Theatre artist and a social activist of sorts, D Lo is not perhaps a name that most people would know. But as he puts it, “I’m well-known in pockets of communities.”
Describing himself as queer, “a label not to limit myself, but to define myself in the ambiguity,” D Lo is a Sri Lankan, American born and raised in the States who’s taken to performing arts to raise his voice above the din. In the city as a part of the New Park festival being conducted by the Chennai-based Prakriti Foundation, D Lo gets talking about what it means to be queer.
Raised right
I was born in New York and raised in California. As a child I was like a boy; dressed like one, looked like one. People used to come up to my parents and say, ‘Such a cute son’. In about the 6th grade, someone asked me if I was gay and that’s when I made the conscious effort to be the girl I was born as. I grew my hair, wore more appropriate clothing and so on. It killed me inside, but I did it to pass off. Until that point of time, whatever little I heard of the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender (LGBT) community was only of ignorance and fear.
In retrospect, I realised that though I didn’t think of myself in any term, I knew I was queer. And I use the words queer even now, for the lack of a better term.
Either ways, it was finally in college that I came out and told my parents. I think now, they’re ok with it and this as far as ok they’ll be with it.
Quarter life crisis
When I think of all the other LGBT’s, I think I was privileged to have been able to take my education forward. After college I shifted to New York (NY) because it was too much for my parents. My dad, who was a doctor, despite everything, was still willing to support me and supported my education. So even though I was in NY, I continued my education in UCLA where I studied ethnic musicology. I originally wanted to be a producer, but I started making money with my performances and stuck to that. I knew I had to support myself.
Being D Lo
When I was about 11 years old, I started writing poetry. In a sense, I guess that was my way of expressing myself. I later wrote songs and was into R&B, rap and hip hop. At that point of time, hip hop and rap was more about political expression, racial issues and so on. Over the years though, I’ve moved into theatre and now if you ask me which I prefer, I love both. I love the arts and I still write music. For me, it’s about who I am, who I’ve become that I love telling, through a series of coming out stories. In some audiences the laughs are louder, in some softer. But I tell my story.
I don’t think there are enough people out there talking about this, especially queers. If you look at the few performers, they’re all white. Nobody who can actually tell you about the ‘coloured’ experience. Which is why you’ll find that I’m well-known in pockets — the South Asian community, the LGBT’s, the theatre circle — but not in an all encompassing way. I am not a celebrity.
Same difference
Though LGBT is used as a sweeping term, there is a difference from one to another. While Gay and Lesbian refer to a person’s sexual orientation, as does bisexuality, transgenders and queers are people in transition. All of us are in transition actually, and it isn’t what you finally end up as that ‘labels’ one. Is being ‘not straight’ a mindset? No! If it was, do you think people in India, or anywhere for that matter, would set their mind to that kind of life and ostracism?
Then again I wonder, especially when I look at cross dressers. Is it cross dressing or is it a fetish?
D Lo will perform today at Kismet, The Park at 8 pm.
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