Shamakami

Last updated
Shamakami
PublisherShamakami Collective
First issueJune 1990 (1990-06)
Final issueFebruary 1997 (1997-02)
Country United States
Based in San Francisco
LanguageEnglish
ISSN 1084-2446
OCLC 24646926

Shamakami was an early organization of South Asian lesbians and bisexual women based in the United States. [1] [2] They published a newsletter of the same name between June 1990 and February 1997. [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Founding

According to co-founder Sharmeen Islam, shamakami is a Bengali term meaning "love for your equal or same." [3] Willy Wilkinson describes it as a reclaimed word describing a woman who desires other women, [6] and Monisha Das Gupta describes it as an "excavated indigenous term" meaning "those who desire their equals." [7]

Wrote Islam in A Lotus of Another Color in 1993:

"Shamakami was formed with two visions in mind: the creation of a structured way of networking for South Asian lesbians and the creation of a forum in which we can express our sexuality and feminism in our own cultural context. In 1990, Shamakami had no funds, an initial membership of about 40, and a collective of about nine women. Today the organization provides free circulation of newsletters in South Asia, has a membership of 230, and has an active collective of about twenty women. This year, a woman from Assam, one of the more remote parts of India, connected with two lesbians in different parts of India through Shamakami and thus broke her isolation. In June 1991, a contingent of South Asian lesbians participated in a gay pride parade, marching joyously behind the Shamakami banner during the gay pride festivities at San Francisco." [3]

Newsletter

Shamakami was one of the first South Asian LGBT magazines in the United States, after Anamika and Trikone .

In 1991, Feminist Collections described Shamakami as a "ten-page publication [which] offers news of relevant conferences and resources, poetry, lengthy editorials, and various personal essays." [8] In 1992, Gay Community News described it as a "Forum for South Asian Feminist Lesbians." [5] [9]

The newsletter was published initially in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and later out of San Francisco, California. [5] [8] [10] [11] [12]

Subscriptions cost $10 per year, [13] and were offered for free to subscribers in South Asia. [3]

Issues:

Events and actions

In addition to the newsletter, Shamakami participated in South Asian American organizing. According to Trinity Ordona, there was an in-person group in San Francisco from 1992–1993, which organized meetings, fundraisers, and social events. [5] It also worked with other South Asian LGBTQ organizations, endorsing a 1991 action by the Emergency Coalition to Stop HIV/AIDS in India, [16] and co-sponsoring the 1995 Pride Utsav conference in San Francisco, organized by Trikone. [17]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Magazines and Journals". Orinam.
  2. ↑ Roy, Sandip (2006). "Desi Queer Datebook". Berkeley South Asian History Archive. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Islam, Sharmeen (1993). "Toward a global network of Asian lesbians". In Ratti, Rakesh (ed.). A lotus of another color: an unfolding of the South Asian gay and lesbian experience. Boston: Alyson Publications, Inc. pp. 41–46. ISBN   1-55583-171-0. OCLC   26855093.
  4. ↑ Shamakami. OCLC   24646926 – via WorldCat.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Ordona, Trinity Ann (2000). Coming Out Together: An Ethnohistory of the Asian and Pacific Islander Queer Women's and Transgendered People's Movement of San Francisco (Thesis). University of California, Santa Cruz. ProQuest   304584929.
  6. ↑ Wilkinson, Willy (July 2010). Culturally Competent Approaches for Serving Asian and Pacific Islander Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations in California (PDF) (Report). LGBT-TRISTAR. p. 2.
  7. ↑ Gupta, Monisha Das (2006-10-10). "Subverting Seductions: Queer Organizations". Unruly Immigrants: Rights, Activism, and Transnational South Asian Politics in the United States. Duke University Press. p. 169. ISBN   0-8223-8817-0.
  8. 1 2 "New and Newly Discovered Periodicals" (PDF). Feminist Collections: A Quarterly of Women's Studies Resources. University of Wisconsin Women's Studies Librarian: 32. Summer 1991. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
  9. ↑ Chan, June (Jan 12, 1992). "Fighting Asian Stereotypes". Gay Community News . 19: 5.
  10. ↑ "Samachar" (PDF). Rungh. 3 (3): 38. 1995. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  11. ↑ "Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Periodicals". Northwestern Libraries. Northwestern University. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
  12. ↑ Kole, Subir K (2007-07-11). "Globalizing queer? AIDS, homophobia and the politics of sexual identity in India". Globalization and Health. 3: 8. doi: 10.1186/1744-8603-3-8 . ISSN   1744-8603. PMC   2018684 . PMID   17623106.
  13. ↑ Trikone. "South Asian Gay and Lesbian Resource Listing". Queer Resources Directory.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Shamakami: forum for South Asian feminist lesbians". NUCat. Northwestern University Library. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
  15. ↑ "khuli zaban - legprints". khuli zaban. Archived from the original on 2014-08-08. Retrieved 2021-03-23. February 1997: khuli zaban publishes a special edition of the Shamakami newsletter, the first internationally distributed publication for South Asian lesbian and bisexual women.
  16. ↑ "Stop AIDS Coalition Plan Demonstrations". India-West . August 2, 1991. p. 50 – via Ethnic Newswatch.
  17. ↑ "Pride Utsav '95". India Currents . 9: C10. June 1995 – via ProQuest. South Asian lesbian and gay groups from around the country and Canada are co-sponsoring this conference. They include: Atish (Vancouver), Khush (Toronto), Khush (Washington, DC), MASALA (Boston), Sangat (Chicago), Shamakami (nationwide), SALGA (New York), SALGA (Philadelphia), Trikone (Atlanta), and Trikone (Los Angeles).
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