SPoD and the Kıraathane House of Literature look forward to your participation in these gatherings interwoven with the rich memory of the LGBTI+ movement, the fascinating world of literature, the healing power of art and humor, political discussions, the collective grieving process and more.
Calendar of events and event content
- Thursday, April 18, 2024 / 19:00
- How to have queer laughter?
Speakers: Nebiye Arı, Yağız Er Gülseven
Moderation: Fulden Ergen
"The stand-up scene, which has grown and diversified in recent years, has changed the place that humor occupies in our lives as a form of entertainment and socialization. Stand-up has become a normal part of everyday life for many people. However, there are many stand-uppers who do not hesitate to see LGBTI+ people as a laughing stock on stage, they are alienated or belittled like an exotic fruit. On the other hand, while against to a kind of humor that does not see LGBTI+ people on stage or in the audience, stand-ups in which LGBTI+ people are the subject of the humor are also created and promote queer humor. "LGBTI+s as Subjects, Not Objects: How to have a queer laughter?", in which stand-up artists Nebiye Arı and Yağız Er Gülseven appear as speakers and Fulden Ergen as moderator, we will hear how LGBTI+s appear as subjects on the stage and what experiences they have in the production of queer humor. Furthermore, we will learn whether environments where we can share queer laughter together have a transformative role for LGBTI+ people. "We are going to think about whether it's going to happen."
How to have queer laughter? Click to join the event.
- Saturday, May 11, 2024 / 13.00-15.30
- Journey into the world of Ocean Vuong Workshop with Karin Karakaşlı
"In the first of our queer workshops, we will travel into the world of Ocean Vuong with author Karin Karakaşlı. We will practice critical reading accompanied by selected passages from "Ocean Vuong's novel On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous" and the poetry collection titled Night Sky With the Exit Wounds. In the workshop, where we will explore many different themes such as parallel paths, metaphors, queer perspective, poetic language in Vuong's literary world, Karin Karakaşlı will aim to provide participants with an enjoyable and productive practice ground for fiction reading techniques."
* The reading material will be distributed to participants in the workshop.
Click here to attend the Journey to the world of Ocean Vuong Workshop with Karin Karakaşlı.
- Tuesday, May 14, 2024 / 19.00-20.15
- Remembering Istanbul Pride Marches
Speakers: Yeşim Başaran, Yunus Emre Demir
Moderation: Ahmet Soykarcı"At this meeting, which will be moderated by Ahmet Soykarcı and attended by Yeşim Başaran and Yunus Emre Demir as speakers, and which will be held jointly with SPoD (Social Policy, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association), we will refresh our memory of the Pride Marches in Istanbul. How did the LGBTI+ movement construct the unique qualities, concerns and particularities of these marches? What do we remember? What has changed in our organizing practice? What did we feel?
We will follow the struggle route from past to present with curiosity and discuss the historicity, transformation, emotions and creative ways of the marches and forms of organization."
Click here to register for the Remembering Istanbul Pride Marches event.
- Saturdau, May 18, 2024 / 13.00-15.30
- “Kiss of Death” workshop by Sibel Kır and Karin Karakaşlı
In the second of our queer workshops, we will analyze the text of the section "Ölüm Öpücüğü" from the book by Sibel Kır and Karin Karakaşlı titled "Asiye Kabahat’ten Şarkılar Dinlediniz". We will examine the narrative fragment that shows thresold of leaving a fixed definition of loss, grief, queer desire and love. We will ask different questions to the story that correspondingly treats Antigone's sacred crime and demand for justice with people's confrontation with their secrets and truth, their fear and courage and we will try to have the workshop reproduce and co-produce the text with a reader-centered approach."
* The reading material will be distributed to participants in the workshop.
Click here to register for the "Ölüm Öpücüğü" workshop by Sibel Kır and Karin Karakaşlı.
- Saturday, May 25, 2024 / 13.00-15.30
- Workshop "Surprise stories" with Sevcan Tiftik
"While looking at three texts that we do not know by which author and in which year they were written, we will first try to guess the feelings that the stories trigger in us and then find out by whom they could have been written in which years and periods based on the traces in the text. As we discuss, we will place these stories in the historical course of Turkish literature. Then we will tell each other the stories we learned when they were written, with our associations, ideas, feelings, imaginations and experiences."
Click here to register for the Surprise Stories Workshop with Sevcan Tiftik.
- Tuesday, May 28, 2024 / 19.00-20.15
- Queer Spacelessness
Speakers: Şevval Kılıç, Özlem Şen, Es.
Moderation: Ogulcan Yediveren
"In our meeting titled "Queer Spacelessness", which will be moderated by Oğulcan Yediveren, Es., Özlem Şen and Şevval Kılıç will participate as speakers and will take place together with SPoD (Social Policy, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association), we will talk about the lack of space and the confinement we have experienced in our lives, in civil society, on the street and in the night. At the same time, we will refresh our memory of our current spaces, what kind of ruptures have taken place in the streets, in civil society and in nightlife from the past to the present, how we deal with this change and what coping strategies we have will be put on the table. How does spacelessness dry up our feelings? Are these concepts that translate our experiences of confinement, closedness and spacelessness? "What has changed in our way of being together?"
Click here to register for the Queer Spacelessness event.
- Thursday, May 30, 2024 / 19.00-20.15
- Colorful stand-up!
Comedians: Merve Mingir, Taha Ercoşkun, Yağız Gülseven and Nebiye Arı.
"Kiraathane" is a stand-up event at the Istanbul House of Literature, where you will start the summer with joyful laughter. Merve Mingir, Taha Ercoşkun, Yağız Gülseven and Nebiye Arı, with their different characters and sense of humor, will tell their jokes at the Rengarenk stand-up event on May 30."
Colorful stand-up! Click here to register for the event.
- Saturday, June 1, 2024 / 13:00-15:30
- Queer writing workshop with Aslı Tohumcu
"In the fourth and last of our queer workshops, we will have the experience of creating our own space by doing creative writing exercises with author Aslı Tohumcu based on what we have read in the first three workshops."
Click here to register for the Queer Writing Workshop with Aslı Tohumcu
- Sunday, June 2, 2024 / 19.00-20.15
- Boğaç and “Bizin"
Moderator: Özgün Yeşiltepe
"Boğaç Uzun answered the question "How would you like to be remembered?" as follows: "I want to be remembered as a person who constantly produces something, good or bad, it does not matter" We commemorate Boğaç by watching his 2018 short film "Bizin", which is a short but profound outcry about language, assimilation and expression, about the power of attachment to the mother tongue and the effects of its destruction. It allows us to witness the process in progress. The film says a lot about the feelings it leaves behind. You are invited to share, expand and color these feelings. We are waiting for you."
Click here to attend Boğaç's and “Bizin" event.
*You can also access the calendar of events via the attached PDF document.