Poetic expression workshop: (Grands-)mères en lumière

Author, trainer and gender expert, Manuela Varrasso has been carrying out cultural and educational projects that amplify the voices of minority women, in Belgium and abroad, for 30 years. In 2017, she published her autobiographical account in Le voyage d'Andrea , dedicated to her mother and daughter (Academia, L'Harmattan). She received the ARES Women and Science Committee Prize in 2020 for the 1st dissertation in gender studies on the practical application of intersectionality. As part of a public inclusion service, she listens to and accompanies women's life paths in innovative ways, and sets up writing workshops for those who have never dared to tell their stories. She co-founded ParagraFes in 2023, exploring the power of creative personal writing and life stories to make them accessible to all women. In 2024, she directed the collective work “(Grands-) mères en lumière” published by Éditions Maelström and co-published with ParagraFes, and staged the public reading at Espace Magh, with Julie Lombe and Malika El Barkani.

Slasher, journalist and producer of the podcast “Toutes entières, au-delà du tabou de l'excision”, Leïla is a project manager, communications consultant, storyteller, poet and facilitator of therapeutic writing workshops. She is also a guest lecturer on interculturality and identities at IHECS. Passionate about narrative journalism, she has been writing short stories accompanied by photographs for the past 10 years on www.laplumedumaki.com and is particularly interested in stories of migration, multiple identities, mental health and access to culture. A globetrotting polyglot, she defines herself as the sum of several stories, different worlds and encounters.