The Sociology department of Maitreyi College hosted their annual fest, Imagine on the 29th of February. The morning program, hosted in the seminar hall, started off with an introductory address by the Head of Department, Mrs. Mala, who welcomed the students and the guest speaker for the day, Prof. Nivedita Menon from Centre for Competitive Politics and Political Theory, JNU.
The students then proceeded to present a rendition on Audre Lorde, an American author of colour and activist for women’s rights. The students recreated a few excerpts from Lorde’s autobiography, picking up some bold instances, highlighting the lesbian circles of 1950s America and reading them out in front of the audience. Keeping in mind the theme of the fest ‘Sexualities’, their performance highlighted not only the issue of misogyny against people of different sexual orientations, but also brought to light the clear divide that race creates within these circles.
Following the performance, Prof. Nivedita was invited to address the audience and in her words, the students had delivered a “brilliantly conceived” performance. Picking up instances from their performance she went on to construct her talk around the idea of sexuality as an individual’s identity. Taking the example of Audre Lorde, who was marginalised in two ways, for being a black lesbian, of which she was self critical in the passages picked up by the students. Prof. Nivedita then went on to talk about the hegemonic norms dominant in our culture which forces us to fit ourselves in the oppressive definition of ‘Normal’.
Ending a very engaging talk, she said that there is no silence about the topics of sex and sexualities. At all times people are talking about it even when they are telling us to be home safely by six, because indirectly all they are implying is to avoid having sex, whether it is with your consent or without.
The morning session then ended, followed by the competitive events of the day, first of which was the debate, based on various topics surrounding feminism. Suyash Kumar from Shaheed Bhagat Singh College won the best speaker for the motion and Deepak Jha from SGTB Khalsa won for against the motion, while Pallavi from Janki Devi Memorial College bagged the best interjector. Expressions, the slam poetry competition, was the main attraction of the day and saw Miranda House shine at the top with Poonam Mumu and Aamina Rahim bag the first position.
A few other informal events included photography and face painting and collectively made the day a successful one.
Featured Image Credits: Bayar Jain from Maitreyi College
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