On June 10, Albuquerque bookshop book works hosted a talk with artist Raja Gopal Bhattar on their latest book “Queering Constellations,”a collection of poetry, prose, coloring pages and interactive activities.
Bhattar is a Gender-Queer organizer, speaker and author originally from India. According to their website, they are currently Program Manager for the Social Justice and Career Advancement Academy for Association of California Community College Administrators.
Bhattar said that “Queering Constellations” is meant to be a conversation. The book is meant to be explored in any order, creating a unique experience for each reader.
Bhattar chose the title “Queering Constellations” because they wanted an “active title” so that the reader is active during the procces of reading and “becoming” the book. The title of the book also honors humanity’s fixation with stars, as well as Bhattar’s personal love of the stars, they said.
“People have been confused. People have been like ‘I don’t know how to read this book’ and I’m like, ‘That’s good!’ I want you to be uncomfortable. Discomfort is actually a healthy sign that we’re changing and growing,” Bhattar said.
Bhattar said they wanted to break away from the traditional conventions and structure of memoir, “I don’t do boring. I wanted to do something more interesting. I wanted to Queer what a memoir can look like.”
“We’ve been fascinated with stars for the entire existence of humanity; it’s been part of our lives,” they said. “And yet we also know there are billions of stars in the sky — that we know we can see at night, and yet only certain stars do we value. We say, ‘These stars are this constellation.’ And I think about story telling the same way — we get to elevate the stories that are meaningful to us and shed the stories that don’t serve us anymore.”
The book talk featured reading passages from the book, a Q-and-A session anda collaborative moment where Bhattar encouraged audiences to write their own poem inspired by one of the poems in the collection using provided pen and paper.
“Every event I’ve done, different stories come out and people react to it differently,” Bhattar said.
It was November, 2024 when Bhattar said they knew it was time for the book to be published, finally releasing it in February, 2025.
“There’s always been resistance to progress in the world, and we have been — as a community — determined and demonstrated by our resilience,” Bhattar said, as a message to the Queer community. “Resilience is a core of what it means to be Queer in the world. And we are stronger than any challenge that is out there … and if we do things with love and joy, it’s never wrong.”
Bookworks will be hosting more events, including a reading of “The Lilac People” by Milo Todd, on July 17.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Addison Fulton is the culture editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
