Young Adults' Workshop
A Tehelka Foundation initiative the workshops seek to revive the art of debate among Youth so that we can listen and respect views contrary to our own without lashing out with aggression and intolerance. So that we learn to co-exist in harmony.
The Tehelka Foundation is a not for profit Trust that has been working at the intersection of Active Citizenship and Youth Empowerment for the past 7 years. Building bridges between marginalized and privileged youth through theatre and the arts, the Foundation encourages young people to participate in the socio-economic development of their community.
For the past four years the Tehelka Foundation has been working with youth from Jaipur NGOs and schools at the Jaipur Literature Festival, on a range of issues from Environmental Sustainability to Humanism. The integration of young people from differing socio-economic backgrounds, from an urban/ rural context has always added a new dimension to the workshops.
The 5 day Young Adults’ Workshop will use a range of tools like theatre, creative writing, photography and visual art, music and meditation. The young participants will interact with people like Gulzar, Prasoon Joshi, Valmik Thapar, Aditya Arya, Amy Chua, Samit Basu, Chetan Joshi, Philip Gourevich and many more. These sessions will run every morning from 20th to 24th Jan at SAMVAD – the Young Adults Workshop venue. Registration for the workshops are open to Young Adults from the ages of 15 to18 years.
On the evening of Sunday, the 22nd, a panel discussion on “Dissent and Democracy” at the Mughal Tent will see inspirational speakers like Aruna Roy, Ayesha Jalal, Sunil Khilnani, Dayamani Barla, HM Nerukar and Tarun Tejpal share their views and interact with young people from Jaipur.
In the coming year we intend to travel with this initiative to different cities like Srinagar, Aligarh, Benaras, Shillong, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Ahmedabad.
At the end of the festival we hope to have facilitated meaningful conversations on issues that are rooted in the concerns of the community, relevant to the democratic process.
We intend to document the local democratic experience through the use of multimedia (photography, film), art (theatre, graphic art) and text. A three month Fellowship to young people from these cities will be offered to support this documentation process.
Through the Democracy Dialogues initiative, we hope to trigger an engagement and sense of participatory action amongst young people so that they demand better governance, social justice and equity for all.
