Block 4. Queer Experiences of a Body

Khush

“Khush” means ecstatic pleasure in Urdu. For South Asian lesbians and gay men in Britain, North America, and India (where homosexuality was legalized in 2018, the term captures the blissful intricacies of being queer and of color. Inspiring testimonies bridge geographical differences to locate shared experiences of isolation and exoticization but also the unremitting joys and solidarity of being “khush”.

Accentuated by beautifully lit dream sequences, dance segments and a dazzlingly sensuous soundtrack, this uplifting documentary conveys the exhilaration of a culturally rooted experience of sexuality.

A Place of Rage

“A Place of Rage” is an exuberant award-winning documentary film by Pratibha Parmar which made its debut in 1991 yet its content is still one of the richest and most cherished and includes rare interviews with Angela Davis, June Jordan and Alice Walker. A celebration of the contributions and achievements of prominent African American women, the film features Angela Davis, June Jordan and Alice Walker. Within the context of civil rights, black power, lesbian and gay rights and the feminist movement, the trio reassesses how women like Rosa Parks and Fannie Lou Hamer revolutionized American society and the world generally.

“It takes its title from a statement from June Jordan where she tries to articulate how her poetry and her pedagogy emerges from a ‘place of rage” and builds into some other kind of articulation. The film is moving in its quiet intensity and fascinating in its portrait of three powerful Black artists.” – says Jack Halberstam, Professor of English,Gender Studies and American Studies and Ethnicity USC.