Awesome Stockholm and Samklang bring citizens of Gnesta together via stories

Awesome Stockholm and Samklang bring citizens of Gnesta together via stories


Non-profit Samklang wants to inspire the people of Gnesta, Sweden to share memories of their home by writing down stories, dreams, poetry and fantasies. The organisation will make it happen through workshops and a storytelling app.

The employees of Samklang want citizens to reflect on the buildings and places that everyone in Gnesta knows so well. Gnesta is small, with a population of approximately 5,000 people. It’s located south of Stockholm, at the end of the commuter train line.

Samklang plans to invite residents via social media to embrace certain places (buildings, squares, parks etc.) in Gnesta. They hope to reach residents in schools, retirement homes, homes for asylum seekers, pubic message boards, sport organizations, etc.. They will request everyone to send in written memories, short stories, dreams or poetry.

The money from Awesome Stockholm will be used to host three bilingual writing workshops with at least two bilingual teachers (Arabic-Swedish, Persian-Swedish). During these workshops, the teachers will gather written material from attendees.

After the stories and poems are collected, as many of them as possible will be recorded and also translated.

The final stage will be to create a Gnesta map app with locations on the map linking to people’s stories and poetry. Every place with 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, and the words will be read out loud to you. It’s a city guide of poetry, dreams and memories.

Visit Samklang’s Facebook page to learn more.