This project was inspired by the history of watermelon as a symbol of Palestinian resistance in combination with teachings about mindfulness and resilience from my Buddhist studies.
The original piece is a meditation that you can do on your own using the audio track that I recorded: https://soundcloud.com/fereshteh_toosi/batikh
In December 2024, I shared this meditation for Palestine during a group gathering around a bonfire to commemorate the winter solstice. The invitation for that event is archived here.
If you’d like to experience this as a role-playing game with a group, you can download the instructions here. I had this piece in mind for a while before finally having the impetus to complete it for Bait Byout: The Palestinian LARP Organisation’s 2024 design competition.
Both the meditation and game require you to acquire some watermelon seeds first, and game facilitation requires some additional preparation.
