Feb26
More pix to show the ‘backstage’ of Wroclaw opening session. Zeina Soudi, Ramallah Dialogue Cafe manager, joined the session just to say hello and show how close we can be, regardless where we are.
Laurinda Alves, Lisbon DC manager, also joined this session five minutes after having the DC room full of architecture students. Immediatly after this Opening all those students met palestinian peers in Dialogue Cafe. We’ll post some pix and videos, too.
Here’s the link to a video of the opening: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb1qp5O41o0
Feb14
Portuguese musicians met polish musicians in Dialogue Cafe. It has been the first session co-hosted by Wroclaw and Lisboa and the meeting lasted for more then 2 hours. All the participants came to brainstorm and share experiences about being an artist. This was another enriching and open minded session. It opened everyone’s minds to diversity and also to some similarities between polish and portuguese musicians expectations and challenges.
In the video above Filipa Pinto Ribeiro, classic guitar player, played beautifully an impromptu and in the end of the session she challenged Adam, the young classical-contemporary composer who participated (and is the boy with grey shirt in the picture) to compose a piece that she or Pedro Ferro, the piano player who also participated, can play in the next session.
The polish musicians are Andrzej Strzemżalski, Adam Porębski and Rafał Sieraczek. The portuguese musicians are Pedro Ferro, Filipa Pinto Ribeiro and Luis Jeronimo. On portuguese side attended also Miguel Sobral Cid, vice Director of Music Program in Gulbenkian Foundation. Soon, very soon, all the links to all the musicians will be posted here.
Feb14
When we google Yvon Le Roux, we’re amazed with all his experience, initiatives, projects and knowledge. “As Vice-President of the Public Sector for Cisco Systems in the European Markets, Yvon Le Roux is responsible for strategy, sales and marketing for government, healthcare, education and defence. He was appointed to head the newly-formed Public Sector team in May 2003 and increased sales by 30% within two years” it’s written in his brief Cisco bio. Yvon is a blockbuster and a missionary of modern times and … AT – Advanced Technologies. He came to Dialogue Cafe in Paris, to give a lecture on Social Innovation to a group of MBA students from the Birzeit University. Professor Sabri Saidam brought his students to Dialogue Cafe in Ramallah, and they asked questions and shared experiences with Yvon Le Roux. In the end of this enlightening session, Yvon and the students underlined the essential.
This has been just the first of a series of monthly lectures in DC. Feel free to join next time!To know more, leave a commentary. Northampton is organizing the second one, on the 5th of March, at 6pm (GMT) with the author Margaret Ledwith (http://www.infed.org/community/critical_community_development.htm)
Margaret Ledwith lives in Lancaster where she is Emeritus Professor of Community Development and Social Justice at the University of Cumbria. She is also a coordinator of the international Collaborative Action Research Network. For many years, she was a grassroots community worker, and it was this experience of working with marginalised communities that forged the foundation of a lifetime commitment to social justice. She has written three books: Participating in Transformation: Towards a working model of community empowerment (1997), Community Development: A critical approach (2005) and, with Jane Springett, Participatory Practice: Community-based action for transformative change (2009).
Feb5
Zeina Soudi, 33, Ramallah Dialogue Cafe Manager and Curator, and Deema Mimi, 15, palestinian student who belongs to Ramallah’s Youth Council, are the guest speakers of next TEDx AVEIRO, north of Portugal. Both of them were invited to give their testimony on this global/local stage after a DC session hosted by Lisboa and Ramallah, where the TEDx team met them and heard them talking about civic engagement and solidarity with vulnerable communities.
To have Zeina and Deema in a TEDx event is great news! To know that they’ll travel abroad, from Palestine to Portugal, ‘just’ because they participated in a DC session is deeply rewarding to all managers and people who believe in the power of this powerful tool. Dialogue Cafe is meant to be a platform to spread the word and make a difference in the world and that’s exactly what’s happening. As Steve Jobs would say: isn’t that cool?!
Dec19
This was the topic of the session, but as always the question triggered a lot of items, including the daily life and cultural challenges of palestinian people and also some gaps between eastern and western new gens.
Once said what’s allowed and not allowed in public spaces in Palestine and arab countries, one of the portuguese architecture students went back to basics to underline the importance of Facebook connections in a small scale country like Portugal.
The dialog between palestinian and portuguese young architects to-be was full of joy, but also full of moments to dig deep and pose better questions to try to better understand the roles of social media and public space. In the end both teachers agreed to bring their students to future DC sessions and meanwhile suggested a co-assignement. That’s what DC is meant for, too.
Dec7
CÃntia Lopes, a portuguese artist and street performer, went to Dialogue Cafe this afternoon to join a session between young palestinian and portuguese students. CÃntia rides her monocycle everyday through the hills of Lisbon and her joy and free spirit are contagious.
Dima, a 15 years old palestinian student, hosted this session in Ramallah. Her wisdom and strong will are remarkable. All the students were impressed with her accuracy and sense of humor. She and her colleagues belong to Youth Council of Ramallah Municipality and they exchanged experiences and points of view about their daily lives and the projects they have to help to prevent child labour.
Before the end of the meeting, Dima asked portuguese students if they have anything similar to a Youth Council and she was perplexed when they answered that there is no similar organization in Lisbon.
Portuguese students explained to Palestinian peers that civic engagement is done in schools or youth organizations of political parties. Dima and his colleagues underlined the importance of the Youth Council in a country where all fight for a common cause: Palestine!
In Lisbon there are many problems and challenges, but the fact that the Portuguese live freely in its territory reveals a big difference between Portugal and Palestine. It was very enlightening to all to realize these asymmetries and the portuguese students learned a lot with their palestinian peers. Their feedback is that they are amazed with the extraordinary force with which the youth of Ramallah handle their everyday life
