Writing workshop: ode to plants

Writing workshop with Samah Hijawi

#creative writing #poetry #multilingual #futurology

What plant has always been part of your life, part of your happy moments? Is it a tree? a herb? a flower? In the future, we will no longer be separated from everything around us. We, and all the living beings around us, will finally be able to connect and communicate freely with each other. In this world, we learn and we help each other. In this workshop, we will write a poem imagining ourselves in this future, when we live in a harmonious world with other living beings!

This poetic writing workshop is led by artist Samah Hijawi, who invites you to rethink our links with plants. It’s a space for sharing and experimentation, where we join forces to write the world we want to see, and where we allow ourselves to dream together. This episode is part of a series of workshops as part of the “Ecrire pour faire advenir. “.

Our dreams have been colonised by apocalyptic visions and largely sustained by the buzz of the media. Technocratic language, economic injunctions and the spectre of war have invaded our lives and our conversations. More than ever, it is essential to write instead of endure, to imagine a new paradigm for society, to open the doors to new horizons.

As the writer Felwine Sarr puts it so well: “The future happens because we think about it in the present. We project it into our imaginations, into our thinking, and we act to make it happen. You have to have a vision. You have to have a vision of where you want to go. You have to have a vision of what kind of society you want to create to make it happen.

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Venue: Globe Aroma, Rue de la Braie 26, 1000 Brussels

Date: Wednesday 21 June 2023 from 6.30 p.m. to 9.30 p.m.

Conditions for participants: Free admission.

No prior knowledge or practice of writing is expected, only curiosity and open-mindedness are welcome. Discussions will take place within an anti-racist, feminist, decolonial, ecological and intersectional framework. This writing workshop is part of a multi-episode series that generally takes place on Wednesday evenings, so feel free to follow just one episode, several or the whole series!

Languages: The workshop is conducted in French and English however each participant is invited to write in the language of their choice (French, English, Arabic, Persian, Italian, Lingala, Spanish, Swahili, Flemish, Farsi, etc…)

Publishing project:

This series of poetry writing workshops will result in the publication of a multilingual poetry collection (end 2023).

Production, support & partners: Produced by Looops asbl with the support of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Globe Aroma and The Kitchen. We would also like to thank Lagrange for their support at  the beginning of this project.

contact: luce@looops.org