All posts by : admco admco

spirit of Sri Lanka. 🙏

🗓️ Saturday, 31st May
🕥 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM
👥 For anyone aged 12 and above
📍 Alliance Française de Colombo
🎯 What to expect:
▫️ Intro to the history of Kandyan dance
▫️ Learn choreography to traditional drum rhythms
▫️ Explore body posture, precision & meaning in movement

👚 Wear comfortable leggings & a top
💧 Bring a water bottle and sport towel

Whether you’re a beginner or simply curious, come feel the rhythm, tradition, and strength of Kandyan dance.

📩 Register now via [email protected] – spots are limited!

🎹✨ Vignettes of Languedoc – An evocative audiovisual concert by Seneka Abeyratne, presented by the Alliance Française de Colombo.

Join us on a journey through the Languedoc-Roussillon region in the South of France, brought to life through 180 stunning photographs and an improvised piano performance inspired by the impressionistic styles of Debussy and Ravel.

Seneka Abeyratne — novelist, playwright, photographer, digital artist, musician, and award-winning writer — blends music and visuals in this one-of-a-kind solo performance. His photographic work, influenced by Monet and Delaunay, captures a rich tapestry of landscapes, architecture, flora, people, and abstract forms.

🗓️ Friday, 30th May 2025
🕖 7:00 PM
📍 Alliance Française de Colombo, 11 Barnes Place
🎟️ Free registration: [email protected]

Discover the artistic soul of southern France through this compelling fusion of image and sound. 🎶📷

Come through for an evening of poetry and good company!
📅 Sunday, 4 May
🕡 6.30 PM
📚 Lakmahal Community Library
🎟️ Free and open to everyone.

📝 We’ll be wrapping up a day-long writing workshop with an open-mic featuring work by our participants. Expect fresh poems, bold voices, and playful experiments! The open-mic will also feature a special performance by our facilitator, Tashyana Handy.

🌟 This isn’t a polished stage, it’s a space for sharing, listening, and connecting. Whether you know someone in the workshop or just love a good night of poetry, you’re warmly invited to join us!

🗓 Date: 4th May 2025
🕐 Time: 1:00 – 4:00 PM
📍 Location: Lakmahal Community Library

🧑‍🎓 Open to 15 participants aged 18 and above, writing in English.

📩 Interested poets should apply by sending a short bio and two poems to [email protected] before 1st May.

📖 This poetry workshop takes Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas as a sensory and ethical prompt. In the story, utopia is built through texture, colour, light, and joy—and disrupted by a single, unseen room.

📝 Through guided prompts, close reading, and group discussion, we will write from multiple perspectives: those who watch, those who stay, and those who walk away.

🧠 Participants will be invited to hold tension, name what’s difficult, and write into spaces that resist easy resolution. Through poetry, we will explore how language and the body respond to discomfort—how voice, silence, and form carry complexity both on the page and in performance.

📸 Image credit: Portrait of Tashyana Handy; background illustration adapted from the cover of Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Octavo, 1969)

🧠 Facilitated by aqui Thami & Everstory

📅 Saturday, 3 May
🕥 10.00 AM – 2.00 PM
📍 Sister Library at the Lakmahal Community Library

📚 This is an invitation to gather, read, and imagine. We’ll begin with a shared reading of Sultana’s Dream, a visionary short story written in 1905 by Bengali feminist and social reformer Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain. Often described as the first feminist utopian sci-fi, it flips patriarchal norms—placing women at the center of science, governance, and social harmony.

🎨 After reading and reflecting together, we’ll move into a zine-making workshop where we explore our own visions of a feminist utopia through collage, drawing, and writing.

💭 We’ll ask ourselves:

What does my feminist utopia look like?

What would a world shaped by care, equity, and collective power feel like?

What does joy, safety, or justice look like in your dream society?

👐 Together, we’ll make small, hand-crafted zines—tiny portals into radical possibilities.

🎒 No prior experience needed. All materials provided. All genders welcome.

📩 Limited capacity. Register now by emailing: [email protected]

📸 Image credit: Portrait of aqui Thami provided by the artist; Background illustration adapted from the cover of ‘Sultana’s Dream and Padmarag’ by Rokeya Hossain (Penguin Random House, 2022)

📚Sister Library, led by Indigenous artist aqui Thami, is a vibrant art initiative that goes beyond the conventional concept of a library. Rooted in celebrating women, it intertwines literature with community involvement to nurture diverse and inclusive connections. As an evolving and generative artwork, Sister Library is a space dedicated to celebrating female creativity, housing works by women writers, artists, and zine makers. It invites in-depth reflection on our time’s visual and reading cultures, bringing readers together to explore literary contributions, highlight artistic excellence, and foster a deeper appreciation for the accomplishments of women in the creative world.

📍The project will travel to multiple locations across Sri Lanka throughout the year and be accompanied by a multifaceted programme featuring workshops, performances, talks, and readings. The Sister Library’s first stop will be the Lakmahal Community Library in Colombo, where the Sister Library will be accessible to the public during regular opening hours.

🦜Sister Library is being realized in partnership with Everystory, who have contributed a list of important Sri Lankan feminist writing to the library’s collection. Additionally, the Goethe-Institut and Alliance Française have expanded the selection by adding feminist literature from Germany and France, translated into English.

🤝🏾The project is funded by the Franco-German Cultural Fund. The Fund was set up in 2003 to mark the 40th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty of friendship between France and West Germany, and it promotes Franco-German cooperation by providing support for cultural and artistic projects. Image credit: image of Audre Lorde via Getty Images/Jack Mitchell; image of Jean Arasanayagam via The Island; image of Kumari Jayawardena via the Social Scientists’ Association of Sri Lanka; image of Uma Chakravarti via Feminism in India; image of Virginia Woolf via the Hulton Archive

🌱 Celebrating the remarkable work of Munasinghe Veda Arachchige, a distinguished self-taught artist from Kurunegala, Sri Lanka, the Alliance Française de Colombo presents an exhibition featuring a selection of his past and present works, accompanied by a short film highlighting his eco-art studio, The Shrubbery.

🌿At 75 years of age, Mune has dedicated his life to creating immersive art environments, both in his home and in public spaces, bringing people together to share in his artistic vision and knowledge.

🌳 Driven purely by passion, he has produced art tirelessly, every day of the year, without seeking recognition, awards, and financial gain. His home itself stands as a living artwork—an open studio for free art workshops—and he has even cultivated a small forest within the heart of the city.

📅 Exhibition Dates: 3rd – 10th April
⏰ Opening Hours: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
📍 Venue: Alliance Française de Colombo, 11, Barnes Place, Colombo 07