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Shamakami was an early organization of South Asian lesbians and bisexual women based in the United States. They published a newsletter of the same name between June 1990 and February 1997.

Founding

According to co-founder Sharmeen Islam, shamakami is a Bengali term meaning "love for your equal or same." Willy Wilkinson describes it as a reclaimed word describing a woman who desires other women, and Monisha Das Gupta describes it as an "excavated indigenous term" meaning "those who desire their equals."

Wrote Islam in A Lotus of Another Color in 1993:

"Shamakami was formed with two visions in mind: the creation of a structured way of networking for South Asian lesbians and the creation of a forum in which we can express our sexuality and feminism in our own cultural context. In 1990, Shamakami had no funds, an initial membership of about 40, and a collective of about nine women. Today the organization provides free circulation of newsletters in South Asia, has a membership of 230, and has an active collective of about twenty women. This year, a woman from Assam, one of the more remote parts of India, connected with two lesbians in different parts of India through Shamakami and thus broke her isolation. In June 1991, a contingent of South Asian lesbians participated in a gay pride parade, marching joyously behind the Shamakami banner during the gay pride festivities at San Francisco."

Newsletter

Shamakami was one of the first South Asian LGBT magazines in the United States, after Anamika and Trikone.

In 1991, Feminist Collections described Shamakami as a "ten-page publication offers news of relevant conferences and resources, poetry, lengthy editorials, and various personal essays." In 1992, Gay Community News described it as a "Forum for South Asian Feminist Lesbians."

The newsletter was published initially in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and later out of San Francisco, California.

Subscriptions cost $10 per year, and were offered for free to subscribers in South Asia.

Issues:

• June 1990: Volume 1
• January 1991: Volume 2, #1
• June 1991: Volume 2, #2
• February 1992: #4
• June 1994: special edition
• November 1994: #7
• February 1997: #9, special edition published by Khuli Zaban

Events and actions

In addition to the newsletter, Shamakami participated in South Asian American organizing. According to Trinity Ordona, there was an in-person group in San Francisco from 1992–1993, which organized meetings, fundraisers, and social events. It also worked with other South Asian LGBTQ organizations, endorsing a 1991 action by the Emergency Coalition to Stop HIV/AIDS in India, and co-sponsoring the 1995 Pride Utsav conference in San Francisco, organized by Trikone.

See also

• Anamika newsletter, 1985-1987
• Trikone magazine
• SamiYoni magazine
• Timeline of South Asian and diasporic LGBT history

References

1. "Magazines and Journals". Orinam.
2. Roy, Sandip (2006). "Desi Queer Datebook". Berkeley South Asian History Archive. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
3. ^ Islam, Sharmeen (1993). "Toward a global network of Asian lesbians". In Ratti, Rakesh (ed.). A lotus of another color: an unfolding of the South Asian gay and lesbian experience. Boston: Alyson Publications, Inc. pp. 41–46. ISBN 1-55583-171-0. OCLC 26855093.
4. Shamakami. OCLC 24646926 – via WorldCat.
5. ^ Ordona, Trinity Ann (2000). Coming Out Together: An Ethnohistory of the Asian and Pacific Islander Queer Women's and Transgendered People's Movement of San Francisco (Thesis). University of California, Santa Cruz. ProQuest 304584929.
6. Wilkinson, Willy (July 2010). Culturally Competent Approaches for Serving Asian and Pacific Islander Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations in California (PDF) (Report). LGBT-TRISTAR. p. 2.
7. Gupta, Monisha Das (2006-10-10). "Subverting Seductions: Queer Organizations". Unruly Immigrants: Rights, Activism, and Transnational South Asian Politics in the United States. Duke University Press. p. 169. ISBN 0-8223-8817-0.
8. ^ "New and Newly Discovered Periodicals" (PDF). Feminist Collections: A Quarterly of Women's Studies Resources. University of Wisconsin Women's Studies Librarian: 32. Summer 1991. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
9. Chan, June (Jan 12, 1992). "Fighting Asian Stereotypes". Gay Community News. 19: 5.
10. "Samachar" (PDF). Rungh. 3 (3): 38. 1995. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
11. "Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Periodicals". Northwestern Libraries. Northwestern University. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
12. Kole, Subir K (2007-07-11). "Globalizing queer? AIDS, homophobia and the politics of sexual identity in India". Globalization and Health. 3: 8. doi:10.1186/1744-8603-3-8. ISSN 1744-8603. PMC 2018684. PMID 17623106.
13. Trikone. "South Asian Gay and Lesbian Resource Listing". Queer Resources Directory.
14. ^ "Shamakami: forum for South Asian feminist lesbians". NUCat. Northwestern University Library. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
15. "khuli zaban - legprints". khuli zaban. Archived from the original on 2014-08-08. Retrieved 2021-03-23. February 1997: khuli zaban publishes a special edition of the Shamakami newsletter, the first internationally distributed publication for South Asian lesbian and bisexual women.
16. "Stop AIDS Coalition Plan Demonstrations". India-West. August 2, 1991. p. 50 – via Ethnic Newswatch.
17. "Pride Utsav '95". India Currents. 9: C10. June 1995 – via ProQuest. South Asian lesbian and gay groups from around the country and Canada are co-sponsoring this conference. They include: Atish (Vancouver), Khush (Toronto), Khush (Washington, DC), MASALA (Boston), Sangat (Chicago), Shamakami (nationwide), SALGA (New York), SALGA (Philadelphia), Trikone (Atlanta), and Trikone (Los Angeles).

• Defunct lesbian-related magazines published in the United States
• Asian-American culture in San Francisco
• Asian-American feminism
• Asian-American magazines
• Feminism in California
• Defunct feminist magazines published in the United States
• Lesbian culture in California
• Lesbian feminist literature
• LGBTQ Asian-American culture
• LGBTQ culture in San Francisco
• Magazines established in 1990
• Magazines disestablished in 1997
• Defunct magazines published in Boston
• Defunct magazines published in San Francisco
• Defunct newsletters published in the United States
• LGBTQ history in Massachusetts
• 1990 establishments in California