Last year, besides the five partner organizations, READ project included financial support to third parties, civil Society Organizations from North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, Serbia and Turkey, that could apply for innovative multilingual and intercultural projects. Seventy-eight organizations applied, and twenty-nine projects were awarded with a sub-grant. It was fully successful. More that 100.000 audience was reached; 14 books have been translated; 6 magazines were published; 4 theatre plays were performed; 1 poetic film, 17 videos and 7 podcasts were produced; 14 workshops and 8 other cultural events were organized… We hope that the impact of this year will have a similar wide range: Fifty-seven applications were presented, from which twenty-four were awarded with a subgrant…
Here are the outlines of some of them:
–Environment & Youth Capacity Development – EYCD, based in Prizren, Kosovo, since 2018 took the initiative to create small bookstores with free access for the public.
This year, besides the opening of a new bookstore in the City Park of Prizren, one was created in the northern part of Mitrovica, thanks to a cooperation between EYCD and the local NGO Domovik. The project is called “Take my book to know me”. The aim of this partnership is the mutual cultural knowledge in order to overcome prejudices and barriers inherited from the past. It was accompanied by a workshop.
– In the period from March-September, the Scientia Nova, from Kavadarci, North Macedonia, implemented the translation project “Took the Book”. The project involved the translation and promotion of the book Martina velika zagonetna avantura (Martha’s Great Mysterious Adventures) by the Serbian author Uros Petrovic.
– In April, The Tirana based Albanian Initiative for Development started the implementation of the project “Music in three Bridges”. It consisted in exchanging of experiences between professors and students from three different countries within Western Balkans, Albania-Kosovo-Serbia. In more concrete terms, the project consisted in organizing 7 online master-classes and a joint concert. There were in total 25 horn students (9 from Serbia, 7 from Kosovo and 6 from Albania). During May-June there were organized in total 7 master-classes, in which the professors shared with the students their experiences like soloists but also as part of the orchestras where they have been playing. Students and professors shared their national repertoires.
– The project “Love is the solution”, of the Kosovo NGO Optima, aims to sensitize young people on the acceptance of cultural differences by spreading love and understanding. This principle is best developed using art as a tool for transmitting these values, through the personification of the figure of the well-known author Mr. Syhejl Havolli. His figure is an example in the artistic community, influencing artistic and literary works that represented forms of interethnic communication between all the nationalities living in Kosovo.
– “The Crossroad Interactions between Turkey and Kosova” is a project of the Turkish organization BOHUT, aiming to build a sustainable relationship between cultural institutions and artists between two countries. The scope of the project is to draw the link on which the cultural actors can exchange opinions and ideas through which they can continue producing new works.
– “Balkan Children Stories E-Book” is a project of Multimedia Press, based in Prilep, North Macedonia. The project aims to promote the region’s rich cultural diversity by utilizing selected children’s stories for North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, and Turkey. To present them to the youth of the mentioned countries, they were translated and recorded into Macedonian, Turkish, and Albanian. For successful realization, promotion, and wide distribution, the prepared material is packaged in the form of an e- book, in the completion of which professional actors were participating.
– The Rebel Readers group (Belgrade) and Coalition MARGINS (Skopje) are continuing last year’s collaboration on critical approaches to contemporary North Macedonian literary scene. From the “Inside/Out Online Literary Show” they made the “Inside/Out Literary magazine”, a printed issue on the subject of feminist, queer and minority literature in North Macedonia. Print copies are distributed in Belgrade and Novi Sad and a dozen or so in Skopje. Also, all of the articles are published online on websites bookvica.net (in BHSC language) and okno.mk (in Macedonian).
– OYUN YAZARLARI VE ÇEVİRMENLERİ DERNEĞİ (OYCED ) (Playwrights and Translators Association), translated the book “Kapetan Dzon Piplfoks” (Captain John Peoplefox) written by Serbian writer Dusko Radovic into Turkish, and published the book in Turkish, so as to introduce the writer and Serbian literature in terms of theatre to Turkish theatre sector people.
– “New Audiences” a project of the association for theatre education and production THEATRE FOR EVERYONE, promotes tolerance, empathy and mutual understanding through the art of theatre in the formal educational system in North Macedonia.
Publishing the first ever “Drama Handbook for Teachers” in both Macedonian and Albanian language supports teachers in practically sharing skills and knowledge with the students, thus improving the quality of teaching the art of theatre. Theatre and drama has been scientifically proven to boost the students’ emotional intelligence, communication and leadership skills, self-confidence as well as empathy.
– The overall objective of the project „Supporting Young Writers in Intercultural Dialogue and Promoting Cultural Diversity”, of the NGO Advocacy Center for Democratic Culture ACDC, based in Mitrovica, Kosovo, was to strengthen the regional cooperation of young writers, literary community, and reading culture in four northern municipalities in Kosovo and promote mutual understanding and respect for diverse cultures and cultural expressions. Within the project, five workshops with young writers, students, and professors from the university were organized. Additionally, NGO ACDC developed a campaign to raise public awareness and promote intercultural awareness, understanding, and respect for diverse cultures and cultural expressions. ACDC reached out to prominent individuals of diverse backgrounds from Kosovo who delivered specific messages on the importance of cultural diversity and inter-community relationships.
– “Nepotik 3” is a multimedia book, published by the Albanian organization Bazament Art Space. It presents different mediums of contemporary art from local and international artists. In the book, there are 45 artists. Some of the locals are young emerging talents, while some of the international ones are established artists such as Maciej Dakowicz, Vinca Petersen, Morten Andersen, or Roger Ballen, the photographer from South Africa, who, in parallel with the Exhibition in Tirana, was representing his latest work in the Venice Biennale. The book was also presented in Prishtina hosted by the local NGO Fondacioni 17.
– The project of the NGO Volunterski Centar Vojvodine is called “The opportunity of an unfinished story”. The organizers gathered young people from Serbia and Kosovo who are interested in creative writing, and offered them free-of-charge creative writing workshops that had the aim to support them in writing unfinished stories, which the peers in the other country (once translated) could complete. This resulted in 14 stories that are now translated from-to Serbian and Albanian, and are published in a dedicated blog, as well as in a printed publication that was presented to the wider audience in Novi Sad and Mitrovica.
– The main objectives of “Youth Female Voices of the Balkan Rural Poetry II”, a project of the Macedonian organization LAG, is the promotion of active young authors from rural areas in the Balkans and the empowerment of rural youth through positive stories and role models. This year they translated in Macedonian, printed and widely promoted the Serbian author Vitomirka Trebovac from Serbia, the author of the poetry book “Dani punog meseca“. The promotion of the book was held in Prilep and there were also some rural readings in the area. The book was also promoted during her residency in Tetovo.
Also, the first poetry book in the new edition Youth Female Voices of the Balkan
Rural Poetry was published. The aim of this follow-up project is the continuation of promoting female authors from the Region.
– “Paint a Book”, a project of Organized Youth Association, based in Gostivar, North Macedonia, aims to revive book illustration, which would also promote reading among youth. Young artists from North Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo were gathered in Gostivar, where they stayed during four days.
They were trained in illustrating stories and they made their own illustrations, which were exhibited in one of the art galleries of the city.
– The project “Tell me a story”, implemented by ETEA, an NGO based in Prishtina, Kosovo, consists, first of all, in a workshop of creative writing. This workshop aimed to convey to young people the main concepts of creative writing. The participants – young people of 18 to 29 years old from all the municipalities of Kosovo, especially from minorities – were asked to write on topics of cultural diversity from their own perspectives, with a stress on the values of tolerance and inter-ethnic relations and on the role of youth for the promotion of these values within the respective communities and beyond. At the end, a small book with writings of participants, titled “Other stories”, was published and promoted.
– The project “Transferring Cultural Values through Photography”, carried out by the Turkish association MAFSAD, aims to explain the cultural values of different countries with photographs. Five photography exhibitions were opened. Two of them in Turkey, one in Serbia,
one in North Macedonia, one in Albania:
Each country within the scope of the project identified important historical, natural and cultural values belonging to its own culture. These exhibitions were opened in shopping malls, exhibition halls, galleries or multi-purpose halls of associations, where the number of participants is high. Each photo exhibition was reported in the International and National press. In addition, an e-catalogue of this exhibitions was prepared.
