What stories/lessons have you inherited from the women in your lives — mothers, grandmas, great grandmas, literary ancestors — that wait to flow through you? In this feminist memory workshop, we will sit with (the photographs of) these women in a re-membering ritual, and in writing, to gather what arrives for us. Together, we will explore how these intimate memories shape us and our understanding of the world, and the collective legacy we are building.

Participants need to bring photograph(s) of the women whom they feel have made them, or objects tied to these women, for the workshop.

Image courtesy of Ujjwala Maharjan

Ujjwala is a Kathmandu-based poet, performer and educator. She is one of the co-founders of Word Warriors, a poetry group leading the spoken word movement in Nepal. Post her Masters in Education from the University of Pennsylvania, she has been exploring arts activism and community-based education programs focusing on storytelling through varied creative mediums. Inspired by her students and colleagues, she started experimenting with rap during the pandemic. Collaborating with other artists, she blends Nepali ethnic music into the soundscape of punk, hip-hop and musical monologues and tells stories of women's bodies, sexuality and liberation. Writing in English, Nepali and the ethnic minority language, Newari (Newah), she is interested in subverting the language and culture of misogyny in Nepal.