Wintertuin Curaçao Festival collaborates with Pa Gya!
Pa Gya! A Literary Festival in Accra is excited to publicly announce its latest collaboration and partnership with the Wintertuin Curaçao Festival and the Transatlantic Relatives literary project in Curaçao.
Transatlantic Relatives is a literary project that connects Curaçao and Ghana through a shared heritage, culture, identity and history. The project will promote co-operation and exchange through a sustainable literary connection between Ghana and Curaçao. The project does not only reflect on a shared past, but an interlinked future in which we would have healed from intergenerational trauma caused by the atrocities of the past.
The project will start with Ghana and Curacao and will involve seven (7) inspirational sessions, four (4) publications and four (4) Artists in Residence from Curaçao and Ghana.
Transatlantic Relatives consists of a digital platform in which writers, poets, rappers and spoken word-artists from Curaçao and Ghana reflect on the history of transatlantic slavery through new work and envision the future for people of African descent. The platform will be curated by Wintertuin Curaçao. Every six weeks, a different inspiring speaker from Curaçao or Ghana will share insights on the history of slavery. These sessions will be open for participation. Every three months we will publish a selection of texts and performances on the website. After completion of the first year the platform can be expanded for participants from other transatlantic countries.
Another important element of the project is the physical exchange of artists between the two countries. Curators will select a number of Ghanaian wordsmiths from the contributors to visit Curaçao as writers in residence and perform at the Wintertuin Curaçao 2023 Festival which has the theme ‘Can we heal ourselves?’ The writers will learn more about the Curaçaoan history and write about their experiences for the platform. This will be reciprocated with some Curaçaoan artists travelling to Ghana and performing at Pa Gya! A literary festival in Accra in October 2023. These artists will also write about their experiences in Ghana for publication on the platform.
Over the years, Pa Gya! has collaborated with writers, publishing houses, artists, cultural institutions and others. The festival has provided opportunities for emerging writers, illustrators, editors and artists, and also provided a great networking and collaborative platform for our visiting partners. The partnership with our Transatlantic Relatives from Wintertuin Curaçao Festival promises to take our belief in collaborations to the next level.
Starting in July 2023, Transatlantic Relatives and Pa Gya! will be curating submissions for the digital platform and a first inspiration session is planned for Monday, 19th July 2023. The project will continue officially until May 2024. For access to the full Transatlantic Relatives project roadmap and how to contribute and participate, please visit https://transatlanticrelatives.org.
For press questions, please email pagyafestival@gmail.com.