Camp Kahani

July 30 - Aug 5, 2023 | Berkeley, CA

Camp Kahani for Women is a one-week creative retreat made for South Asian women (18+ years old) to rest, be creative, and have fun. At Camp Kahani, you get to do activities inspired by South Asian women’s history, incubate new creative projects and tell stories you wish you saw in the media, all while building a lifelong, supportive community.

Why Camp Kahani

Do you want to be a part of a supportive community of South Asian women from different stages of life, and have open conversations about our experiences?

Do you want to create a story or a project for South Asian girls & women? 

Do you want to rest and relax in a space designed to support your creativity and well-being?

Camp Kahani for Women is a retreat for women to experience child-like curiosity and joy as we explore and tell the stories of South Asian women from the past and present together.

Camp Kahani for Women 2023

Who is camp for?

  • South Asian women (18+ years old)

  • Anyone interested in creating a project/story about South Asian woman, learning more about South Asian women’s history, or building an intergenerational community by and for South Asian women

  • You don’t need to have a background in storytelling, or a particular project in mind.

When and where?

  • Saturday, July 30 to Saturday, Aug 5th

  • 9AM - 5PM everyday

  • North Berkeley, CA (location will be shared with participants only)

  • If you are not local to the Bay Area, we will try to find you accommodation within the Camp Kahani community!

How much does it cost?

$450 / person for 7 days of camp. We will provide:

  • Breakfast, lunch, chai and snacks

  • Visit to Angel Island immigration museum

  • Printed workbook & supplies

Camp Kahani is a 7-day made to support your well-being & creativity

  • Do fun activities to connect with the stories of South Asian women in history.

  • Explore the South Asian history of the Bay Area through field trips around the East Bay, and Angel Island.

  • Make our own creative project about South Asian women’s experiences, to be shared at the end of camp in a digital magazine. Projects can cover any medium (e.g. creative writing, making a community group, film, oral history, art, narrative nonfiction, theater, or anything you dream of)

  • Discuss topics that affect women across different stages of life - from health & well-being, bodily changes, and careers, to finding your way during times of transition.

  • Relax and get re-energized in a space designed to center joy, well-being, creativity and community for South Asian women - including food, entertainment, physical movement, and rest.

  • Build intergenerational friendships with other South Asian women.

By the end of camp, you will walk away with:

  • A digital magazine we make together representing our projects, our stories, and the history of South Asian women from the diaspora. We leave Camp Kahani with experience creating and publishing media that represents our experiences.

  • A workbook with the South Asian stories we learn about in camp, and storytelling activities you can continue to do after camp.

  • A well-being toolkit, including the Ayurvedic recipes we use during camp, mindfulness activities, and physical movement exercises that we practice in camp.

  • Art & crafts inspired by the South Asian women in history that we learn about

  • Dance, yoga, and physical movement to keep us active during the day

  • Lifelong friends and supportive community

  • Storytelling skills across different media

  • A completed personal project that is shared in the digital magazine

  • Opportunities for continued community after the summer through the Club Kahani program (launching this fall)

Everyday is a carefully designed experience.

Morning

  • Breakfast - Eat a nourishing, Ayurvedic breakfast.

  • Learning - Learn about a South Asian woman from the past, and the global historical context she lived in.

  • Fun Activities - Do creativity-inducing activities based on the life of the South Asian woman of the day, including writing, art, mindfulness, physical movement, and STEM.

Afternoon

  • Lunch - Eat a nourishing, Ayurvedic lunch.

  • Storytelling workshops - Discover new creative media and hone our storytelling skills.

  • Field trips - Explore how South Asian stories live in the physical spaces around us.

  • Personal Project Time - Work on a group or individual creative project in a structured environment. Your project will go into a digital magazine we create together by the end of the week featuring a range of South Asian stories, fictional and non-fictional, across different media.

  • Feedback Time - Get optional support and guidance on your project from other South Asian women (your fellow campers).

  • Snacks & Chai - Participate in unstructured bonding time with other campers.

Evening

  • Relax & Get Inspired - Join optional evening rest and entertainment activities (including a movie night, spa night, Bollywood dance party, and more)

Orientation & Showcase Day

  • We will spend the first day of camp on a field trip to Angel Island to discover South Asian immigration history, go on a hike, and get to know our fellow campers!

  • We will spend the last day of camp completing our final projects, presenting them in our magazine to our friends and community, and having a pool party!

Camp Kahani Principles

  1. Representation - Stories help us make sense of our own lives. Today, we rarely see representations of real South Asian women. Camp Kahani supports South Asian women in telling their stories from the ground up, so we can expand the stories we all have available of what it means to be South Asian across different periods of history, and different stages of life.

  2. History - Learning about the South Asian women in history whose hidden stories connect to ours can help us make sense of the past and create our own futures.

  3. Intergenerational, joyful community - Sharing knowledge, experiences, and support across generations allows us to learn from one another’s stories.