came together at Alliance Française de Bangalore was a queer arts and literature festival that felt genuinely community-held artists, performers, stallholders and an audience that arrived with intention. We were among those who helped it reach fruition, and we are glad it did.
Gender Sensitisation | Vaze Queer Collective x QKnit | Mumbai, 2026
92 students and faculty members gathered at V G Vaze College, Mulund on 23 January 2026 for a conversation that campuses too rarely make room for. Over ninety minutes, the session moved through the difference between sex and gender, the meaning of SOGIE, the everyday practice of allyship, and what safer institutional spaces might actually look like. People asked honest questions. Others listened with care. In a college setting, that exchange is not a small thing. We are glad we got the chance to support it.
Dragon's Fury | Queer Gully | New Delhi, 2025
The first edition. Before the Y2K theme, before the growing audience — there was Queer Gully placing something new in Delhi’s queer calendar and trusting that the community would show up for it. It has been a great success since then, and we are so happy we could support them since the beginning.
Paint It Queer | Queer Gully | New Delhi, 2025
25+ attended a workshop on ‘Art & Healing’ with the guidance of a therapist. A room, a question about safety, and a canvas for each person to answer it on. What Queer Gully set in motion in 2025 was worth showing upto — and so they did, and so did we.
Queer Prakriti | Queer-e-Junglers | New Delhi, 2025
Who gets to belong in nature? Queer-e-Junglers, a grassroots collective of queer artists, environmentalists and nature lovers, held that question at the centre of a day spent at NIV Art Centre: eco-therapy, storytelling, expert talks on fungi and insects, film, clay-making, and the kind of unhurried exchange that community spaces make possible. They understood that reclaiming a relationship with nature, for many queer people, is not incidental. It is necessary. 70+ participants attended this festival. We were glad to support an initiative that saw that clearly.
