—all of this was nothing until those young boys giggled themselves into sliding under tables, like little jellybein—

THE STORY:

Four fourteen-year-old boys gathered at a writing center in a NYC high school to hang out. Sometimes we read. Sometimes we wrote. Sometimes we watched YouTube videos. But most of the time we ate donuts.

Until we got to the subject of love.

They slowly began to tell me tales of their crushes: oh the agony, the pain, the unspoken jitters, things surely only they felt. We then did what any free-thinking group of people would do. We opened up a Googledoc and wrote feverish letters to our crushes. Over the span of a month, inspired by Hemingway’s six-word novel, these letters became small notes of affection rendered in a line or two that strove to tell a story of love and longing. We composed about one hundred notes. Once they were revised and reworked, they were stuck around the school as stories, as artifacts of longing, as little sticky notes hastily yet carefully composed. From love and longing, these notes travelled to both dark and warm places. When we opened up the project to our larger community, they scribbled their own notes on little Post-Its, adding to these stories.

That week, new poets emerged from dark corners. That week, we grew as a community into love.

THE WRITING WORKSHOP:

Come join KathaSatha and Word Warriors to write your own love notes and share your tale of love and longing in a three-day writing workshop, WITH LOVE FROM BLANK TO YOU. Notes from the workshop will be shared through an intimate reading and also displayed as art to catalyze a public writing exercise.

WHEN: August 12, 14 and 16; 2PM-4PM

WHERE: photo.circle, Arun Thapa Chowk, Jhamsikhel

HOW MUCH: RS. 150

APPLICATION FORM: http://goo.gl/VTyCPW

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION: August 11, 2013

Send your application and questions to kathasatha@gmail.com

(***All applicants must be able to commit to all workshop dates and time***)

THE CELEBRATION:

On Saturday, August 17, workshop writers will share their love notes in an intimate reading at Cuppas, Putalisadak, where audience members will be invited to a pubic writing exercise of composing their own notes, and slam poets + musicians + any willing soul will be invited for open mic.

***All love notes from the workshop and culminating celebration will be displayed at Cuppas, Putalisadak.***

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KathaSatha has been an effort at running sporadic writing workshops that foster a public writing and storytelling culture in Kathmandu. KathaSatha is remotely run by Muna Gurung, a writer and educator based in New York City. She is the coordinator of the Writing Center at Grace Church School, where she spends her time bribing young people with sugary treats to build a love and culture of writing.

WORD WARRIORS is a Kathmandu based spoken word group. Formed in 2010, WW believes in freedom of expression, helping people find their voice and tell their stories.

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KathaSatha and Word Warriors would like to thank photo.circle for the space and support.

Photo credit: Shikhar Bhattarai & Ashish Bajracharya

Posted on 5 August 2013