The Queer Gaze curated by: Nioosha Shams

Läs mer om Oceanens litterära programserie "The Queer Gaze" här. 

In 2024, The Queer Gaze program series continues with invited curators from across the Nordic region. The year begins on Valentine's Day with an evening in the spirit of queer love curated by Sweden's reading ambassador Nioosha Shams.

Welcome to an evening where we ask where the line is between platonic and romantic love. Why is it so common among queers to become lovers with their friends or friends with their lovers? What do you do with the pain of unrequited love and how do you learn to read strangers' signals when you are new to the queer community?

There will be readings by students from the writing course Your Silence Will Not Protect You and live music by Sebastian Ljung. Later in the evening we'll have an exploratory conversation about the transgressive nature of queer love between Nioosha Shams and Josephine Frans, a sexual politics journalist and incurably curious storyteller who dreams of creating and exploring freely.

The evening ends with speed dating by Layers of Creativity and a pub for the shy or already taken who still want to mingle. More info about the speed dating to come on our social media accounts @oceanengbg.

Nioosha Shams is a poet, author and writer for Aftonbladet Kultur. She was educated at the Biskops-Arnö Writers' School. In 2020 she debuted with the youth novel "Om det regnar i Ahvaz" on Bonnier Carlsen and in early 2024 the poetry collection "Teshne" will be published by Nirstedt/litteratur. Since 2022, Shams is Sweden's reading ambassador where she focuses on youth literature, multilingualism and mother tongue.

Jospehine Frans is a sexual politics writer and journalist who explores and is interested in human behavior and nature, society and culture. Her strong desire to get close to people's inner selves means that she is not afraid to ask sensitive questions, to show through her work that we are not so different or alone after all. Josephine's poems, which rarely see the light of day, are all too often about all the people she has met who have touched her heart, and often broken it.

Sebastian Ljung is a musician and songwriter from Stockholm who now lives in Gothenburg. He is educated at Biskops-Arnö's songwriting program and released his first EP "1" in 2021 under the artist name Ljungen. Text is prominent in his songs and he also works with composing poems and other texts. Among others the song "Fyll mina sprickor med guld" is a composition of fragments from Yolanda Bohm's poetry collection "Ikon". His songs are available on Soundcloud, Spotify and in the Rosa Brus archive.

Your Silence Will Not Protect You is a writing course that focuses on fiction writing and is based on writing as a way of being in dialog with each other, the world and ourselves. The course takes its name from author and activist Audre Lorde's speech "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action".

Layers of Creativity is a platform that highlights women, non-binary & BIPOC creators through events, workshops and creative database.

The Queer Gaze is organized with the support of  Kulturrådet, Ideell Kulturallians, Svenska Akademien and ABF-Göteborg.

On-stage talks and speed dating are primarily held in Swedish.

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Accessibility

The Cultural Center Oceanen is a Q-marked culturally historical building, which is challenging when it comes to accessibility. We do our best to have as many people as possible visit us. When visiting us with mobility aids the best-suited entrance is through the stage. This entrance is accessed via Gathenhielmska trädgården. The entrance is locked, please email us the day before your visit or the latest Friday at 16:00 if you are visiting us during the weekend. We have a wheelchair-accessible bathroom. Please note that flashing lights may occur during concerts and events. For questions regarding accessibility email Mia Herman at mia@oceanen.com.