Nila Gupta is an artist, writer and cultural critic, specialising in race, class, gender, disability and performance. They are a working-class British Bengali genderf*cker, bi and trans person of colour, and have multiple complex disabilities. They are also a full-time claimant of disability benefits in the UK, and a survivor. [Image description: Nila Gupta, a South Asian person, looks at the camera in this self-portrait. They have long dyed blonde hair, and are wearing brown glasses. They are wearing a grey jacket, and are sitting inside a bus.] Image by Nila Gupta.
Posts by Nila Gupta

Crazy & Crip QTIBIPOC Conversation
December 19, 2020Nila Gupta talks to Texta Queen about mutual support within a setting for artists who identify as crip and crazy QTIBPoC artists. Disability Arts Online · Me And Texta Final Final Edit Copy Jabtak Hai baaki, seene mein dum Gaaenge ae zaalim, wapas jao jao jao rough translation: we will sing relentlessly go back, go, go Oh ...

Life-Drawing & Body Work
December 7, 2020Nila Gupta discusses their role in developing an equity of relationship within life drawing sessions for queer people of colour within an online environment. “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” (Audre Lorde, A Burst of Light) I started running in-person life drawing ...

Made Possible: Stories of Success by People With Learning Disabilities, in Their Own Words
September 14, 2020‘Made Possible: Stories of Success by People With Learning Disabilities, in Their Own Words' edited by Saba Salman, focusses on the stories of eight individuals including a campaigning councillor, a professional musician, artists, trainers, social care professionals – who are also adults with learning disabilities. Review by Nila Gupta. Saba Salman‘s ...

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century
August 3, 2020In time for the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, activist Alice Wong brings together a collection of personal essays by disabled people that celebrates and documents disability culture in the now. Review by Nila Gupta Trying to summarise a collection like Alice Wong’s Disability Visibility Is daunting. The ...

Speaking Truth to Power: The Colour of Madness, A Lit and Art Anthology of BAME Mental Health
April 10, 2020After a wide call-out for submissions, co-editors Dr. Samara Linton and Rianna Walcott selected art, poetry, short fiction, memoirs and essays by over 50 people from racialised backgrounds. In 2018, the result was The Colour of Madness: Exploring BAME Mental Health in the UK. This varied and full-colour anthology 'seeks ...