“Telling my own story became a way for me to generate change…” – actress, playwright and director Alina Serban, accepting the first Tajsa Prize in December 2019. The Tajsa Prize, endowed by the associate membership of the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture – ERIAC, honors an outstanding Roma individual who has enriched Roma arts and culture.
Alina Serban (geboren 29. Oktober 1987) ist eine Roma Film- und Theaterschauspielerin und Schriftstellerin. Serban ist dafür bekannt, Theaterstücke mit Botschaften der sozialen Gerechtigkeit gegen Sexismus , Rassismus , Homophobie und verschiedene andere Formen der Diskriminierung zu schreiben und aufzuführen.
Alina Serban (born October 29, 1987) is a Roma film and theater actress and writer. Serban is known for writing and performing plays with social justice messages, against sexism, racism, homophobia and various other forms of discrimination.
Seht hier Alina Serbans Rede – see here Alina Serban´s speech
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Sinti und Roma. Eine deutsche Geschichte ==> hier anschauen
Vor 75 Jahren leisteten sie im sogenannten Zigeunerlager von Auschwitz Widerstand gegen ihre drohende Vernichtung. Sie konnten sie aufschieben, aber nicht verhindern. In der Nacht zum 3. August 1944 wurden Sinti und Roma in den Gaskammern ermordet.
Dotschy Reinhardt erzählt als junge Vertreterin der großen Musikerdynastie Reinhardt vom Schicksal ihrer Familie. Rita Vowe-Trollmann erinnert an ihren Vater, den Boxer „Rukeli“, dem die Nazis den Meistertitel einfach aberkannten – wegen „undeutschen“ Boxens. Romani Rose berichtet von seinem Vater Oskar, der vergeblich beim Münchner Kardinal Faulhaber um Hilfe für sein Volk bat. Der Musiker Janko Lauenberger erinnert an seine Verwandte Erna. „Ede und Unku“ heißt das Buch über sie, das an den Schulen der DDR Pflichtlektüre war. Der Vater von Sängerin Marianne Rosenberg kämpfte im Mai 1944 mit im Aufstand gegen die SS. Er überlebte und hielt seine Tochter an, ihre Herkunft besser zu verschweigen.
Auszüge aus Interviews
Janko Lauenberger: „Als Kind habe ich überhaupt nicht erzählt, dass ich Sinto bin. Weil ich wusste, was sich dann in den Köpfen der Leute abspielt. Wenn sie dich fragen: ‚Warum bist du so dunkel, warum hast du schwarze Haare?‘ Und du sagst, du bist Sinto, dann wissen sie sowieso nicht, was das ist. Sagst du, du bist Zigeuner, dann verfallen die in so einen Gedankenrausch und man sieht so richtig, dass sie ihr Märchenbuch aufklappen.
Die Dokumentation zeigt auch, wie Sinti und Roma nach dem Krieg für Entschädigung und Anerkennung kämpften, und dass Antiziganismus noch immer weitverbreitet ist.
Source: zdf.de
Der „Kultur- und Ehrenpreis der Sinti und Roma“ wird dieses Jahr am 20.9.2019 im Foyer des Rathauses Ulm um 11 Uhr im Rahmen des Romno-Power-Festivals vergeben. Grußwort u.a. des Oberbürvgermeisters der Stadt Ulm, Gunter Czisch. Die Preisträger 2019 sind:
- Rosa Gitta Martl │ Für ihr kulturelles Engagement und literarisches Werk
Laudatio: Ilona Lagrene, Autorin, Bürgerrechtlerin, frühere Landesvorsitzende des Verbands Deutscher Sinti und Roma, Landesverband Baden-Württemberg e.V.
Gitta Martl war Mitbegründerin und langjährige Geschäftsführerin des Vereins Ketani, der im Jahr 1998 gegründet wurde und die Interessen der in Österreich lebenden Roma und Sinti vertrat. „Ketani“ bedeutet „gemeinsam“ und verweist auf den Grundsatz des Vereins: Gemeinsam mit allen Bürger*innen Österreichs die Wunden der Vergangenheit zu bewältigen und für eine gemeinsame, friedliche Zukunft zu arbeiten. Für ihren großen Einsatz für Roma und Sinti erhielt sie bereits den Elfriede-Grünberg-Preis, den Marianne-von-Willemer-Preis, den Demokratiepreis der Margaretha-Lupac-Stiftung sowie 2013 das Goldene Verdienstzeichen der Republik Österreich. Gitta Martl ist Autorin und erhielt kürzlich den Roma-Literaturpreis des österreichischen P.E.N.-Clubs.
- Petra Pau │ Für ihren Einsatz für die gleichberechtigte Teilhabe von Sinti und Roma in Europa
Laudatio: Romeo Franz, MdEP
Petra Pau, Vizepräsidentin des Deutschen Bundestages, engagiert sich seit vielen Jahren und Jahrzehnten gegen Antiziganismus und für die Bürgerrechte von Sinti und Roma in Europa. Sie setzt und setzte sich entschieden für aktive Erinnerung und Aufarbeitung des Völkermords an den Sinti und Roma ein. Petra Pau hat in ihrem Engagement daran mitgewirkt, den 2. August als Tag des Gedenkens an den Genozid an den Sinti und Roma in der deutschen Öffentlichkeit fest zu verankern.
- Andreas Hoffmann-Richter │ Für sein langjähriges Engagement im Bereich Bildung
Laudatio: Wolfgang Mayer-Ernst, Studienleiter, Evangelische Akademie Bad Boll
Pfarrer Dr. Andreas Hoffmann-Richter ist Beauftragter für die Zusammenarbeit mit Sinti und Roma der Evangelischen Landeskirche in Württemberg. In den 80er und 90er Jahren war er im Buraku-Befreiungszentrum in Kyoto tätig. 1989 gründete er den Arbeitskreis „Sinti/Roma und Kirchen“ in Baden-Württemberg. Der Arbeitskreis setzt sich dafür ein, Diskriminierung und Vorurteile allgemein und insbesondere gegenüber Sinti und Roma in der Gesellschaft und auch in den Kirchen wahrzunehmen, kenntlich zu machen und zu überwinden. Besonders im Bildungsbereich engagiert sich Dr. Andreas Hoffmann-Richter und betreut Schulprojekte, erstellt Lehrmaterialien und erforscht u.a. den religiösen Antiziganismus.
Hintergrundinformationen zum Kultur- und Ehrenpreis der Sinti und Roma
Der Preis wird seit 2014 jährlich (mit Ausnahme von 2018) vom Verband Deutscher Sinti und Roma, Landesverband Baden-Württemberg für besondere Verdienste in den Bereichen Kultur, Bildung und Bürgerrechte vergeben. Die Preisverleihung findet immer am Tag der ersten urkundlichen Erwähnung von Sinti und Roma in Deutschland statt: dem 20. September 1407 in Hildesheim. Für mehr Informationen: sinti-roma.com
(Text: Landesverband Baden-Württemberg)
Source: dRoma
]]>Written & Directed by David Bartlett
Produced by Will Poole
Photographed by Paul Kirsop
Edited by Duncan Moir
Original Music by Jack Arnold
First Assistant Matt Lawson
Starring: Sasha Watson-Lobo, CJ Johnson, Jack Bennett with Joshua Lay, Nichole Bird, Somi de Souza, Nigel Cooke, Robert Gill
© Kewhaven Pictures 2019
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This is the speech Davie Donaldson made at the 2019 Amnesty Scotland Festival Reception
‘Why did I become an activist?’ It’s a good question, and one that I was asked before speaking to an Amnesty International audience at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this week.
I began advocating for my community when I was 15, when my pals were playing football – I was in council meetings, when my cousins were talking to girls… I was talking to eviction officers and when my friends were partying – I was making speeches.
My activist journey started early, so maybe I can answer the question by describing what it’s like to grow up as a Scottish Traveller:
Your family have to live on the edge of society, in places built on disused middens, where the ‚air is choking with the smell of rats‘, open septic units and crumbling toilet blocks, your family are forced to feel forgotten.
At school you’re told that your education is a waste of resources, because you’ll never amount to anything anyway. What you’re taught misses out your communities’ culture and your contributions to history are omitted. You’re belittled in the playground with slurs like ‘pikey’, ‘tink’, ‘mink’ and ‘gypo’. Nobody wants to play with you.
After school you go shopping with your mum and are followed around by security, seen as a thief based only on your ethnicity. You can’t enter some shops, bars and restaurants – because they have signs banning Gypsies and Travellers.
In the news politicians describe your community as a ‘plague’, a burden that needs ‘getting rid of’ and call for tougher enforcement against your culture if given the power. Whilst on social media people comment things like ‘Hitler had the right idea’ and describe your community as leeches on society.
When you go home and you’re outside painting, a man pulls up and tries to run you over as he screams out abuse. His hatred for your people, causing him to hate you – despite the fact you’re only 8.
This won’t be the last time you’re threatened, go forward a few years and you’re on a train. A different man, a different city, he threatens to shoot you; describing children from your community as scum who don’t deserve to live. Nobody comes to help you, the train carriage stays quiet, the police describe him as having ‘outdated values and not to pay attention’.
If you don’t try and hide your ethnicity you’ll struggle to gain employment or to rent a property. Oh, and the police will stop and search you more as well.
Statistics show that your community experience the worst inequalities on every measure the state has. Experiencing higher rates of depression, higher levels of suicide, higher infant mortality and you’re expected to live at least 10 years less than the national average.
And you know of course, that statistics are only half the story, they don’t show the mother who in winter was evicted from her camp the day before Christmas – forced to stay in a motorway layby with her young children – because a local believed her children playing was ‘an eyesore’ for dog-walkers.
The statistics don’t mention the ambulance that refused to help that old man who had collapsed.
Nor when your family were being attacked by rocks during the night – and when you called the police they laughed and hung up the phone.
When the time comes for you to pass on, your family will struggle to book a venue for your wake; but don’t worry because there’ll surely be a headline about your death – something along the lines of ‘Big Fat Gypsy Funeral takes place’. And, remember and count yourself lucky, because your great grandparents weren’t even allowed to be buried in the kirkyard…
So, let me ask, why did you or why would you become an activist?
I didn’t choose to be born a Traveller; but being born one meant growing up in a society that forced me to fight for my very existence.
Alice Walker once said, ‘activism is the rent we pay for living on this planet’ – I’ve found this rent can be expensive and involves many personal sacrifices, but to me it pays toward something bigger, a social change that I will be proud of in old age.
There is an old Gypsy saying – ‘The winter will ask what we did in the summer’ – I’ll be one of the people who can say:
‘I did something, I didn’t wait for someone to do it for me, nor did I stand by and watch as they suffered’
Will you be able to say the same?
Tatsächlich ist es mittlerweile bereits fast ein Jahr her, dass der Weltklasse Jazzviolinist Zipflo Weinrich von uns ging. Seine Familie hält die musikalische Tradition weiter hoch und erfrischt die österreichische Musikszene mit den Kompositionen des Sohnes von Zipflo – Buku Weinrich.
Buku spielt seit seinem achten Lebensjahr Gitarre und lernte viel von seinem Großvater Joschi Weinrich. Später wurde aktiv in der Band seines Vaters Zipflo und arbeitet dadurch schon sehr früh mit Größen wie Stochelo Rosenberg, Philip Chaterine oder Karl Ratzer.
Großartiges Konzert mit Stargast Knebo Guttenberger
Letzte Woche trat Buku mit seiner eigenen Band auf – dem dem Buku Weinrich Quartett. Zu diesem besonderen Konzert vor dem Rathaus in Korneuburg wurde Stargast Knebo Guttenberger als Lead-Sänger präsentiert. Dieser swingt und jazzt ganz in der Tradition von Frank Sinatra, Michael Buble oder Roger Cicero.
Hier in das Konzert reinhören + Gruss von Knebo Guttenberger
Diese besondere Kooperation kann man am 25. September 2019 im Wiener Porgy & Bess noch einmal live erleben, denn anlässlich des ersten Todestages der Jazzvioline-Ikone Zipflo Weinrich wird dort eine sehr persönliche musikalische Hommage mit Freunden wie zB. Tini Kainrath gespielt.
Veranstaltungshinweis: Mittwoch, 25. September 2019 | 20:30 @Porgy & Bess, 1010 Wien
Zipflo Weinrich Gipsy Swing / Zipflo Weinrich Jazz Funk Group (A/F/I)
mit:
Tini Kainrath, Knebo Guttenberger: vocals
William Lecomte: piano
Hans Zinkl, Buku Weinrich: guitar
Karl Sayer, Milan Nikolic: bass
Manu Maze: accordion
Heimo Wiederhofer: drums
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Independent Theater Hungary organizes the third Roma Heroes International Theatre Festival this year, between 24th August and 15th September, presenting Roma companies and their plays from several European countries. The shows take place in Eötvös 10 Theatre and in Vallai kert, RS9 Theatre.
In the past two years (2017 and 2018) we invited monodramas and storytelling performances to Hungary. The festival keeps growing and in 2019, the audience can get to know Roma chamber theatre plays. Our goal is to show the diversity of Roma theatre, also presenting different genres and topics. The artists tell stories from Germany, the Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary about the past and present of Gypsy communities, showing their everyday challenges related to education, health care, migration, integration and assimilation. „So far, the plays presented the viewpoint of one hero, but this year, different points of views and the diverse relations of Roma and non-Roma communities will be in the spotlight“, said Rodrigó Balogh, artistic director of the theatre and the festival.
The plays are performed with English subtitles and Hungarian interpreting, so they are accessible for Hungarian and foreign audience as well.
In August 2019, two plays present the active youth.
Both plays star youngsters who draw attention to the challenges and active engagement of the new generation.
Sokheren amenca! /Forever Holiday!
The coproduction of Gorki Studio in Berlin and Romano Svato company in Vienna is based on the real life story of the Yugoslavian sisters who were born in Germany but got recently deported from there, with the help of professional actors and youngsters.
Hungarian premiere: 24th August 2019, 6 p.m., Eötvös10 Közösségi és Kulturális Színtér
Audience discussion with the artists after the show.
Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija, from the play ‚Forever Holiday!‚
The play „Shoddies“ by Independent Theater Hungary also put youngsters on the stage to show the insane health care system, their own traumas and prejudices, and to ask themselves as well as the spectators what we can do – instead of complaining – to improve this situation.
Public rehearsal: 23rd August 2019, 6 p.m., RS9 Theatre, Vallai kert
Premiere: 25th August 2019, 6 p.m., RS9 Theatre, Vallai kert
Audience discussion with the artists after the show.
Photo: Alina Vincze, The „Shoddies“
In September 2019, two plays discuss the deadly challenges of the community.
While one play evokes history, the other explores the circumstances of a young girl’s death.
The festival continues in September with the Czech ARA Art company, evoking Roma history in a new form, building on the elements of circus arts. The storytelling of the old Roma women guides us through the fate and past of the community, starting with the origin legend of Gypsy people, through modern history and Holocaust till the assimilation efforts of the socialist regime. Even though the story presents a Czech perspective, it raises topics and issues that are important for Roma communities in Hungary as well.
Hungarian premiere: 14th September 2019, 6 p.m., Eötvös10 Közösségi és Kulturális Színtér
Audience discussion with the artists after the show.
Photo: Jan Mihalicek, from the play Pindral
Giuvlipen company from Bucharest tells the story of a young Roma girl who would like to keep studying but neither her family nor her school supports her. The play is based on a real story and presents the struggle of the girl from various perspectives, raising the validity of different approaches and at the same time pointing out collective responsibility that no one can escape.
Hungarian premiere: 15th September 2019, 6 p.m., RS9 Theatre, Vallai kert
Audience discussion with the artists after the show.
Source: Giuvlipen Theater Company
If you would like to book your ticket, contact us at [email protected]!
Roma Heroes International Theatre Festival is the one and only international theatre meetup in the world for Roma theatres which aims to bring together the minority and the majority, and strengthen Roma communities by showing the values and challenges of Roma theatre and communities.
Source: https://independenttheater.blogspot.com
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Brexit has made me get in touch with my Britishness; before it was always something I negated because of being a Romani too, its like I had a get out clause to not have to subscribe to the British cultural norms or collective identity, while at the same time benefiting from and being a part of them. The problems of British identity were not my problems, because I had my own racial identity to battle for. A big part of that identity for me was always music and song; it was a cultural touchstone that where I came from was somewhere different. I remember in ‘Show and Tell’ at school performing Atch Along Mi Chavio in the British Romani creole Poggidi Jib. I was always proud to feel like we had something else.
As the British Romani musical tradition is largely an oral one, Damian and I both knew Atch Along’s melody but going by different names and with different lyrics. Damian supposed the two halves had been separated somewhere throughout history, and when I started to put them together sure enough a narrative emerged. That’s how we ended up playing the so called Atch Along/ Kushti Romanes Mash Upand as a last minute addition- first rehearsed in the soundcheck- Damian accompanied with the spoons.
A song I had written came to mind because of how rooted it was in the place it occurred, which made me think more largely about the context of the evening in relation to the significance of place; our place in Europe as ex Europeans, as our place in Britain as Romani people, and our place in the world as a newly confused combination of those two things. For me Brexit was really a feeling of loss, of a loss of place, and that feeling is not new among the Gypsies. The song was called The Things I Lost On Gloucester Street, and it’s about the loss of love.
A song I didn’t play, and will maybe always wish I did, is a song called Night By Name which I wrote when I was sixteen about my Romani uncle, Chris Knight. A poet and artist, who in his youth used to go and sleep up on the common in Kent in his big green overcoat when he wanted some peace. He always smelled of woodsmoke and red wine, with tobacco and rizla and poems seeping out of his pockets. As a child my best friend and I spent many nights out in the crisp starlit evenings, while an old door was put down and her mum would dance flamenco, her skirts merging with the fires flames, as my uncle played harmonica and sang the blues in his life worn voice. Wine was always spilled and it was always too late for a school night and we would be huddle warm together, small spectators of this adults world. My uncle taught me most of the Romani I know, and also how to swing a good left hook by the age of 8. For me the song felt like the most intimate way I could communicate what it felt like to be a Romani child growing up in Brexitland. The week of the concert my uncle died very suddenly, and much too young, as seems to be the fate of many a good Gypsy man. So in order to keep it together, I decided not to perform the song at the concert.
I finished my part of the evening with a song called 9 Lives, originally about a group of cocaine snorting fashionistas, whose attitude to life somehow reminds me of the shortsightedness of our British government right now.
Source:romnjajazz.com
Stefan Pišti Horvath | Das historische Zymbal kehrt in die Heimat zurück
11. Baranka Park Gedenkfeier
PEN Club Literaturpreis an Gitta Martl
Denkmal gegen Vergessen | KZ Opfer in Ritzing
Der (un)sichtbare Ton trägt die Identität | Ioana Spataru
Verabschiedung; Schlussfilm „Die Seidenstraße“
Ganze Sendung ==> hier
Source:tvthek.orf.at
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