Everything We’re Waiting For - A Open Mic Night of Longing, Yearning, and Alternate Lifetimes

Format: Open Mic Storytelling Night

Time Limit: Max 10 minutes per storyteller

Rooted in Virah

In the folk traditions of the Indian subcontinent, there is a genre of music known as Birha or Virah Geet (term primarily used in North India). Known by many different names in other parts of the sub-continent (feel free to add the names from other cultures), these are songs of separation, displacement, and deep, aching yearning.

Historically sung from the poignant point of view of a woman waiting at the threshold of a village while her partner leaves for distant lands to find work, Virah is the art of giving a voice to the distance between where you are and where you want to be.

But longing is a universal human condition that transcends gender, geography, and time. This evening is an invitation to strip Virah of its boundaries. We want to explore longing in all its complex, modern, and ancient dimensions.

What Are You Longing For?

We are inviting stories from people across genders and cultures, spanning every shade of yearning. Your story doesn't have to be romantic; it just must be true to your lived experience. A friend deeply missing a childhood best friend who moved away; the quiet ache of wanting to be chosen or understood by someone. Longing for that one breakout career chance, or the deep desire for a lifelong dream to finally materialize. Longing for a home left behind in the past, or a blueprint of a home you hope to build for yourself one day. The ache to re-experience a specific state of mind, a taste of a childhood meal, a historical era, or a distinct time in your own life. Longing to live a completely different life in another lifetime or a deep yearning to have lived this current life differently.

Guidelines for Storytellers

Keep it Personal: Your piece must culminate in or center around a real experience from your life.

Time Limit: Maximum 10 minutes on the microphone. This ensures everyone has space to hold the room.

Choose Your Format: You can share your story as a traditional narrative, a spoken-word poetry piece, a musical monologue, or a letter written to the past/future, the stage is all yours

Bring Your Anchors: We highly encourage you to bring a piece of your favourite book, a poem, a photograph, or a fragment of a song (like your own version of a Virah Geet) that anchors your unique feeling of longing.

In a world that demands we constantly "arrive," achieve, and move on to the next thing, we rarely give ourselves permission to sit with our unfulfilled desires. This storytelling night is a safe, warm, and collective sanctuary to honour the beauty of the gap. Because sometimes, who we are is defined entirely by what we are waiting for.

What to bring? Bring your notebooks, your memories, and an open heart.