lb. In late summer 2024, studiyo filipino held two poetry workshops with the Swiss chapter of Halo-Halo, one in Zurich and one in Vienna. The participants had the opportunity to take time to reflect on their own life stories and thus honor their experiences as people with a transnational biography, both individually and as a collective. With the exercises led by Lenny and examples from Filipino and Swiss poetry, they were then encouraged to write down their reflections in the form of poems.
The creative process entailed in poetry allowed the participants to carefully weigh their words. This form of mindful writing (Lenny also calls it ‘slow food for the soul’) led to an earnest examination of one’s life experiences, which, now and again, resulted in emotional workshop moments. And yet, the poems were neither meant to be therapeutic, nor do they aspire to be considered as high art. They do, however, make it possible to capture voices from the Philippine Community, to preserve these voices and share them with a wider audience.
The trusting participants were courageous enough to venture into new, uncharted territory. Some of them agreed to publish their poems here. The stunning flipbook design is owed to Jeanette Reckmann (Halo-Halo Germany).
The workshop was quite good! The examples chosen by Lenny were simple and yet profound, in their own way. I like how she encouraged us to think „transligually“ and that there was very little pressure to write our own poems, which is probably why all of us managed to compose something in that short span of time. Less pressure = more creativity! I can only imagine what we would’ve been able to create had there been more time.
– Vigile
Lennys workshop beim KUBO Festival 2024 war sehr spannend und emotional. Nach der Einführung in die Arten des Gedichte-Schreibens durften wir uns selbst daransetzen und schreiben. Die ganze Gruppe hat was Schönes gedichtet und besonders gefallen haben mir die Inspirationen, wie z.B. das Buch “Burning Heart” (Roth & Hagedorn, 1999). Die Beschäftigung mit meiner Herkunft hört nie auf und Lenny konnte uns da ein tolles Tool mitgeben.
– Niki
