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Yemen Tunisia: EU-funded project tackles racism through street theatre
August 4, 2016
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Like other Drama, Diversity and Development projects, ‘Black is a Value’ will begin performing on the streets of Tunisia to highlight the racism faced by Tunisia’s black community. They will be performing on 8– 12 August in Kelibia, 15 – 17 August in Tabarka and 20 – 22 August in Bizerte.
This week the crew is adding the final touches and perfecting the performance. Through this performance, ‘Black is a Value’ aims to encourage black Tunisians to value their cultural heritage, reject racist practices linked to social behaviour, and help abolish discriminatory practices and racism against black Tunisians.
The ‘Black is a Value’ team organised a press conference in June where representatives from various media outlets were invited to learn more about the project. The press conference was an opportunity for the group to talk about their project in depth and share the dates of their August performances.
The preparation process included holding workshops on dance, music and theatre in what were labelled the ‘Closed Week Workshops’. The project team also visited the southern part of Tunisia to meet with various artists and representatives of the Tunisian black community. Preparations also included conducting research into the historical trends of slavery in Tunisia, performing in Tunisia’s Spring Festival 2016, and organising various workshops led by pioneering artists and art professors.
Drama, Diversity and Development is the first grant project in culture funded under the regional programme “Media and Culture for Development in the Southern Mediterranean Region Programme”. DDD then sub-grants to smaller projects, towards its aim of promoting diversity and challenging discrimination against minorities through theatre.
Media and culture for development in the Southern Mediterranean has been allocated a total budget of €17 million over a four-year period, of which €9 million is for the award of grants on a co-financing basis, and €8 million for one capacity-development mechanism on media (MedMedia) and one capacity development mechanism on culture (MedCulture). Specifically, the programme seeks to reinforce the role of media and culture as vectors for democratisation, and economic and social development for societies in the Southern Mediterranean. In the cultural field, it supports activities fostering cultural policy reform and reinforcing the capacity of cultural policy makers, as well as promoting investment and the development of cultural operators’ business capabilities. (EU Neighbourhood Info)
Read more
“Drama, Diversity and Development” (DDD) webpage
Med Culture web page
Media and Culture for Development in the Southern Mediterranean Region Programme – project fiche
EU Neighbourhood Info Centre – Culture and media
Countries covered:
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Tunisia
