A stork story - by Jasmina Al-Qaisi

radio play, docufiction, 55 min in English, Romanian and Spanish,
premiered in December 2021 at Lucia Festival in Florence and broadcasted in Radiophrenia on 10 February 2022; A new edit won at Berliner Hoerspiel Festival Sept 2022

Cover of the radio work by the artist Covrig
Right: Greater Adjutant, Assam, India

In search of a main character for an untold sci-fi story: empirical knowledge and personal experiences, myths and my own delirium, knit together a story of storks which transcends taxonomy and care for bodies and becomes a curious evolutionary journey of birds and births. Like a science fiction in the making, this story speculates on possibilities of togetherness and it takes the power of fiction as a fuel for real-life changes.

Voices: biology teacher and self thought fitoteraphist Nicolae Ioana, obstetrics gynecology nurse Consuelo Ferreira Rey, conservationist and wildlife researcher Dr. Purnima Barman, collective animal behaviour and movement ecology researcher Dr. Andrea Flack, women's rights and sexual, reproductive health advocate Adriana Radu, and various voices of storks.
Song: Hargila Army - Naan Song
Translation in German: Andreea Bellu
Bird knowledge: Rudi Guricht
Drawing: Covrig
Sounds of storks: Xeno-Canto Online Archive
Literary references: “Killer Storks Eat Human Babies (Perhaps)” January 25, 2011 by Robert Krulwich published on NPR, Birds and People by Mark Cocker, Vintage Publishing 2013, Wikpedia page about Storks
Editing suggestions and translation in Italian: Radio Papesse
Work supported by Yass! Mentorship by Radio Papesse and Alessandra Eramo