Shobhna S. Kumar

Shobhana S. Kumar, an Indian female entrepreneur, who started India's first online queer (LGBT) bookstore, Queer-ink.com.

Shobhana S.Kumar
Occupation(s)Publisher, Producer
Known forQueer-INK.com
Notable workOut! Stories from the New Queer India
Websitewww.queer-ink.com

Early life

Shobhna Kumar was born and brought up in Fiji. When she was 18, she along with her family left for Australia and spent several years in Sydney before moving to India. Shobhna studied in Sydney and later in the US. She then got in touch with her partner (who was in India) online and decided to move to India.[1][2][3] Kumar moved to India and has been living with her partner in Mumbai ever since.[3]

Career and activism

After moving to India, Shobhna worked for multiple NGOs across states.[4] She has extensively worked in the area of HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention at the grassroots level and brought about changes in the NGO policy.[3] Kumar started India's first online LGBTQIA+ bookstore, Queer-ink.com in 2010.[5] after seeing the dearth of books available on homosexuality back then. She along with her partner invested an amount of Rs 10 lakh, which happen to be their retirement funds, in the bookstore.

Apart from setting up the first queer online book store, she has got many firsts to her name. Shobhna is also the founder of UMANG group for LBT (lesbian, bisexual, trans) women, which is now managed by Humsafar Trust.[6][7][8][9] Shobhna happens to be India's first queer publisher as well. She is a pioneering publisher & producer (films, theatre and events) of exclusively LGBTHQIA+ Indian lives and stories. To address the issues faced by queer people in India, Shobhna has produced multiple short films on same sex love and acceptance - Any Other Day is one of them.[10]

Teaming up with author and writing coach Minal Hajratwala, she published a collection of short stories Out! Stories from The New Queer India, all from Queer India. It had 30 contributing writers, some of whom are Amit Mirchandani, Sandip Roy and Kama Spice. It was stocked in New Arrivals section at Crossword Bookstores along with independent stores.[11]

Queer-ink

After the Supreme Court of India recriminalising same-sex relationships in 2013, Queer-ink needed to rework on their communication strategy.[12] As a result of this, she launched a queer festival QFest, Digital Library have been launched. The store showcases a lot of Indian Queer stories, including, You Are Not Alone by Arun Mirchandani and a number of magazines like Bombay Dost and Swikriti Patrika.[7]

InQueerable Happenings

A platform for queer content and a drama production house, which is an idea of Shobhna S Kumar and Vikram Phukan, a theatre commentator and curator of Short+Salty. It is the probably the only theatre group focused exclusively on queer theatre.[13][14]

On September 6, 2019, the group staged the collection of short plays at The Five Senses Theatre, is a studio theatre in Lokhandwala, Mumbai.[15]

Some of their plays:

Two Soldiers, written and directed by Prajesh Kashyap, Dusha Nandu, and Apeksha Vora

Graduation Day, directed by Lakshvir Singh Saran

Pehli Shaadi, a poem written and performed by Trinetra Tiwari

Kiss Of The Spiderwoman

Best Man’s Kiss

Rapunzel 2.0

References
  1. "Queer Ink | Not just straight talk - Livemint". www.livemint.com. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  2. "The Incredible Story Of Queer Ink".
  3. "Shobhna S Kumar: Meet a female entrepreneur who can't think straight - Firstpost". www.firstpost.com. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  4. "Queer Ink: Of Unconventional Books and Out-Of-Box Stories". iDiva. 19 October 2015. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
  5. "About Us (Queer Ink) | Queer Ink". queer-ink.com. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  6. "Shobhna S Kumar: Meet a female entrepreneur who can't think straight". Retrieved 17 June 2017.
  7. Madhavankutty Pillai (17 July 2010). "Making a Queer Pitch". Open Magazine. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
  8. Arun Janardhan (17 September 2010). "Queer Ink - Not just straight talk". Live Mint. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
  9. Abhishek Mande (2 July 2010). "Now, an online bookstore for everything gay". Rediff. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
  10. "'Not a tomboy, a lesbian or a Hijra but a transman'". openDemocracy. 13 October 2016. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  11. "Out of the closet". The Hindu. Retrieved 17 June 2017.
  12. "Queer Ink: Of Unconventional Books and Out-Of-Box Stories". iDiva.com. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  13. "InQueerable Happenings' Short and Salty plays showcases diverse LGBT experiences". Hindustan Times. 20 September 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
  14. "InQueerAble Happenings' theatre presentation Short+Salty looks at queer lives outside identity politics". Firstpost. 18 September 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
  15. Dattani, Mahesh. "How theatre bade farewell to Section 377". @businessline. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
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