Join Satrang for a night of the queer and political history of Mujra through 8-10 numbers by local South Asian drag, burlesque, and cabaret performers, and will have elements of audience participation, such as on-stage dance challenges. Between the drag numbers, Satrang’s leaders will speak to the audience about the ways mujra has been used as a form of resistance against patriarchal oppression, the gender binary, and colonization, from the Mughal era, through British rule, to modern day South Asia and in communities of queer South Asians in Los Angeles and around the world.

A celebration of sensuality, Mujra is a bold and entertaining form of dance originated during the Mughal Era, which incorporated elements of Kathak, one of the nine major forms of Indian classical dance, which in ancient India was performed by travelling bards or kathakar (“storytellers”). Mughal-era Mujra combined the storytelling through hand movements, footwork and facial expressions, with Urdu poetry. Mujra dancers, called tawaifs, were trained not only in dance, but also literature/poetry, music, and Urdu writing. Tawaifs included young women, and members of the “third-gender” Hijra community.

Mujra offered a pathway to social and economic empowerment for women and gender-non-conforming individuals even back then and remains an important part of South Asian Queer and Trans history, and queer South Asian organizations across the world have hosted “Mujra Nights”.