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2004/2005/2006
Poems
for Peace
Resist. Reflect. Protest. Express. Question. Ignite. Remember.
Write
In response to our call for entries for Poems for Peace last
year, we received a huge number of excellent entries from
all over India and Pakistan and also a few from the United
States of America. We have had a very hard time choosing a
few from them but have finally selected 100 Poems for Peace
for our anthology. Three judges, the well known writers Ruchir
Joshi and Amit Chaudhuri and Dr. Sanjukta Dasgupta , professor,
writer and poet have chosen their favourite poems . These
poems feature in a special section of the anthology entitled
“Judges' Choice”.
Schoolchildren in India have also contributed drawings on
Peace . Some of these drawings illustrate this anthology -
One Hundred Poems for Peace.
PeaceWorks
in Darjeeling
Workshop
for teachers on “Reading Text” Conducted by Minu Tharoor,
Professor, New York University On July 23rd 2005 at the Seagull
Arts and Media Resource Centre
Peacewards
Ensemble theatre using 5 monologues by Manjula Padmanabhan
directed by Jayant Kripalani, featuring the rock band Insomnia
was presented at G.D.Birla Sabhagar in collaboration with
Sanskriti Sagar. It was the outcome of the ten-day actors
workshop conducted by Jayant Kripalani with young people at
the Seagull Arts and Media Resource Centre. The group worked
on developing the performance with inputs from the band insomnia
who provided original songs and lyrics. A PeaceWorks book
entitled Hidden Fires-Monologues by Manjula Padmanabhan
was released on the occasion of the performances.
PeaceWorks
hosted the Jana Natya Manch to perform their play Bolo Kya
Banoge Tum for schoolchildren in Calcutta. A brief report...
Peace
trip to Pakistan
Postcards
to the president
Spearheaded by activist-writer Mahasweta Devi and Tushar Talukdar
(ex-police commissioner, Calcutta) 3000 postcards were printed,
stamped and distributed by Seagull for signatures by concerned
individuals. The All India Muslim Student’s Federation reprinted
3000 more such postcards as part of the same effort. The postcards
were offered to anybody wishing to take forward this campaign
both in English and Bengali.
Exhibitions
The Seagull Arts and Media Resource Centre, has organized
several exhibitions which have been related to the issues
of peace and coexistence. Among these were
‘Pradeep –The Photographic Travel Exhibition’ showcasing
the work of Pradeep Bhatia, the photojournalist killed in
a Srinagar terrorist attack, in collaboration with The Little
Magazine and The Pradeep Bhatia Memorial Trust.
‘A 100 flowers’ - the outcome of an inter-school
poster design competition on the theme of peaceful coexistence.
This exhibition was in collaboration with The Teacher’s Centre
and Max Mueller Bhavan and was supported by Intel Asia Electronics,
Inc.
‘Borders
and Beyond’, a photographic exhibition showcasing
ten reports by photographers from several countries and continents
presenting deeply moving images of people and borders, of
infringement, expulsion and discrimination.
STQ:
a cannibal time (Issue
32/33)
A special issue responding to the communalization of culture.
The contents include the texts of talks given at a JANAM sponsored
national theatre activists meet by Aijaz Ahmed, Malini Bhattacharya,
Brinda Karat, interviews with Habib Tanvir, G. P. Deshpande,
H. S. Shivaprakash, an extract from the play ‘Tiger’ by Sisir
Kumar Das, and interviews with street theatre activists from
all over the country.
Workshops
The PeaceWorks workshops have been conducted around diverse
issues and have included debating workshops for schools, understanding
media, orientation workshops, film and theatre related workshops,
and a banners for peace workshop. Resource people have included
well-known personalities like Anand Patwardhan, Jayant Kripalani
and academics and professionals like Tom Lai, Dr Radharani
Ray, and Sumit Roy. Workshops have also been organized for
teachers both in formal schools and non-formal organizations.
These have ranged from teacher training workshops to activity
based workshops.
Films
screenings
PeaceWorks has a collection of important films on related
issues which range from documentaries and short films made
by both well known filmmakers as well as efforts by independent
filmmakers. These films are offered to organizations and institutions
on loan to screen at their premises. The films are also being
taken to schools and are offered as a complete package where
a film is screened and a resource person carries forward discussions
which arise from that. The films include classics like Alain
Resnais’ ‘Night And Fog’, Jiri Trnka’s “Hand’, films by Anand
Patwardhan, Lalit Vachani’s ‘Men in the Tree’, Gauhar Raza’s
‘In Dark Times’, Gopal Menon’s ‘Hey Ram!! Genocide in the
land of Gandhi’ and many others.
Theatre
events
Theatre events have included workshops and performances involving
both volunteers and the schools programme. An actors' workshop
conducted by Jayant Kripalani developed into a complete performance
entitled ‘Peacewards’ which was performed for audiences in
Calcutta at the G. D. Birla Sabhagar. This performance based
on the dramatic monologues by Manjula Padmanabhan and were
taken to schools and presented in different forums including
at the Karachi High school in Pakistan. The workshop for non-formal
schools included a session for children conducted by members
of Sukchar Pancham Repertory Theatre.
The
school programme
This includes sessions organized for groups of 50-200 students
at a time. The programmes have included lectures by resource
people from various fields, film screenings with interactive
discussions, theatre workshops and presentations and activity-based
programmes. The schools have included both Bengali and English
medium schools across Calcutta.
Workshops
for non-formal schoolteachers
A series of four workshops to reinforce the concepts of unity
in diversity in teachers and children in non-formal schools.
The workshops have been conducted with both teachers and students
in ten NGOs working in the field of non-formal education and
have been conducted by resource people like Mrs. Uma Ahmed
(educationist), and the Sukchar Pancham Repertory Theatre
group. |
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2007
Stories
for Peace
Students from India and Pakistan were invited
to submit original short stories which explore the theme of
peace. A board of judges, comprising writers, academics and
literateurs selected the 20 best entries
to be published in a ‘Stories for Peace’ anthology
by Seagull Books, Calcutta.
Kites
for Peace
A PeaceWorks Cross-Border Event
“Kites for Peace”, a project conceived noting
the current state of mistrust and suspicion between two nations,
India and Pakistan, was launched in January 2007 at the International
Schools Educational Olympiad organised by the Karachi High
School held in Karachi, Pakistan. The idea was to approach
schools in both the nations and ask the students to write
messages on the kites. It involved school children in the
task of sending messages of peace and amity across the border.
Click here for a report
In
the Rights Direction
The PEACEWORKS Human Rights Defenders
Programme is an initiative to work with young people to train
them and to create a collective of human rights defenders.
It is a process of capacity building and sensitizing young
volunteers through interactive workshops and films on gender,
sexuality, globalization and law to enable them to understand
with precision, conceptual issues concerning social justice.
The group was formed after a human rights workshop conducted
by human rights lawyers Oishik Sircar and Debolina Dutta from
18 to 26 June, 2007.
Click here for
report
Creative
writing workshop
click
here for report
Stroking
Dead Man’s Hair:
The polemics of Third Theatre and Us!
click
here for report
Peaceworks
School Curriculum -
St. Joseph's, Bowbazar:
click
here for report
Report
on the Human Rights Workshop
click
here
Peaceworks
Creative Expressions Workshop
click
here for report
2008
A
day long journey exploring socially relevent issues and the
power of words
a report...
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