From 3-7 March 2025, the ASEAN SOGIE Caucus (ASC)’s Southeast Asia Queer Cultural Festival (SEAQCF) collaborated with New Naratif to host a series of roundtable discussions—an online space designed for queer artists, cultural workers, and community organizers across Southeast Asia to connect, share their practices, and discuss common challenges. Bringing together practitioners from diverse artistic, cultural, and community-organizing backgrounds, these discussions explored the role of art in activism and its possibilities in creating and maintaining safe space, the landscape of queer literature and publishing, the redefinition of queer aesthetics, film production in the region, and the complexities of organizing Pride events. While each roundtable session focused on a specific area of creative and cultural work, several recurring themes emerged across discussions.
Community Organizers and Publications: Creating and Maintaining Safe Spaces
Queer Literature: Navigating Literary Spaces and Publications
Fine Arts and Performances: Understanding Queer Aesthetic
Screening Queerness: Cinema, Censorship, and Cultural Advocacy
Online Roundtable Series | Southeast Asia Prides: Spaces of Queer Joy and Activism