Connecting Cultures: Cross-border Slam Poetry Program

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Based on funding availability, PAS Hyderabad will support a program through which the grantee will identity two groups of 15-20 students between the ages of 15-18, one group in each India and Pakistan, to help them arrive at initial drafts of poems (in Hindu, Urdu, or English) about their perceptions of one another’s countries, about conflict and peace building, or about other topics of concern to them as young people.  Through a series of digital video conferences, students will be able to practice their poems and receive feedback from their counterparts across the border.  The grantee will further identify an American expert on poetry to travel once to each country and work directly with the students on their work.  Finally, a subset of students from each country will be invited to a third country in the region to meet, interact, and perform their work for an audience that includes youth and prominent individuals from the host city.  The third city will be decided by the grantee in consultation with the U.S. Consulate Hyderabad. In addition to providing a platform for our Mission to better understand regional concerns through the eyes of the next generation of Indians and Pakistanis, this program facilitates direct people-to-people interactions between an American expert poet, Indians, and Pakistanis.  This program also reinforces our commitment to spread the values of pluralism, religious freedom, and freedom of speech, helping to facilitate regional reconciliation and promote understanding across the Subcontinent.

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