Brine Pickles is a unique young creative writers’ group plunged into the turbulent waters of creativity only with the conviction of firmly establishing English as a popular mode of creative writing in Bangladesh. The group started back in January 2004 when the British Council offered space to the young writers can regularly meet and have discussion sessions. The group Brine Pickles was formed at this time as a part of the project entitles Maps and Metaphors under British Council’s Connecting Futures project to set a forum of young creative writers both from Bangladesh and the UK in the age group of 15 to 25.
The member writers associated with Brine Pickles, through their original works, are bent upon to inspire ideas on “Identity”. Their works include poetry, short stories and play but their mastered specialty is Performance Literature. The group intends to raise awareness of culture, gender, class, existence and ethnicity in the minds of the audience not only through literature but through performance and literature.
Since the formation of the group, it has hold regular discussion sessions at the British Council premises. Brine Pickles currently has 19 active members locally, and is linked with various student forums based in different universities across the country. The group has performed in different Universities across Dhaka city and also has succeeded in organizing 3 performance literature sessions in the British Council Auditorium in Dhaka. Members of the group also conducted a workshop at the first ever Summers School in Bangladesh organized byCCDPS , a partner of the British Council under the Connecting Futures Project. The group was also involved in organizing a translation workshop with the UK based prominentntranslatorGopa Baker.
But the biggest break came in December 2005 when the group successfully involved them with two creative writers workshop conducted byDinesh Allirajah - a short story writer, Jazz poet, performer, workshop leader, and member of Black Arts Alliance- the first of which spanned over the time December 11-15, 2005 in Dhaka. Apart from 12 participants from this group, another four were from UK. The second workshop was held in UK from 20-24 February 2006,
where 4 participants from this group attended. As a part of this exchange programme an anthology Maps & Metaphors with fiction, non-fiction and poetry was published in August, 2006 which was quite anm achievement for the young writers.
The group has moved along since then though in a less smooth path. The conclusion of the Connecting Futures Project became a setback for the group with internal strife led to the resignation of former coordinator MuhammadSaiful Islam. But the group has emerged with even stronger motives to work as a creative writers’ group under Sabrina Binte Masud as the new coordinator. Another performance literature show ended successfully in IUB and BRAC university in on the line of Brine Pickles’ list of performance. The group will soon be opening their new website but the promise hasremained the same as it was when they started; that is to establishthemselves as writers writing in English and also carrying forward the concept of Performance Literature in Bangladesh.
The member writers associated with Brine Pickles, through their original works, are bent upon to inspire ideas on “Identity”. Their works include poetry, short stories and play but their mastered specialty is Performance Literature. The group intends to raise awareness of culture, gender, class, existence and ethnicity in the minds of the audience not only through literature but through performance and literature.
Since the formation of the group, it has hold regular discussion sessions at the British Council premises. Brine Pickles currently has 19 active members locally, and is linked with various student forums based in different universities across the country. The group has performed in different Universities across Dhaka city and also has succeeded in organizing 3 performance literature sessions in the British Council Auditorium in Dhaka. Members of the group also conducted a workshop at the first ever Summers School in Bangladesh organized byCCDPS , a partner of the British Council under the Connecting Futures Project. The group was also involved in organizing a translation workshop with the UK based prominentntranslatorGopa Baker.
But the biggest break came in December 2005 when the group successfully involved them with two creative writers workshop conducted byDinesh Allirajah - a short story writer, Jazz poet, performer, workshop leader, and member of Black Arts Alliance- the first of which spanned over the time December 11-15, 2005 in Dhaka. Apart from 12 participants from this group, another four were from UK. The second workshop was held in UK from 20-24 February 2006,
where 4 participants from this group attended. As a part of this exchange programme an anthology Maps & Metaphors with fiction, non-fiction and poetry was published in August, 2006 which was quite anm achievement for the young writers.
The group has moved along since then though in a less smooth path. The conclusion of the Connecting Futures Project became a setback for the group with internal strife led to the resignation of former coordinator MuhammadSaiful Islam. But the group has emerged with even stronger motives to work as a creative writers’ group under Sabrina Binte Masud as the new coordinator. Another performance literature show ended successfully in IUB and BRAC university in on the line of Brine Pickles’ list of performance. The group will soon be opening their new website but the promise hasremained the same as it was when they started; that is to establishthemselves as writers writing in English and also carrying forward the concept of Performance Literature in Bangladesh.
No comments:
Post a Comment