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Max Mueller Bhavan | India

Queer Caravan
Stories from India, France and Germany

Queer Caravan is an initiative by Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, the French Institute in India, and The Queer Muslim Project, supported by the German-French cultural fund. This unique residency program brings together queer storytellers and artists from France, Germany, and India to amplify underrepresented LGBTQIA+ voices.

Queer Caravan

Artists

Germany

Kadir Özdemir

Kadir Özdemir is an author, theatre maker, and political educator. After studying Modern History and Sociology, Kadir Özdemir has been working for over 20 years in the fields of migration, participation, intersectionality, and empowerment. He is a founding member of the Postmig Writers Collective, Prisma Queer Migrants e.V., and Migrationserb:innen. In 2022, he served as a writer-in-residence for the Aachen region at the Ludwig Forum for International Art and Heinrich-Böll-Haus. In the same year, he was selected by the Federal Academy for Cultural Education Wolfenbüttel in the field of literature. In 2023, he implemented a literary project on the new peace movement in Japan (Hiroshima and Osaka). He has published in numerous anthologies and contributed columns. Since 2023, he has been the director of the collecting:dreams festival.

Kadir Özdemir © Kadir Özdemir © Kadir Özdemir

Germany

Ozan Zakariya Keskinkılıç

Ozan Zakariya Keskinkılıç (*1989) is a Berlin-based political scientist and award-winning poet. He studied social sciences in Vienna, Berlin, and Cambridge and teaches at Berlin universities. His debut poetry collection, Prinzenbad (2022), earned nominations for the 2024 Heidelberg Clemens Brentano Prize and Dresden Poetry Prize. He will receive 2nd place at the Feldkirch Poetry Prize in Austria. Keskinkılıç’s work, exploring Muslim spirituality, memory, and queer desire, is published in multiple languages and featured in exhibitions at the Grassi Museum Leipzig, Literaturpassage Vienna, and ACUD Gallery Berlin. Known for his non-fiction on migration and anti-Muslim racism, he merges art and academia in a futurist literary journey.

Ozan Zakariya Keskinkılıç © Ozan Zakariya Keskinkılıç © Ozan Zakariya Keskinkılıç

France

Douce Dibondo

Douce Dibondo is an essayist, poet, and performer whose work explores Blackness, queerness, feminism, ancestry, and decoloniality. She challenges the Western worldview, invoking a multidimensional, ever-evolving present through fiction, essays, poetry, and performance. Dibondo has authored two poetry collections, métacures (2022) and infra/seum (2023), and the essay La Charge Raciale, Vertige d’un silence écrasant (2024). She is also the co-founder of Extimité, a podcast that gives voice to multi-minoritized LGBTQ+ individuals, allowing them to share their life stories.

Douce Dibondo © Douce Dibondo © Douce Dibondo

France

Jamal Ouazzani

Jamal is a French-Moroccan Muslim “artivist,” writer, poet, film director, and screenwriter. After a decade in international advertising and reading extensively on gender, race, and feminism, he became a DEI consultant and keynote speaker. With degrees from ESSEC Business School and La Sorbonne, Jamal advocates for human rights, challenging inequalities and discrimination. He created JINS Podcast(500K+ streams, 32K+ listeners), which discusses feminism, love, sexuality, and gender for BIPoC and Muslims. Following a residency at Villa Albertine, he launched the third season of the podcast, focusing on Arab and Muslim representation in media. He is also the author of LOVE, exploring how Islam and Arab cultures can reshape our understanding of love.

Jamal Ouazzani © Jamal Ouazzani © Jamal Ouazzani

India

Hameeda Syed

Hameeda Syed (she/they) is a Shia Kashmiri journalist with over five years of experience in writing, reporting, and research, focusing on gender and society. She explores justice through the lens of identity, culture, and power, contributing to platforms like Third Eye Social, Khabar Lahariya, and the Thomas Reuters Foundation. Her work covers women’s rights, human trafficking, mental health, and online misogyny. Hameeda has led gender justice programs for organizations such as Dignity in Difference and Girl Up India, promoting digital resilience across South Asia. A recipient of multiple awards, including a UNESCO-LiiV Center grant, she holds a postgraduate diploma in Gender Equality Studies from the University of Iceland and advocates for empathy and co-creating a gender-just world.

Hameeda Syed © Hameeda Syed © Hameeda Syed

India

Poongodi Mathiarasu

Poongodi Mathiarasu is an independent artist and traveling educator with a graduate degree in Journalism and a postgraduate degree in Folklore and Cultural Studies. For over five years, he has dedicated himself to documenting the lives of trans folk artists in rural Tamil Nadu, collaborating with folk artists, children, and the queer community. His expertise includes traditional folk dances, puppetry, and street theatre, and he currently works with the theatre group Fluid Space. A passionate advocate of “art for all,” Poongodi uses his artistic practice to promote gender equality and social justice, making a meaningful impact through his work.

Poongodi Mathiarasu © Poongodi Mathiarasu © Poongodi Mathiarasu

About Queer Caravan

Historically, caravans were vital for trades, migrations, and cultural exchange, traversing vast landscapes and connecting diverse communities. They facilitated the sharing of stories, knowledge and traditions across borders. Similarly, Queer Caravan aims to traverse physical and metaphorical landscapes to foster cross-border connections and promote a sense of community among LGBTQIA+ writers and storytellers from underrepresented communities in India, France and Germany.

Queer Caravan embodies a multifaceted approach to achieving these goals: it seeks to introduce emerging LGBTQIA+ writers from diverse marginalized communities to new and distinct literary-cultural landscapes while facilitating meaningful interactions between these writers and local communities. The program also supports the creation and dissemination of alternative narratives about what it means to be queer and from marginalized communities.

Partners

Institut français India

The Queer Muslim Project