ABOUT QUEER CARAVAN

Historically, caravans were vital for trades, migrations, and cultural exchange, traversing vast landscapes and connecting diverse communities. They facilitated the sharing of stories, knowledge and traditions across borders. Similarly, Queer Caravan aims to traverse physical and metaphorical landscapes to foster cross-border connections and promote a sense of community among LGBTQIA+ writers and storytellers from underrepresented communities in India, France and Germany.

Queer Caravan embodies a multifaceted approach to achieving these goals: it seeks to introduce emerging LGBTQIA+ writers from diverse marginalized communities to new and distinct literary-cultural landscapes while facilitating meaningful interactions between these writers and local communities. The program also supports the creation and dissemination of alternative narratives about what it means to be queer and from marginalized communities.

Kadir Özdemir, Germany

Kadir Özdemir is an author, theatre maker, and political educator. After studying Modern History and Sociology, Kadir Özdemir has been working for over 20 years in the fields of migration, participation, intersectionality, and empowerment. He is a founding member of the Postmig Writers Collective, Prisma Queer Migrants e.V., and Migrationserb:innen. In 2022, he served as a writer-in-residence for the Aachen region at the Ludwig Forum for International Art and Heinrich-Böll-Haus. In the same year, he was selected by the Federal Academy for Cultural Education Wolfenbüttel in the field of literature. In 2023, he implemented a literary project on the new peace movement in Japan (Hiroshima and Osaka). He has published in numerous anthologies and contributed columns. Since 2023, he has been the director of the collecting:dreams festival.

Ozan Zakariya Keskinkılıç, Germany

Ozan Zakariya Keskinkılıç (*1989) is a Berlin-based political scientist and award-winning poet. He studied social sciences in Vienna, Berlin, and Cambridge and teaches at Berlin universities. His debut poetry collection, Prinzenbad (2022), earned nominations for the 2024 Heidelberg Clemens Brentano Prize and Dresden Poetry Prize. He will receive 2nd place at the Feldkirch Poetry Prize in Austria. Keskinkılıç’s work, exploring Muslim spirituality, memory, and queer desire, is published in multiple languages and featured in exhibitions at the Grassi Museum Leipzig, Literaturpassage Vienna, and ACUD Gallery Berlin. Known for his non-fiction on migration and anti-Muslim racism, he merges art and academia in a futurist literary journey.

Douce Dibondo, France

Douce Dibondo is an essayist, poet, and performer whose work explores Blackness, queerness, feminism, ancestry, and decoloniality. She challenges the Western worldview, invoking a multidimensional, ever-evolving present through fiction, essays, poetry, and performance. Dibondo has authored two poetry collections, métacures (2022) and infra/seum (2023), and the essay La Charge Raciale, Vertige d’un silence écrasant (2024). She is also the co-founder of Extimité, a podcast that gives voice to multi-minoritized LGBTQ+ individuals, allowing them to share their life stories.

Jamal Ouazzani, France

Jamal is a French-Moroccan Muslim “artivist,” writer, poet, film director, and screenwriter. After a decade in international advertising and reading extensively on gender, race, and feminism, he became a DEI consultant and keynote speaker. With degrees from ESSEC Business School and La Sorbonne, Jamal advocates for human rights, challenging inequalities and discrimination. He created JINS Podcast (500K+ streams, 32K+ listeners), which discusses feminism, love, sexuality, and gender for BIPoC and Muslims. Following a residency at Villa Albertine, he launched the third season of the podcast, focusing on Arab and Muslim representation in media. He is also the author of LOVE, exploring how Islam and Arab cultures can reshape our understanding of love.

Hameeda Syed, India

Poongodi Mathiarasu, India