Tales From the Pandemic is a poetry writing competition and a series of IGTV videos with authors. This campaign focuses on the idea of rapid response art which has emerged over the past year and a half in response to the COVID 19 pandemic. And the aim of this campaign is to shed light on the enduring creativity of individuals in a time of crisis. It is a celebration of art and literature and raw unfiltered emotion. With the likes of poetry and literature we can bring people together and begin to rebuild those all important bonds that have been broken during the pandemic. We urge you to take part in our latest campaign and submit your wonderful #PandemicTales.
What to Look Out For?
Head over to the Instagram page @mydaastan to watch the introductory video about the Tales From the Pandemic campaign. I also discuss some of my favourite projects that have inspired me from this time. Next week, we will be interviewing the much renowned poet and lecturer Keston Sutherland. We will be discussing his new book ‘Scherzos Benjyosos’ and how he coped during lockdown. Furthermore, we will also be interviewing the beloved author, poet and actor Benjamin Zephaniah. We are excited to get his thoughts on being a creative during a global pandemic. We at Daastan are incredibly thankful to our special guests for taking time out to help with this project. The folks at Daastan would love for as many people as possible to go over to Instagram and watch those talks.
Details of the Tales from the Pandemic Competition
We are looking for people to submit a short form poem or Haiku, no more than a few lines long, which chronicles their experience of lockdown or the pandemic. We have set out 3 categories for the pandemic poems which are:
- nature
- relationships
- mental health
If you want to find out more about the categories and competition, click on this link.
