The Anne Frank Exhibition at The School KFI (Chennai) began its journey when two teachers from the School – Ms. G. Devika and Ms. Akhila Seshadri – attended the Teaching History workshop held by PeaceWorks, an initiative of The Seagull Foundation for the Arts in Kolkata in July-August, 2015. A casual conversation between Ms. Devika…
40! She said, when I asked Madhushree how many participants had signed up for the workshop. This was just before I was boarding the flight to Bangalore. Now, for somebody who is neither a historian, nor a history teacher, the prospect of conducting a Teaching Divided Histories workshop for 40 history teachers can be rather…
The first talk as a part of the History for Peace project was titled ‘A missing General, a trusted jeep, and submerged narratives of 1971’. A title like that is enough to pique ones curiosity! Naeem Mohaiemen, who was the speaker for the evening, is a historian and visual artist working in Dhaka and New…
Stories. Why do we tell them? Why do they exist? Those questions can be answered by using terms like ‘oral histories’, ‘traditions’, ‘listening skills’ and ‘pedagogy’. All very valid. At Golpo Mela, the PeaceWorks Storytelling Festival, it is however, much more. Before the day of the festival, I had visited a centre to help with…
Trepidation. Curiosity. ‘Whose paintings are those?’ ‘Where do we sit?’ ‘ When do we start?’ The eighth session of the Dialogue for Peace program started off with shy smiles, handshakes, whispers. Eleven students from the Kashmir valley and eleven from Lakshmipat Singhania School gathered at The Seagull Foundation for the Arts bright and (relatively) early…
