March 16 - 18

Prakriti Foundation
Think Tank
Presented:

Stree Sharira: Exploring Sites of Women's Sexuality
the first annual conference on women's sexuality
Dedicated to Chandralekha

Lectures: 10:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.
Performances and screenings: 7:00 p.m

Venue:
All lecture and panel sessions, and Saturday and Sunday's evening events:
Anokhi: Old #47 (New #85), Chamiers Road, R A Puram, Chennai-600028
044-42030733

Friday's inaugural evening performances:
Alliance Francaise de Madras: #24, College Road, Nungambakkam, Chennai-600006
044- 28279803, 044-28271477

Photo Gallery

As an organization committed to exploring new discourses in the politics of gender, sexuality, and cultural practice, Prakriti Foundation organised a three-day conference on women and sexuality in India, dedicated to the late Chandralekha. Titled Stree Sharira: Exploring Sites of Women's Sexuality in India Today, this conference-- based in Chennai presented the work of academics, artists, and activists in an attempt to initiate a multi-valanced dialogue on the experience, performance, representation and regulation of women's sexuality in India.

Featuring lectures, discussions, film screenings and performances with:
Suneetha Achyutha, Sandra Chatterjee, Padma Govindan, Nalini Jameela, Kanimozhi, Kirtana Kumar, Kuttirevathi, Malathy, Namita Malhotra, Mangai, Mira Mary, Bindu Menon, Sadanand Menon, Sumathi Murthy and members of the queer collective LesBIT, Alka Pande, Geeta Ramaseshan, Sushila Ravindranath, S. Anandhi, the Sakthi Kalai Kuzhu all-woman tappattam troupe, Salma, Vani Subramaniyam, Sukirtharini, Ruth Vanita, Deepa Vasudevan, Nitya Vasudevan, and members of the Banyan.

Friday, March 16th: Day One
Women and Sexuality: Theory, History, and Context

Morning Session:
10:00-10:30: Opening remarks by Sadanand Menon
10:30-11:15: Sexuality 101: Basic theory on gender, sexuality and pleasure; a lecture by Kirtana Kumar
11:15-12:00: Intersections with the women's movement in India: activism and sexuality; a lecture by Vani Subramaniyam
12:00-12:45: Sexuality and religious practice: goddesses of feminine/ist power; a discussion with Madhu Khanna
12:45-1:30: A question-and-answer session with the audience

1:30-2:30: Break for lunch

Afternoon Session:
2:30-3:15: Discourses of pleasure: intersections between bodily experience and personal and/or political identity; a discussion with Alka Pande
3:15-4:00: New and emerging articulations of women’s sexuality: the queer woman; a panel discussion with Ruth Vanita and Deepa Vasudevan
4:00-4:45: A question-and-answer session with the audience

Evening Session:
7:00-8:00: Opening performance by Sakthi Kalai Kuzhu, the only Dalit women's tappattam troupe
8:00-9:00: A dance performance by Sandra Chatterjee, founder and member of the Post-Natyam Dance Collective


Saturday, March 17th: Day Two
Women and Sexuality: Representation, Performance, and Masquerade

Morning Session:
10:30-11:15: Representations: images (and imaginings) of women as sexual beings; a lecture by Bindu Menon
11:15-12:00: Not just a matter of choice: The regulation of women’s reproductive health; a discussion with S. Anandhi
12:00-12:45: Women in popular culture: Sexuality and viewership in the media; a lecture by Namita Malhotra
12:45-1:30: A question-and-answer session with the audience

1:30-2:30: Break for lunch

Afternoon Session:
2:30-3:15: Sexuality, gender, and border crossings: Theater as a medium for transgressing sexual roles; a lecture by Mangai
3:15-4:00: Alternative sexuality on film: A critical analysis of Girlfriend; a discussion with Nitya Vasudevan and Padma Govindan
4:00-4:45: The pleasures and vexations: Intersections between performance and viewership; a brief film screening and audience discussion with Shakila and Khushboo. Moderator: Hariharan

Evening Session:
7:00-8:00: Performance of poetry and music by queer women, led by Sumathi Murthy of the Bangalore-based queer collective, LesBIT
8:00-10:00: Screening of Sancharram, a feature-length film about a young lesbian couple in Kerala, directed by Ligy Pullapally


Sunday, March 18th: Day Three
Women and Sexuality: Surveillance. Regulation, and Discipline

Morning Session:
10:30-11:15: Discipline and punish: Articulations of violence against women’s sexuality; a lecture by Suneetha Achyutha
11:15-12:00: New and emerging articulations of women's sexuality in India, part 2: The Sex worker; a discussion with Nalini Jameela and Mira Mary
12:00-12:45: Moral policing: Women’s sexuality and its place in law and policy; a panel discussion with Sushila Ravindranath and Geeta Ramaseshan
12:45-1:30: A question-and-answer session with the audience

1:30-2:30: Break for lunch

Afternoon Session:
2:30-3:15: Mental health homes, shelters, and prisons: experiencing sexuality in institutions; a discussion between the members of The Banyan’s team, an organization that cares for and rehabilitates homeless women with mental illness found in the streets of Chennai
3:15-4:00: Expressing sexuality in the political sphere: censorship debates in South India; a discussion between Sadanand Menon and Kuttirevathi
4:00-4:45: A question-and answer period

Evening Session:
7:00-8:00: A poetry reading by Kuttirevathi, Salma, Malathy, Sukirtharini (the poets featured in She Write), and Kanimozhi
8:00-9:00: A screening of She Write, a documentary about female Tamil poets writing about sexuality and their struggles with state-led censorship of their work, directed by Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayasankar of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences