The British Council in collaboration with Dhaka Lit Fest have organized a webinar series to explore how the roles of creativity, adaptive thinking, and storytelling can play in overcoming the challenges of the climate crisis.
The webinar series “Everything Change” began on Thursday and will continue till June 19. It will be produced by Taliesin Arts Centre and Professor Owen Sheers in Creativity from Swansea University, said a media statement.
At the opening event, novelist, poet, inventor and two-time Booker Prize winner Margaret Atwood discussed the questions at the heart of “Everything Change” concerning her work and remarkable career in conversation with Sadaf Saaz, director of the Dhaka Lit Fest.
A total of eight more events will take place between Friday and June 19 where seven key areas of change – Money, Food, Water, Energy, Justice, Story, and Change itself – will be focused.
Dr Saleemul Huq, director of International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD); Dr Faustina Pereira, lawyer, Gender and Sustainable Development Specialist, human rights activist, scholar; Khushi Kabir, social activist, feminist, environmentalist; Samia Zaman, media personality, journalist; Samiya Selim, marine social scientist, sustainability science, social-ecological systems specialist; Shameran Abed, senior director of Brac; and Syeda Rizwana Hasan, attorney, environmentalist will take part as speakers in these events.
Additionally, six writers from Wales and Bangladesh will be commissioned to create new narratives in resoponse to the climate crisis, which will be showcased at Dhaka Lit Fest in January 2022.
Prof Owen Sheers of Swansea University said: "The history of our inaction on climate change is the story of a failure of narrative on the level of a species. We urgently need to recalibrate how we talk about, imagine, and tell stories about our relationships with nature, future generations, and how we live now.”
Sadaf Saaz, director of Dhaka Lit Fest, added: "We are very excited about the rich interdisciplinary nature of the panels, which will explore how we can tackle the enormous challenges ahead. Creative artists and writers will be at the intersection of these conversations, exploring and envisaging alternate ways of how we see the world and our place in it."
