Narratives of Hope

scenery, January in Beirut

2007-01-28T20:31:00.000Z

two billborads carrying two opposing campaigns, sitting side by side in peace

The sky of Beirut on black Tuesday, 23 january

Johnny walker's interpretation of the situation

a new coalition: 11th=8th+14th divided by two...

Back to Beirut

2007-01-01T22:31:00.000Z

I am back, this time alone.
It is the political calm of festivities, however, all the festivities are nothing but political. Before going out last night, I was watching Manar TV, broadcasting from their party celebration. the speeches were adressed from children age 4 to 9, to Sinyora, Sayed Nasrallah, Mr Junblat...ye3neh, a Lebanese version of Political community arts.
Apparently, Tayyar have made a whole new color for Santa this year: Orange, while their opponents, the 14th of March coalition came up with a catchy slogan "I love life". Now life is branded with politics, and christmas trees are also branded with I love Life.
Anyway, also two days after my return, I bumped into Jihad and Mohammad, two of the guys who did the training with Steve. I will maybe be able to track down most of the participants in Narratives of Hope. More news soon.
Some picts for you

Thank you round II

2006-10-17T10:28:00.000+01:00

to all those who came, and all those who couldn't make it
to all those we met in the Foundry
to Jonathan for offering us a great place
to Hanane, the Beirut surprise
to Chrissie for overriding all the work and joining us
to the sick almir and Lucia who got better after a few whiskeys
to Michael, Andrea, Jeremy, Steve, Frances and Emma
and a very warm greeting to Tiffany and her bad luck that day

to the children and people of Beirut
Cheers

drinks

2006-10-08T11:07:00.000+01:00

Sunday 15th of october, at 3:00 in the Foundry.
we will be there to talk about the trip, to show pictures and drink!
it's a public gathering, all are welcome
The Foundry, great eastern Street, Old street tube station, exit 3.

Some of the children we met

2006-09-29T10:29:00.000+01:00

Frances and Emma's masks workshop, Jeitawi, Friday 22 September

Andrea's music workshop, Baajour, Thursday 21 September

Jeremy's puppets workshop, Baajour, Thursday 21 September

silence

2006-09-27T09:41:00.000+01:00

It's wednesday morning, I spoke to frances, and Jeremy, saw Andrea and emailed steve, in the last few days in London. I had posted something before but I deleted the post, still trying to analyse and think of last week. I think most of us are trying to make sense of this trip, trying to see what to share and what to keep to ourselves as Andrea said. One thing for sure is that it changed something in our lives, and it made us think a lot. the silence you are seing on this blog, is not because we have nothing to say, we have too many things to say, but we are not sure what to say, and how to say it.
we will try to post soon, once we find a way to process all what we have seen and done

some scenes from Beirut

2006-09-22T16:16:00.000+01:00

Live from T marbouta

2006-09-22T15:39:00.000+01:00

Me and Jeremy are sitting now in T marbouta, in Hamra, with maybe 5 other people, watching Nasrallah and his speech on a big screen. There is no one on the streets of Hamra, and maybe 5 people with computers here. They have a fast wireless connection, and very good food. we had Kebbeh Bil saniyeh, with Nawal, and Hanan.
Steve and Andrea decided to go to the "celebration". Last time we saw them was in Hamra, getting a taxi. We hope to see them again. but I told them that I am too tiered and if they get in trouble, I asked them not to call me. I gave the number of a cab anyway, so don't worry they are supposed to be fine. maybe. Anyway they have the Goldsmith authorization paper! that will do, in the celebration.
in the mean time, hearing the words of this charismatic leader, we were looking at the pictures of the workshops, so here's some of them

few pictures

2006-09-22T15:28:00.000+01:00

quick post, I am ok

2006-09-22T10:26:00.000+01:00

you are probably wondering where I am and what is going on. Things are very intense, too much work, 4 workshops running at the same time, and I am split in following up, documenting, providing the needed material, and of course, trying to keep the emotinal luggage under control. It's been very hard. The city is still bleeding to death, and Hizbollah are celebrating today. I have no idea what is there to celebrate.

Anyway, let me tell me about our beirut surprise, one of the good surprises, It's Hanan. We met Hanan in our first meeting with Samidoun, Sarah and Assabil. She was very nice and she came with Nawal. Hanan, today, became as valuable to the project as any of the team members. It turns out that she arrived to beirut 4 days ago, like us, and she just found herself working with us! She translated with francis in Assabil workshops, she helped Jeremy yesterday morning, Andrea as well, did all the training sessions with steve, and most of all helped us stay sane with her positive energy, or as sane as we can be here! a round of applause for Hanan

I am off for a feedback meeting with Nawal and the group

New Friends

2006-09-19T11:38:00.000+01:00

Here are some of our new friends. Maha who works in the south with her blue headscarf. Nawal teased her about going Hezbollah, but she says she wears it to protect from the dust. And who knows what dust? Radioactive, maybe? Nawal who is the vice-president of Assabil and gave us grapes and coffe on our arrival. Then Hebba listening, with our Andrea and Hanane behind him. This is taken during our first Samidoun meeting. Later we went with her to eat on our first whole day and night in Beirut. And Ola. She is one of the main organisers of Samidoun but we haven't talked to her in detail yet. But I'm sure we will.

Technical Update

2006-09-19T11:30:00.000+01:00

for all those of you who are following our journey, I can only talk about the technical update. The emotional and pshycological one, I think I need time to process and accept what I have seen so far.

It is a big Chaos, and some of the people working here, are tempted by using the chaos as an excuse, for more chaos! so try to imagine the communication

So far, working from 7 in the morning till 11 in the evening yesterday, we have managed to find areas of intervention in this chaos.

Steve, will be training in Theater Monot starting tonight, from 6 to 9, working with various volunteers from samidoun and other people, gathered sporadicaly, and intrested in the training

Frances and Emma will be working as of tomorrow morning in the garden of Jeitawi, where the Assabil Library has set up a very nice space

Jeremy and Andrea, will be working with Samidoun, starting today, and running workshops tomorrow and thursday all day, with the kids of the Dahieh neighborhood.

I will keep you posted with what happens next

2006-09-19T10:25:00.000+01:00

second day in beirut.

the first day has been very intense, meeting with nawal at assabil and then a move to the branch in the christian area of town. we met maha, an architect who is involved in relief work in south lebanon. she told us what she is doing with other volunteers and we started to understand the complex dynamics of lebanese politics. nawal is very critical of hezbollah, maha' s position is more nuanced, given that she is working in areas controlled by them. hezbollah seems to be a grassroot movement, a political party, a resistance group and a religious organization all at once.

beirut is one of the most complex, layered and chaotic cities I have seen, it brings to mind naples in italy, multiplied per ten. As far as I undestand it, the city is quite clearly divided in areas, a sunni part, an armenian part, the shia part, the christian one, the palestinian.

almost all the people I met can shift rapidly among three languages, arabic, french and english, depending on the person they are talking with.

nawal and samar told me about the large presence of people from sri lanka, sudan and the philippines who generally work as maids and domestic servants. sarah (i don't know if this is the right spelling of the name) mentioned that srilankan has become the name that identifies domestic servants, whether they are actually from sri lanka or not.

we had two meeting in the afternoon with the volunteers from samaidoun, the organisation that works in the part of town bombed by the Israeli army. it has been a difficult but productive beginning, we are learning a little bit about each other and we will try to work together, trying not to overstep boundaries and competences. samar's project, after a first part of emails and telephone calls, is now in the phase of face to face contacts, negotiations and personal dynamics.
good.

in the afternoon we also went to dahieh, the area recently bombed. you get there by driving close to one the palestinian refugee camps. samaidoun meets with the kids of dahieh in a playground surrounded by tall block of flats. we briefly met the boys and girls we are going to work with. jeremy and I start today with the group, we will play and conduct a few games, with the help and tranlsation of the volunteers from samaidoun. it is going to be very intense.

Thank You: Round 1

2006-09-15T14:27:00.000+01:00

Before we set off to Beirut, I feel I have to write, on behalf of this project, a thank you note for all those who got us so far.

On the 17th of August, I woke up and wrote the invitation of going to Beirut, two days after the ceasefire, in an email that I sent to my classmates. To be honest, I had very little expectations in terms of who will want to go, it sounded like a bit of a crazy proposal at the moment, going to a war zone with a ceasefire that was so shaky. It was a very spontaneous email; I wanted to go to see what I can do, but did not want to go alone. To my surprise, Jeremy, Andrea, Douglas, Magan, Andy, Tiffany, Lorna, Emma, Frances, Hilary, Catherine and some people I never even met, replied positively saying that they are willing to go and do whatever they can.

To these people who had more faith in peace than me, I say thank you because you are what got this project so far.
I wrote a proposal then, and met with Chrissie, who offered all the help, she can, and encouraged me to go further. To Chrissie, I send the biggest thank you for this inspiring year and the endless support

Getting the funding was the biggest challenge, getting funded as an individual who has been in the UK for less than year, for a project that had to happen in less than a month was almost an impossible ambition. But I could have never done it without the support of Julian, Samia and Ita, who believed in me one year ago, and gave me a scholarship to come to this MA, and then believed in me again and allowed this project the financial means to go ahead. To all the people of the Karim Rida Said Foundation, an even bigger thank you

And then the preparations, the material, the planning and booking, and here comes the generous contribution of Tiffany and Photovoice, Andy and Hi8us, Samer Sawwas, MEA, and especially Nawal, Assabil and Sarah abou Ghazal who worked so hard to get things organized in Beirut in the midst of all this Chaos.

Finally thank you

Steve, for setting this blog, for agreeing to go at the last minute and being so open and generous with no conditions
Andrea, for wanting to go without even knowing me, without any guarantees or insurance, just for Lebanon
Frances, for being so selfless and generous despite the risk you are taking
Jeremy, for trusting this project from the very first start
And young Emma for wanting to go even if she had to pay her own ticket

We will be setting off from Heathrow on Sunday morning, wish us luck!

If I forgot someone, there's a round 2 next week, upon our safe return, Inchallah...

Maybe there is hope!

Project Brief

2006-09-14T16:06:00.000+01:00

This project is called Narratives of Hope, and will be running from the 17 - 24 September 2006.

This brief was written last week, and sent to Beirut for the local partners. I had written a much longer version but the Lebanese asked for a brief, just a small paragraph. Here it is:

A project designed and managed by Samar Maakaron, in partnership with Assabil Public libraries www.assabil.com and funded by the Karim Rida Said Foundation www.KRSF.org

This project brings to the city of Beirut, specifically to the children directly affected by the war, 5 community artists from London, artists who wish to contribute in some way to the relief efforts happening after the war. Hence, this project allows these people to donate their experience and skills, in facilitating and planning workshops using drama, photography, visual arts and music.

These workshops will be designed around creating narratives of hope, starting from documentation of memories and loss. Through the usage of metaphors and characters, this work will allow children to express their feelings with a safe distance from the trauma of their reality.

Narratives of Hope will allow a group of 70 children (20-25 children for each of the three workshops), to use art to have fun, to channel their personal stories, their thoughts feelings and fears, into creative activities, theatre exercises, and music. This project tries to colour the world of these children with some hope, and send a message of faith and solidarity to the Lebanese community.

Steve, will be working with a group of Lebanese volunteers to exchange knowledge and skills in workshop facilitation.

Although it is difficult to think of a hopeful future after the latest events of this atrocious war, Narratives of Hope will attempt to search in the traces of the war, the memories, the children’s imaginations, their capacity to adapt to the situation, for inspiring stories of hope for the present.

Finally, the artists do not claim to have the solution, this project is a short project running only for one week, but it is being planned as a taster session, a session that brings people from different mediums to investigate ways of working with the children of South Beirut. It will be a creative research and investigation of both foreign and local talented people to find ways of using art, as a venue for more communication and expression.

Beirut from Space

2006-09-12T12:19:00.000+01:00

Beirut from the sky

Beirut - before. Including it's southern suburbs. Sadly, it doesn't look like this any more. The latest satellite images will now show some of these areas totally flattened.

As Samar mentioned, part of our work this week might be to 'rebuild' these places using the experiences, memories and imagination of our volunteers and kids....

South Bank Meeting

2006-09-12T10:40:00.000+01:00

Ok. So there are five of us going: Jeremy, Emma, Frances, Andrea and me. And Samar who has arranged the whole thing. We'll be working in one of the southern suburbs of Beirut , Dahieh. I'll be with a group of young 'volunteers' from Samidoun. That organisation has been working with refugees and displaced people in the area since before the bombing began in July and their volunteers, as I understand it, will be young people some employed, some not, who will develop the skills they acquire next week to work, in the future, with local young people.

The other workshop leaders will be working directly with kids from Dahieh doing a range of activities including, movement, music- and mask-making.

We talk about the spaces we'll be in. We talk about the length of time we'd be working each day. About us meeting and sharing ideas each morning. About our plans and schemes of work for next week. About having a plan but staying flexible. About each group making some kind of public performance, perhaps, at the end. We talk about documenting the work. About being sensitive to the people we'll be working with. About not being intrusive. Remembering that the people we work with may appear ok on the surface, but that underneath they may still not have fully recovered. About practicals too. About slightly bulky DV cameras and whether you can get them on aeroplanes any more. About cameras, film, musical instruments, paper, plaster-casts, CD's and internet connections. About a blog.

We have a T shirt conversation. There's an idea about us wearing - or at least being given - I love Lebanon T shirts to wear as we step off the plane. The 'We will not be silent' T Shirts are also mentioned...

I am now going to invite everyone else onto this site, and when we get to Dahieh, all the workshop participants too.

corniche .

Going to Lebanon

2006-09-11T14:49:00.000+01:00

I'm going to Lebanon on Sunday. We fly from Heathrow, Middle Eastern Airlines direct to Beirut. The temperature there today is 31 degrees. The Israeli blockade came off at the weekend so, everything being equal, this time next week we'll be there.

I have a meeting tonight in the Cafeteria of the National Film Theatre with Samar and the others, to go through some of the details. It's her who's organised all this and she's done a great job so far.

I'm supposed to be the most experienced workshop leader of the five who are going. The organisation we're working with is called Samidoun (www.samidoun.org). They're based in Beirut and there's another organisation involved - Assabil (www.assabil.com) - which is a charity that aims to support libraries in the country. I don't quite understand the connection but I'm sure I will tonight.

Am I nervous? Yes. A bit. Yes, I've been to Serbia and Bosnia after conflicts. But not so soon after. And I can see that nerves are very raw at the moment. Blair was there yesterday -Thanks Tony! - and I notice he got an angry demonstration http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5333728.stm. No difference there then. . .

As it is, Chrissie's writing a To Whom it May Concern Letter which may need to be shown to various parties. Hezbollah included. But this will actually be one month after the 'end of hostilities' and I don't think I'm likely to be going anywhere near an Israeli cluster bomb... I hope.

Tell you more after tonight.