Healing Words: Leveraging poetry for collective mental wellness

Media reports quoting the survey said that Uzbekistan topped the list of worst countries followed by the United Kingdom while Dominican Republic topped the list of countries with positive mental health conditions, followed by Sri Lanka and Tanzania.

Therefore, the initiative by Healing Words – leveraging poetry for collective wellness – is an important step in the right direction.

Inspired by ‘The Poetry Pharmacy’ (an anthology of poems by William Sieghart), the platform consists of writers, artists and mental health professionals who interact and collaborate to create prescriptive poetry for troubled minds.

The group- consisting of poets Rantideb Mukhejee, Barnamala Roy, Ayesha Begum and Arindam Lahiri- and co-organiser Shreyoshee Gupta, has already set the ball rolling with their first poetry clinic (organised on March 10, at Surfire The Coastal Café) in Kolkata, where they reflected on the power of poetry and how to leverage it for collective wellness.

The event saw elocutionist Sujoy Prosad Chatterjee in conversation with psychologist Nilanjana Chatterjee of Anusharan Mental Health Wellness Clinic & Research Centre.

In between, Sujoy Prosad Chatterjee read out the poems (the result of an earlier workshop held at the Zoom-Tea-O-Graphy) penned by poets Barnamala Roy, Rantideb Mukherjee, Arindam Lahiri and Ayesha Begum.

The event also saw a special poetry recitation by veteran film and television actress Choiti Ghoshal.

Guests and participants also paid tribute to writer, filmmaker, and musician Ankur Roy Chowdhury, who passed away a few days before the event.  

Some limited edition ‘First Aid Kits for the Soul’ by Healing Words and Zoom Tea-O-Gaphy were on sale.

The event was partnered by Delta Lives and sponsored by Aamar Bari and Indrani’s Kitchen.