Swindon Poet visits Kalam

Tony Hillier, a community poet, came to be with Kalam for about a week, from the 18^th to the 26^th of February, all the way from Swindon, UK. He has been to India eight times in the last four decades. He has spent his time working with difficult-to-reach people, both young and old, in shelter homes and on the streets, in hospitals and in rehab homes. He is 57 years old, brimful of ideas and energy, extremely attuned to poetic nuances hidden in the folds of ordinary conversations. Find out more about him on his blog.

In mid January, he had written to us on our blog, and dropped in once at our Poddarnagar office. He liked Kalam’s energy so much that he flew back again to spend creative time here. He was accompanied by his friend Shahid. Shahid divides his time between Kolkata (with his family’s food business in the New Market area) and the UK (where he helps his sister and brother-in-law with their business in Indian food).

After conversations about poetry, youth and social change over cups of tea at our office, Tony and Shahid accompanied us to our 4^th session of Writing Out with Vikramshila. We had asked Tony if he could share some of his personal ideas about poetry-making with the youngsters. Tony opened his mammoth jhola and took out small packets of breakfast cereals which he had got from home. He asked the young people to first rattle them and explore what they sounded like to them. Did it rattle like a rattlesnake? Or a jewellery box? After this, they were asked to slowly examine the packets, to open them and, if they dared, to taste the contents. Being a poet and performer, he had them enthralled and tickled. The young people went on to name the cereals according to their fancy – Coco chips became chocolate muri and cornflakes became jhupri papor. They pored over their notebooks in solid red, yellow, green and black, and wrote about their experiences with the cereals, using the five senses of sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. Tony called the workshop space a “magic caravan” where amazing creativity was happening. He went on to do a collaborative poem with the kids on the blackboard, asking them to come up with their favorite English, Bangla and Hindi alphabets and words. The poem created thus did not mean much but was fun to do, and sounded interesting. Tony said that poetry does not always have to mean anything, it just is.

Tony has plans of coming back to Calcutta in November, with a group of poets from his circle. Programmes including poetry conversations on a boat ride on the Hoogly river and a trip to Santiniketan to explore poetic identities and mergings are in the pipeline.

posted by Urbi Bhaduri

New series of Writing Out with Vikramshila

Kalam has started a new series of Writing Out workshops with twelve young people of Vikramshila’s Nabodisha programme. Our sessions will happen henceforth at theVikramshila (VRS) centre opposite Lake Thana, Dhakuria, every Wednesday, 6-8 pm.

After our work with Durbar did not work out after the first couple of sessions, we went on to form a partnership with VRS. These youngsters, aged 12-16 years, had already been part of a programme with VRS in which they had explored things like self, roots/places of origin and personal neighbourhooods through writing. VRS wanted us to hone their craft and imagination more.

The first workshop happened on 16th January, 2008. It started off rather late as about six of them were coming in from Watgunj. But after half an hour’s delay, all of us were comfortably seated on a mat on the floor, with several tired, but eager faces around.

The first poetic attempt — a collaborative poem about “Rain”, most fertile of topics, follows.

Rain means –
A cloud-covered sky,
The joy of farmers.
Rain means children playing football,
Rain means downed shutters on the bus.
A pond filled with water,
Rain means the croak of a frog.
Small saplings budding,
Rain means walking with a raincoat on.

And one on “Night” –

Night means –
The cry of a jackal.
Seeing the night sky, the wish to write a story.
Night means being afraid,
And studying in the yellow light of a lamp.
Night means hanging out with friends in an open field,
Night means enjoying yourself in the midst of crowds on a Durga puja day.
Night means starting to dream.
Night means returning home,
And the twinkling of burning stars.

Re-Writing Bow Bazaar

Its been seven weeks since Neighbourhood Diaries started its work in Bow Bazaar, a popularly known ’slum’ and ‘red-light area’ in Central Calcutta. Through the weekly workshops faciliated by staff Urbi Bhaduri and Bina Dalui,  youth journalists from Bow Bazaar have written about neighbourhood landmarks, homes, community personalties, and thriving industries of their locale. These young teenagers, armed with writing pads and ‘Para Journalist’ I.D. cards, are asserting their identity as researchers and storytellers of their neighborhood and community to re-write Bow Bazaar as a multi-faceted neighbourhood.

To follow the weekly writing and photography by these young writers, visit our Neighbourhood Diaries blog.  Furthermore, for more context on Neighbourhood Diaries in context to other citizen media projects around the world, check out updates and features on Diaries by Rising Voices.

Youth journalists engage in conversation at one of the Diaires workshops at Bow Bazaar Highschool.

Neighbourhood Diaires Begins in Bow Bazaar

Neighbourhood Diairies - Kalam’s pilot citizen journalism program – started its 15-week workshop series this month.  This pilot program is underway with youth from Sanlaap in Bow Bazaar neighbourhood. Twelve young residents of Bow Bazaar ranging from the ages 14 to 18 meet every Monday at Bow Bazaar Highschool (rented out by Sanlaap as an evening community center) for a 2 hour workshop where neighborhood stories and culture are examined, discussed, and written by the young. 

 

In the coming weeks, we’ll continue to work in and through the neighbourhood as local journalists interviewing residents, observing and recording events, and listening and telling community stories. For weekly updates on Neighbourhood Diaries Bow Bazaar, visit our Diaries blog. Here you’ll find session plans, session assessments, workshop photographs, and writings from Diary Journalists.

Neigbourhood Diaires is a citizen writing program moblising young people living in ’slums’ as citizen journalists to research, write and disseminate unrecognized and authentic community narratives in local and global media.  It is being funded by Rising Voices, the outreach wing of Global Voices.

posted by Sahar Romani

Winter Series: ‘Writing Out’ Poetry Workshops with Durbar

This October marked the beginning of the Winter Series of – ‘Writing Out’ – 20 poetry writing workshops exploring issues of identity, community and the world. This season we are doing ‘Writing Out’ with Durbar (also known as Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee), an organization based in Sonagachhi working for the recognition of sex work as Work and for protecting the rights of sex –workers.

For next coming months, my colleague Nargis and I will be facilitating Writing Out poetry workshops with 12 youth participants of Durbar’s youth wing — Padatik — at the Durbar open-air rooftop. We hope to work with their youth towards shared creative and intellectual empowerment.

We facilitated the first session of Writing Out Session recently, and the feedback from the young people was very encouraging! Along with it being a ‘fun’ experience, they shared how, expressing themselves in different ways again was nourishing process. The young participants visibly became more relaxed, spontaneous, and engaged as the session progressed. See below for a collaborative poem written by participants during Session 1.

The coming weeks will involve collective and individual thinking about and writing on the self, the community and spiraling out into the world. This Saturday we return to Durbar’s rooftop for Session 2 with colorful Writer’s Notebooks for each Poet Participant, in shades of solid red, blue, yellow and black. Lets see if we can fill our notebooks with ideas, images, and reflections as folks who are young and in the margin pulsing with creativity.

A translation of the collaborative poem ‘Rain’ written by participants. Originally written in Bangla.

RAIN

Misty blue outside the window,
Rain means listening to Rabindrasangeet with the person I’m closest to.
Rain means playing football with friends where the rainbow rises.
Mud-covered shoes, Rain means getting wet.

The swaying of unripe paddy stalks, the joy of farmers.
Rain means going fishing,
And walking with an umbrella.
Rain means listening to stories at home.

posted by Urbi Bhaduri

Our New Office

Kalam: Margins Write moved to a new office space in October.
Come drop by! Meet us, read a poem and have some chai!

1/2a Poddar Nagar
P.O. Jodhpur Park
Kolkata 700 068

The new office sign board before mounting.

Our new office! (Special thanks to volunteer Darcy Courteau for her paint suggestions!)

Our library and workshop space.

Lounge cum Kitchen. Our staff having some chai.

posted by Sahar Romani

Yes, We are Independent!

Celebrating with Chai outside the West Bengal Registration Office.
(Bishan, Harleen, Sahar, Rohini, and Maitrayee)

This week, ‘Kalam: Margins Write’ was registered as a Trust in India. Yes, we are now officially an independent literary arts organization recognized by the Indian Government. We’re new, we’re small and we’re brave.

On Thursday, September 20th, 2007, Kalam’s three trustees — Bishan Samaddar, Rohini Banerjee, and Harleen Walia — went to the West Bengal Registration Office in Dalhousie to register Kalam as a Trust. I, Sahar, (the American citizen who cannot officially be a Trustee) was a Witness. And Maitrayee Trivedi, a warm human being and sharp lawyer, was our advocate.

In the matter of an hour — after multiple finger prints, numerous signatures, and foot movement from one bustling office to the other — we were officially granted status as a Trust in India.

This is big news for us. We’ve evolved slowly and steadily since our beginnings in early 2004. Starting as an experimental project, evolving into a creative writing program within the Daywalka Foundation, we’ve now grown into an independent organization committed to bringing the literary arts to youth living on the India’s urban margins.

We would never make it here without the gracious support of the Daywalka Foundation. They were an excellent parent organization where Kalam fostered its ideas, pedagogy and practice for three years. And along with the Daywalka Foundation, Kalam’s friends and allies in Calcutta, Delhi, Seattle and Tempe nourished us with great support.

A deep thank you to all of you. We hope to keep growing with your on-going support.

posted by Sahar Romani

Meet our Thinkers, Meet our Practitioners

Bina, Joy, and Nargis.

Once upon a time, these three individuals were participants and poets in Kalam. Three years later, they are the poets and staff running Kalam.

Today I met with my three colleagues for a meeting to set off the ground work for the second annual issue of Khola Baksho, Kalam’s Literary Art magazine. As vagabonds without an office, we held our meeting in various spots in south Kolkata – hopping from a chai stall to Dolly’s tea house and finally landing in a little eatery for a lunch of vegetable chowmein.

The agenda? Khola Baksho’s politics as a magazine for/from/within the margins. How do we balance our goal to be a platform for the voices in the margins and for the arts? Are our concerns about ensuring equal representation of the diverse voices thriving in Calcutta’s urban slums, corporation schools, and NGO drop-in-centers? Or are we prioritizing Good Writing and Art emerging from the margins regardless of community-specifics? As a literary arts outreach organization running a publication we want to maintain integrity around both Outreach and Art. How do we do that and how do we share our values with the greater communities we work with?

The discussion was reflective, critical, lively and grounded in lived experiences and practices – as participants and as facilitators. Each of my colleagues was argumentative, perceptive, open, and critically conscious.

And this is nothing new. Bina, Nargis, Joy — as well as some youth interns who were once participants and our now colleagues — offer insight into the challenges and possibilities of practicing art outreach in Calcutta’s marginalized communities that most ‘trained’ and ‘certified’ educators and social workers, like myself, are intellectually and practically impaired to. But it  isn’t just simply my colleagues’ positionalities as young people working in and for their own communities that fosters such acute insight. It is their personal capacity to continuously push their own thinking, to openly collaborate, and to trust their intuition that nurtures such refreshingly genuine, grounded, radical thinking and practice.

Even though I’ve been working with my colleagues through Kalam in various capacities for three years now, I keep learning new ways to think and practice art, outreach, and alternative education in the grassroots. And today’s meeting, reminds me that I’m still learning and will keep learning. Today’s meeting reminds me that I have a fabulous team of thinkers and practitioners to learn with, to grow with.

posted by Sahar Romani

In Transition

Kalam is going through growing pains of sort. We’re growing – we’re transforming – we’re consolidating – we’re expanding – we’re changing.

First – we’re moving beyond The Daywalka Foundation. After being a housed in DF – an international non-governmental human rights organization – we’re moving out into the world on our own as an independent, local Indian organizations. At an administrative level, this means undergoing the bureaucratic legalities of registration . So, we’re talking to a lawyers (Maiytree and Dhiraj – good friends of Kalam), writing our by laws and drafting our Trust Deed. This also means we’re looking for new office space. Another friend of Kalam’s – Ujjal-da (who I never knew was a real estate broker) is taking me along his motor bike on rainy monsoon afternoons to inspect potential office spaces.

Second – our staff is also evolving. Bishan – our full time Program Coordinator since 2004 – has moved onto Seagull Foundation for the Arts. Of course despite his official departure from Kalam’s field, he’s still with us as a Trustee and as a Creative Advisor. Along with Bishan’s evolution in Kalam, there is another significant internal progression.: former participant and youth staff of Kalam – Nargis Khatun – will be joining us full time as our new Program Assistant. Her experience as a former participant and as a Youth Social Worker will be fruitful addition to Kalam’s work. And as for me – Sahar – I’m going to be here on the grounds with Kalam through the next couple of months going through Transition Times and then will eventually return to Seattle for my very intimate, long distance relationship.

Of course, despite these gentle and significant transitions – our work carries on: Footpath Poetry is making its presence in 10 different tea stalls along the city, as well as public walls and boards throughout the streets. Second Sunday – our casual youth poetry hang-outs is growing with participants, and conversations with new partner NGOs are underway for a fall series of Writing Out workshops.

We’re growing, changing, twisting, turning, moving, and working.

posted by Sahar Romani 

‘Rising Voices’ Micro-Grant

Good news this morning.

Neighbourhood Diaires – Kalam’s pilot, citizen journalism program – is going to manifest this year.

Rising Voices, the outreach arm of Global Voices, awarded Kalam a micro-grant to begin Neighborhood Diaries in two urban slums of the city. Now with the support of this grant (a big big thank you to Aparna Ray and David Sasaki), Neigbourhood Diaries will begin shop in October 2007, mobilizing youth residents in two neighbourhoods (or what seem like urban slums to the outsider) as researchers, writers, photographers and bloggers in and of their own neighbourhood.

Through workshops on critical thinking, journalistic writing, audio-visual media, we hope to ignite youth residents to start thinking about their personal and community stories, issues, and histories, as an integral and vibrant part of the socio-cultural fabric of urban India. And to start writing about them. And blogging about them. Because writing and blogging from the grassroots is a way to disseminate authentic and unrecognized community narratives in global media.

Sounds ambitious?

We think its a small step. And a necessary one. And we’re ready to take it. Grounded and guided (and kept in check) with the communities we work in, we know we are ready.

posted by Sahar Romani