You will find Gnesta, with approximately 5,000 inhabitants, at the end station of the commuter train line, south of Stockholm. Non-profit Samklang wants to inspire the people of Gnesta to share their stories, dreams, poetry, fantasies and memories about their place through workshops and a storytelling app.

“Det var en gång i Gnesta” aims to unite people from many different backgrounds and ages through language and text and to get more of Gnesta out walking/biking in public spaces, to reflect and dream together about their common places. Nice ey?

Samklang plans to invite inhabitants via social media and from schools, retirement homes, homes for asylum seekers, SFI, pubic message boards, sport organizations, etc. in Gnesta to send in written memories, short stories, dreams or poetry connected to a certain spot (building, address, square, park etc.) in Gnesta.

The money from Awesome will be used towards hosting three bilingual writing workshops with at least 2 bilingual teachers (Arabic-Swedish, Persian-Swedish) to gather material for the app.

When the texts are collected, as many of them as possible will be translated and recorded in the language it's written in (by the author where possible) and in translated versions.

The final stage will be to create a Gnesta-map app that will then contain links by the spot on the map where the collected texts relate to. Every spot with a text connected to it will be marked with a small star. When you're walking in Gnesta and come to a star, you can click on it. Then the recorded text will be read out load. It's will be like a city guide of poetry, dreams and memories.

Samklang is a recently started non-profit organization that aims to be a platform for the people in Gnesta to meet each other and develop through cultural and social activities. They work with co-creative, transparent strategies and have a small studio at the main square in Gnesta.