Trans Superheroes and Gender Jeopardy! Creative Approaches to Understanding Trans Lives in Indonesia
- Date: Tuesday 12 March 2024, 10:00 – 12:00
- Location: School of Geography
- Cost: Free
An (early) event to mark International Transgender Day of Visibility, sponsored by the LGBTQ+ Students’ Group of the School of Geography, University of Leeds.
This event will explore creative ways to disseminate knowledge about the lives and experiences of transgender people in Indonesia.
It will focus on two key outputs from the GENERATE (Gender, Generation and Climate Change: Creative Approaches to Building Inclusive and Climate Resilient Cities in Uganda and Indonesia) project based at the University of Leeds: the comic Trans Superheroes and the board game Gender Jeopardy: A Game of Trans Resilience.
Dr Desy Pirmasari will lead a discussion involving key participants in the collaborative process through which these outputs were produced.
Participants will include members of Sanggar Seroja (a collective of transgender women based in Jakarta) as well as the illustrator of Trans Superheroes. There will be time reserved for questions and discussion.
The first portion of the event (10:00-10:50 AM UK time) will take place online and is open to interested members of the public.
The second portion (11:00-12:-00) will involve an interactive session of Gender Jeopardy! open to students and staff at the University of Leeds. This will take place in the School of Geography.
Simultaneous translation will be provided between English and Bahasa Indonesia.
Find out more about the GENERATE project’s comic and board game.
About the speakers
Rikky MF (Coordinator of Sanggar Seroja)
Rikky MF is an activist and Video Journalist. He was born Jakarta and studied Communication, majoring in Broadcasting. In 2009 Rikky began developing alternative media that focuses on issues of gender and sexuality diversity. Rikky has produced hundreds of short videos and several short films, one of which is the film Emak Dari Jambi which received the best documentary award at the Salaya Film Festival, Thailand and the Freedom Film Festival, Malaysia.
Since 2016, Rikky has been coordinator of the Sanggar Seroja arts community, some of whose members are waria/transwomen. Sanggar Seroja produces theater works, monologues, music and videos that speak to issues of equality, the environment, human rights and diversity. Sanggar Seroja is also collecting emergency funds to help dozens of transgender people in Kampung Duri who are facing a crisis.
Mama Atha (Co-Founder of Sanggar Seroja)
Sarta or known as Mama Atha is a mother, artist and salon business owner in Jakarta. They started art training in 1980 at the dance and lenong community in West Jakarta. Mama Atha also won the theatre award for best actor. In 2011 Mama Atha staged the play Ruang Rias, a theatre performance in which all the actors were waria/transwomen. Mama Atha is the co-founder of Sanggar Seroja.
Leka Putra: Trans Superheroes comic illustrator
Leka Putra is a painter and illustrator based in Jakarta. Born in Sanggau, Kalimantan, he graduated from Master of Business Management, Bandung Institute of Technology.
Even though his educational background focuses on business, Leka has had an interest in fine arts since childhood. Leka's seriousness in the world of illustration and painting began as a sideline to his daily work as an office employee. In 2018, Leka decided to quit his office job and focus on being a painter.
Currently, Leka spends a lot of time working on paintings on bags, and creating personal works and illustrations for social activities in his free time. In his personal work, Leka is interested in the social construction of gender and its role in society.