Your Story, Your Voice
6 – 8
April 2026
Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
21 Days
About Project
Your Story, Your Voice invites students in grades 6–8 to discover something powerful; that stories are everywhere, and they already have what it takes to tell them. A conversation overheard at a bus stop, the way light falls on a familiar street, or a quiet moment between two people, stories are not always invented; often, they are simply found in the world around us.
In this project, students step into their everyday lives with a new lens to find a story they want to tell to the world. They will observe closely, ask questions, make decisions, change their minds, and make decisions again. They will discover that the creative process is rarely a straight line and that the chaos along the way is not an obstacle, but an essential part of creating something meaningful.
The project culminates in a written story that reflects each student’s unique perspective and voice. For those who wish to go further, there is also an opportunity to bring their story to life through images, illustrations, or simple graphics. This project is not about writing perfectly. It is about finding your voice and learning to trust it.
Expert Profile
Dr. Akhila Ramnarayan has served as literature faculty and academic administrator at universities in India and the United States. She received her PhD in English from The Ohio State University in 2006, with a specialisation in postcolonial studies. Her research interests include postcolonial/decolonial literary and performance studies, gender, translation, metacognition, and learning.
The 2013-14 recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for theatre acting, she has performed and toured nationally and internationally since 2007 with JustUs Repertory, a Chennai-based theatre group founded by playwright-director Gowri Ramnarayan. In 2019, Ramnarayan began writing and recording original songs with multi-instrumentalist Doug Carraway, releasing two full-length records and 2 EPs to date. The two formed the indie rock duo Starcracker in 2024 and recently launched Day Is Night Diaries, a podcast on creative process.
Ramnarayan is working on a collection of old-fashioned essays, a series of meditations on theory, praxis, and performance, and has begun production on her first play script.
