Nishchhal Kharal, Freedom Studio / Possible Now Stitching Fellow (Nepal)

What happens when we stop letting donor requirements, radical extremists, social media feeds, and algorithms tell our stories for us, and start telling them together as a community? For years I have watched how extremist and algorithm-driven narratives spread - fast, extractive, spreading hate and designed to divide. I have also seen what art and creative practice can do instead: shape narratives that build social cohesion and trust, and remind people they belong to something larger than the screens of phone. At Freedom Studio, working with artists and creative communities globally, we are experimenting with community-led ways of telling stories and building narratives that resist manipulation and extraction.  

The potential of Possible Now, for me, lies in bringing these creative experiments into the same room, connecting them, learning from one another, and discovering what becomes possible when civil society tells its own stories on its own terms. At the Summit in Kathmandu this December, Freedom Studio and I will bring a creative community-building experience to expand creative possibilities and explore narrative alternatives together. See you in culturally vibrant Kathmandu!