Anti-racist and Queer Desires in and around Newham

This day-long workshop creatively engages with anti-racist and queer histories in and around the East End. Facilitated by feminist academic Dr. Abeera Khan and East London writer and organiser Tasmia/T, participants are invited to think with different archival materials as ongoing, living stories of struggle and resistance.

The day involves three different activities across three locations in Newham. The first activity will be hosted at  Forest Gate Library, where participants will engage with archival materials on and creative writing from the East End. Second, participants will have a communal lunch at a local Newham restaurant. After the meal, participants will be led back to the library to complete the third and final activity: a zine-making workshop . Building on the previous two activities of the day, participants will create multilingual zines to archive their lived experience as Newham residents.

About the facilitators:

Tasmia/T is a producer, writer and founding member of Nijjormanush, an independent campaigning group that aims to educate, empower and organise the UK Bengali diaspora. They are a Barbican Young Poet and MFest Lab alumni and have previously been a writer in residence at the Nottingham Primary, performing on stages such as Latitude, Free Word Centre and Rich Mix. Their writing explores relation, memory, and the intricacies of imagining and manifesting possibilities from the margins. T has also trained as an oral historian with Stepney Community Trust, archiving the history of Bengali seamstresses in East London during the 1970s.

Dr. Abeera Khan is Lecturer in Gender and Sexuality at the SOAS Centre for Gender Studies. Her work knowledge production and pedagogy is concerned with the interrelatedness between empire, gender, race and sexuality.