How we got involved in the Social Forums?
We understand that the obligatory world "globalization", the code name for neoconservative, one-sided, one-size-fits-all, economic solutions to the world woes, is in denial of what precisely makes it what it is: its diversity. We work for full acceptance of diversity. On those bases we use community-based arts to experiment ways of collaborating across disciplines, races and social classes. Very naturally we have been developing a deep interest in the Social Forums. We want to guarantee the arts an important role in the many Social Forums taking place around the World. From "Another South is possible" (Durham - June 2006) and "Another world is possible" (Nairobi - January 2007), to "Another US is possible" (Atlanta - June 2007), we developed further two projects:
* One is a video work made of very short ialogues between folks who never met before but are sharing the present experience of the Forum. Our team introduces them to each other, creates those mini-events, briefs them on the purpose of the foilm and centers the dialogue on two questions: Why are you here? What do you want to bring back from here? At the US Social Forum the subjet of health was brought back by our partner the Healing, Health & Environmental Team of the forum itself.
* The other is a textile project: an "endless" batik banner composed of words and images by Forum participants. It is dyed in indigo and other colors. You may see parts of them behind the various recorded conversations.
What do those conversations bring to us?
Understanding, ideas, more hope, all based on the experience of looking at you, and you, and you, in the eye. An alternative to discourse, political speech, and dialectics to surpass national identity, religion, race and to motivate others to do the same in their own communities.
Our video conversations are not a documentary of the Forums. We bring back a visual understanding of how our actions and decisions can propel personal voices and stories. We do believe in promoting personal voices without always the interference of a middleman, amediator, an interviewer or a newsman. Our ways of introducing strangers together in front of a non-invading camera is a tool maybe as a powerful in some situations as a Story Circle. As a team of artists and non-artists we wanted to be actors in the forums, not only viewers and documenters. We feel a responsibility to make those conversations accessible to their authors who may come from many countries and all walks of life. We are also looking at how we are bringing home those conversations with a world much wider than a family, much wider than a block, a neighborhood, a school, a workplace, a city, the South or our country. We want them to be meaningful by their content, the created impormptu - sometimes unimaginable - social situation, their various colors and flavors.
"This project was partly funded by Alternate ROOTS, Artistic Assistance program and the South Carolina Humanities Council."
Filmed by Amy Cook, Gwylene Gallimard, Arianne King Comer, Jean-Marie Mauclet, Lasheia Oubre, Pamella Gibbs, Latonnya Wallace, of the CHARLESTON RHIZOME COLLECTIVE OF ALTERNATE ROOTS with Rebekah Stone. To the best of our knowlege, participants to the conservations in Nairobi in January 2007 include: Susan IRAKO, Mramba SIMBA, Abdilkadir Hussein MAALIN "Marshaal", Harwin MWENDA, Fatuma Abdilahi ABDI, Abdi Hakim AYNTE, Anite ANZOYO, Jouda MATMATI, Rhita NAMUGUMYA, Beatrice GIKUNDA, Lasheia OUBRE, Mara, Florence KABURU, Eunice KIRIMI, Leslie BOOTH, Irene NKUENE, Bernadette THOMAS, Felix NDIONA, Arianne KING COMER, Mukhtiar CHHALGARI, Rosa NNAMISES, Paece BALOCHISTAN, Laurie FOX, A. Wahid BALOCH, Michael KABURU, Mahar Safdar ALI, John LANHAT, Paul B.CHIN, Brian ISAACK, Fr. James NGAHI, Kiwanuka HAKIIM, Mathew Onyango ORWR, Vago ABELEDO, Juby ATIENO, Maleshwane MAJOE, Carlo ROMAGNOLI, Little Sisters of Jesus, Maryam BIBI, Hubn Soile KIPOTU, Liverpool VCT Care, Gwylene GALLIMARD, Dimpho SIPHORO, S. Rosalia LAKRA, Nahashon NJOROGE, Martin ODUOR, Sabaha HASAN, Mohammed IBRAHIM, Anita DOUANE, Dorothea ALOSH, Mary MJERI Daniel, Emery WRIGHT, EUGENE, Justus NHUU, Marc-Arthur Fils AIME, Christophe BIRINGANINE, Pascal BARIDOMO, Zablon GECHUCHU, Cire AYUMA, Sabina MUSANGI, Marc-Oliver HERMAN, Angelina NJAMBI AICHEM, Theophilus MUNYENDO, Angela MUMBI GITWARA, Nadezda KRUZHKOVA, Patrick Muthee MACHARIA, Groum TESFAYE, Mary AJIAMBO, George Ngozi AGUGUO, Victor DIAZ & Manuel MORENO, Wachira WAHEIRE, Maritra MENDEZ, Joseph Waveru GITAU, Rachel TRAJBER, Bewa PAULIN, Adejor ABEL, Peter WAITHANJE, Elisabeth ROBINSON, Luisa N. TEEKA, Kesinye NAMPASO, Veronicah Wanziru NGIGI, Esther DAPASH, Takemasa ANDO, Makoto KAWAZOE, Elisabeth STREBB, Amy COOK, Emmie, Thibaut CRONE, Ulrike LUNACEK, Begona CAPARROS, Louiza SZACON, Judy DEVADAWSON, Frederik Ogella AGULO, Michael Ochieng AGUM, Rev. Edda S. MBWAMBO. If you see a conversation you participated in and your name is not on that list or your name is mispelled, please receive our apologies. Thank you so much. For more information, you can also visit these sites: The Charleston Rhizome Collective of Alternate ROOTS. This project was partly funded by Alternate ROOTS, Artistic Assistance program and the South Carolina Humanities Council." Photos and design by Gwylene Gallimard. Website by TEMPT3D.com .
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