Just before the pandemic, at the very end of 2019, I was honored to co-edit with the brilliant Jhoana Patiño Lopez a community-authored book and board game, what Jhoana calls a “writing-for-peace toolkit.” The brainchild of Jhoana, who wanted to create a model of research that was not extractive and instead was community-led, the book includes powerful contributions by many in the Manizales, Colombia community committed to using writing to transform social relations: a publisher, a psychologist/musical ensemble leader, an artist, youth writers, educators, poets, and a researcher from the U.S. (hi!).
The kit includes a TOTALLY FREE AND DOWNLOADABLE BOARD GAME that we had a ball creating and has been so much fun to play. I was grateful for the opportunity to help distribute these kits in a pedagogical tour organized by Jhoana. Here are some pictures of our team, the tour, and people playing.
One of the many beautiful parts of this project is that anyone can publish their poems for peace here. The most recent published poem “I wasn’t supposed to be here” by anonymous is a moving bilingual exploration of belonging, alienation, and survival. Check it out. Check them all out. Write your own.
Thank you to our beautiful team, to Fulbright, to ICETEX, to Susan J. Cellmer, and to a Baldwin Seed Grant for funding our work! Here’s some more about writing for peace in Colombia