‘Creative Activism in Words and Action’ Writers and Activists at the United Nations Presented by Life and Legends at 2022 AWP Date: Friday, March 25, 2022Time: 10:35 AM–11:35 AM ETLocation: #AWP22 Virtual Conference Platform . Panelists Rachel Pittman, Christopher Merrill, Kalpna Singh-Chitnis, Dunya Mikhail, Megha Sood ModeratorKalpna Singh-Chitnis PROGRAM OUTLINE
Leaf Olympics From my office window I watch the October leaves Doing the hundred-meter dash With no starting line, no gun Fueled by an invisible force Racing in harmony. . They pole vault over the roof of the opposite house Hurdle over the fences gracefully Long jump the length of the bridge Gathering the dust…
Eka More Gaaner Tori (Translated from the original Bengali) A solitary traveler I wasRowing the boat of my music in the stream of my tears.Who are you, the sudden entrant that came alongTo row the boat with me? That which was an illusory dream, a figment of my fertile imaginationEmerged before me in flesh and…
HALF A FACE Sky is dark.Beneath a green cedar tree,it is quiet on the bench where we sit,thinking darkness is just anothershade of light. Inhaling deep,you clear your throat,stand up,and begin to singin a broken voice,telling stories of unfulfilled dreams. Sometimes you ripple with painbut regain composure soon,to shine like a half moon,thin like a…
The Girl wore red pheran and watched the sunset for the first time in months. There were many visitors sauntering on the way of Ghats of Srinagar’s most famous Dal Lake. The wind had a strange echo hidden. That is felt before news of someone’s death. The old must have been dead by now, thought…
BIKE IN THE GARAGE mounted on the work-out standspindly creature to climb on and sitlegs churning in high gearinto vanishing turns by vast fieldsunder wan blue skywhere I drift no careening into fearstonewalls traffic or ditchtrusting my quads to burnwarn me to cease for the dayheart thudding and breath rapid then easingeasy as leisure to…
The Jahaz Mahal in Mandu boasted of one of the most sophisticated water harvesting, treatment and distribution systems, far ahead of their times. With no groundwater nor aquifers, this hill fort town at a height of 2000 ft above sea level was entirely dependent on rain water for its sustenance. Built during the reign of…
For Two Weeks Now For two weeks nowI don’t sit huddled by the phonefor someone else to keep me away from sadnessI no longer wrap and unpackthe knees in my house dresslike two pieces of rancid butterthe cut hairs are goneand the bruisesI used to give myselfso as not to vomit deformed animals every nightin…
I don’t remember exactly why she chose to visit me every night because I wasn’t a child anymore. I had not spent my youth wandering about the hill behind my grandmother’s house, looking for watercress, gathering it in a pile nestled inside the folds of my skirt. I didn’t talk back to my elders, and…
Six Pieces of My Soul 1At the edgeof a scrapyard in Iowaa girl in a blue dress sitson a tire swing, legs flying.A frog croaks hoarselyfrom the well of her throat. 2In a soft September sunrows of stubby, dried-outcorn stalks turninto a gold-leaf frescoby Giotto: maidensin ephemeral negligees. 3The dusty road curlslike uncut ribbon.In the…
Hide and Seek My dears, once I will playWith you, of something strange at sight.Your Father doesn’t know when is that dayBut definitely, once we will play,Once, maybe, after the twilight. It’s of elders’ a cunning gameWith children, like you, with girls with frocksGame of servants and of masters, the same,Game of birds, of flowers,…
“Neither in the sky, nor in the middle of the ocean,nor in the caves of the mountains” Doctor, doctor, don’t smile yet, you haven’t found your man.I’m more sarcastic than you any day,and cynicism is better left unsaidit’s a little early, don’t you think?I know, it’s just the two of us,although I would have preferred…
