Germany: The Official Call to The Caravan Festival 2010 in Memory of the
Dead Victims of Fortress Europe
Call for Support!
Join us and help to distribute this call for participation and support to
organize from your towns and cities for the festival!
The Caravan Festival 2010
For the rights of refugees and migrants in Europe (Juni 4th – 6th, 2010 in
Jena - Germany)
Unite against colonial injustice in memory of the dead victims of Fortress
Europe
Open Air Festival against Neo-colonialism and Racism
A place without racism, sexism and discrimination where everyone cares for
each other!
A bastion of humanity and solidarity!
The VOICE Refugee Forum on behalf of the Caravan-for the rights of
refugees and migrants calls for presentations and performances of
socio-cultural and political arts of resistance that explores the
background and complexities of the lives and political struggles of
refugees and migrants in Germany.
Together with anti-racist and socio-cultural and political activists,
these events will feature discussions and exchange of experiences that
includes poetry, street theatre, live music concerts, traditional African
drums and dance, masquerades and gyration, songs and tributes to the
victims of Fortress Europe.
It will also feature films, arts and photo exhibition and a host of other
activities that will suit the expected range of wide participants from
across Europe, Africa and beyond. Further concrete ideas and proposals are
welcome and will be duly updated.
The highlight of this event will be the "Masquerade Parades"- a
traditional form of expression with subtle and latent meanings in Africa.
This will be supported by other arts and cultural performances with
initiatives from different refugee-migrant communities that reflect our
diversity and the breadth of our socio-cultural and political engagement.
The masquerades will come from our diverse lands with our history and the
dignity of our ancestors. They will tell our stories in our own words and
will ask questions of the colonizers to help us re-assert and reclaim the
essentials of our humanity -solidarity, compassion and human dignity.
With the masquerade parade we want to build a Memorial in the middle of
Europe for the death of thousands of refugees and migrants at the
increasingly deadly and lethal borders of the European Union. With it we
want to reaffirm our commitment to our fight for our right to freedom of
movement, social justice and global solidarity.
Africa is not far from us - Masquerade and Fortress Europe
African Masquerades are revered divine cultural arts and performances
during special traditional festivals in many parts of Africa. They are
celebrated and represent a means of communal self-reflection, protection
and solidarity especially during disasters or mass misfortune.
Traditionally, masks represent symbols of deity and dead persons whose
faces cannot be physically seen or touched but imbued with the ability to
speak and communicate with members of their community on issues of
important bearings.
The Masquerades can and will tell the stories of those, whose stories may
never be told -those burnt alive under mysterious circumstances in police
custody, those shot and killed by the police in various European
countries, those whose lives are meant to be wasted in the inhuman refugee
and asylum camps all over Europe, those forced to be drowned by the
security forces of European countries, those persecuted and criminalized
by the racist police, those suffocated in the process of deportation and
lots more.
We will not allow any of the memories of these victims to be "mere
numbers" and forgotten without a trace. They are the victims and final
recipients of the consequences of national and international injustice in
Germany (Link) and the wider European Union. We will tell their stories
for their stories are our stories and they remain our heritage.
Memorial Landmark
While recollecting the extreme conditions that precipitated our flight
from our home countries, we will be remembering the horrors of these
victims amidst the fear of certainty that more will die. In their honour
therefore, we will unveil a "monument of human dignity" during the
festival in Jena for all victims of the Frontex border regime and the
barbaric policies of Fortress Europe. This monument will represent what
these victims were denied by the heartless European powers even at death.
For the Rights of Refugees and Migrants in Europe!
The goal of the festival is to remind us of all the victims of Fortress
Europe:
- Also the problems of countries outside Africa and the victims of war
must not be forgotten;
- European participants should show at the festival that they recognize
Europe's responsibility for colonial injustice and to fight against the
injustice - We are here because you destroy our countries!
Preliminary Format
The festival is open to all activists and artists of all nationalities and
communities to express themselves through their arts of resistance with
cooperation and creativity.
The format aims to reclaim the city of Jena as a whole with the festival
events. Thus, there will be four "Blocks" in different parts of the city
where events on different issues/topics will be presented /staged, and one
open square for the central events.
The festival is meant to be a political festival of arts and performances
exhibiting different forms of resistance with international participants
to be coordinated by The VOICE Refugee Forum and activists of the
Caravan-for the rights of refugees and migrants in Germany.
Further……
We want to increase public awareness of the enduring colonial injustice
through this festival and improve our cooperation with various segments of
the society through creative arts of resistance in various forms.
We are committed to the collective practice of building and maintaining a
group/network that appreciate and probably share the history of our
political struggles in a creative process.
We therefore invite and welcome supporters from diverse disciplines,
background and orientations who can bring fresh approaches and ideas to
invigorate our arts of resistance.
There will be special events of children initiatives including Acrobatic
displays and Circus actions with Percussion Jam Session and more!
Volunteers are urgently needed
We are looking for volunteers with particular attention to Artists such as
painters, sculptors, play writers, theatre performers and media activists,
musicians, actors, art critics, in addition to individuals and activists
from political and cultural groups and social networks who have interest
in being a part of the preparatory activities and mobilization to the
festival.
The final selection of materials and actions will depend on the
preparatory group and meetings in cooperation with the nationwide caravan.
Preparation meeting
Preparations are already on track in Jena, Thüringen-wide and
groups/activists from Hamburg, Bremen, Frankfurt, Hanau, Freiburg, Berlin
and Wuppertal are already involved.
We want to cordially invite all interested persons to the first nationwide
preparatory meeting of the festival.
This will take place in Jena on Saturday, 23rd and Sunday, 24th of January
2010.
Time: Begins on Saturday, 23rd January at 12.00 noon
http://thevoiceforum.org/node/1473
Agenda:
For the preparation meeting on January 23rd and 24th interested groups,
activists and other persons from different cities are invited for
discussions on networking and exchange of ideas and information on the
cultural and political contributions, including de-centralized activities
of public interest, fund-raising and touring before the festival in June.
Please get in contact with us!
We will work to provide some financial support to cover the costs of
presentation at the festival, depending on agreed scale, nature and
location of the contribution.
Contact Details:
Osaren Igbinoba, Telephone: 0176 24568988,
E-mail: thevoiceforum@emdash.org
Or: daskarawanefest-jena2010@gmx.de
Websites:
http://thevoiceforum.org and
http://thecaravan.org
The festival will be financed by private donations, participation
contributions, solidarity events and sponsoring. So we appeal to you all
for donations to the account stated below.
Information on participants and their projects should include:
- A profile of the artist(s) or activists
- A brief description of the production or project you wish to present and
activity.
- A DVD if appropriate, published text and internet link
- How you wish to present - extract, pitch session, etc incidental or
spontaneous work.
- The type of venue you would need.
- A sense of its scale and technical specification
- Information on the cost and presentation.
- Any special person you would like to be invited.
If you are interested to support and participate in the festival and to
receive newsletters and information on the preparation of the festival you
can us contact.
E-mail: daskarawanefest-jena2010@gmx.de
For those who cannot join, please support us by sending proposals and
donations. Financial support is needed for good preparatory meetings,
publicity, mobilization and information tour for the festival.
Bank Account: Donation- JenaFestival:
Förderverein The VOICE e. V.,
Bank: Sparkasse Göttingen,
Bank Account: 127 829;
Bank Number: 260 500 01,
IBAN: DE97 2605 0001 000 1278 29,
BIC: NOLADE21GOE
Please keep your proposal or comments on the festival to a maximum of 4
pages.
All activities of the festival will be coordinated with The VOICE Refugee
Forum and The Preparatory group in Jena.
Important things to consider:
Financial Donation, Mobilization, Big Tents and Mobile Trucks for music,
Stages and parade.
The VOICE Refugee Forum Jena
Adresse: Schillergässchen 5, 07745 Jena
Tel. Handy 0049(0) 17624568988,
Fax: 03641 / 42 02 70,
E-Mail: thevoiceforum@emdash.org,
Internet: http://www.thevoiceforum.org
Gegründet: 1994, Arbeitsweise: Kampagnen,Aktionen, Vernetzung.
Publikationen: E-Newsletter
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