Sunday night at Samanwaya, the ongoing inclusive camp of the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi at Durbar Hall, witnessed an elegant Kuchipudi performance by Plinku, a transgender artiste, who had bagged the first place in Kuchipudi in the State Youth Festivals for four years in a row, competing in the boys’ category.
Later in life, she recognised her real gender identity as a transwoman and is not keen to talk about the accomplishment as a school student. After obtaining a degree in performing arts, with specialisation in Kuchipudi, she is now pursuing a Master’s in Women’s Studies at Calicut University and also trains students for the school youth festival. The camp, she says, is a wonderful opportunity for artistes like her to mainstream themselves.
There are several artists like her, who were giving artistic expression to their imagination for the first time. Sreekutty, president of the Sexual and Gender Minorities Federation, made her first-ever painting, too. “ Despite transgenders being projected on occasions and events as being part of the mainstream, we somehow are left out after the events get over, to fend for ourselves. But we can enjoy the ten days of inclusiveness, where we feel like human beings, and are treated without disdain,” she says.
Migha, from Neyyattinkara, has a crowd gathered around her to see the wonderful painting, resembling an intricate mural, she’s working on.
Renowned filmmaker Shaji N. Karun and artist K.K. Marar visited Samanwaya on Monday.
