[xmca] re: creativity -- translation of a letter from Macedonia [Fwd: O kreativnosti]

From: Ana Marjanovic-Shane (ana@zmajcenter.org)
Date: Wed Feb 22 2006 - 15:30:46 PST


Dear XMCA,
Here is a translation of a message I received today from Macedonia. Lina
Kostarova gave me her permission to translate it and re-post it on our
group. I apologize for the roughness of the translation. Ana
___________________________________________________

Dear Ana,
I have been preparing a reply to your postings on XMCA in December for
quite a while. Finally, the time has come, I feel, to write these lines.
I am inspired by the paper on Creativity about which that you wrote. I
have also read with great excitement (and am still reading it).
Moreover, I want to share the news about an event which we are preparing
within our project "Freedom of Communication FOR..." and which involves
children and adults. Finally, you invited us to play...

For the past few years we are involved in a big Project with elementary
schools from the post - conflict regions in Macedonia. In this project
we use creativity of the active involvement of children and adults to
investigate, research and solve problems involving conflicts and
violence. This project a long and exciting story in itself. We consider
this project to be a developmental activity, because we are the ones who
build conditions for conflict resolution, based on what already exists
in the community, but needs to be discovered, encouraged, and brought to
the surface, so we can move on. We know the direction: it is a direction
of the basic human rights and developmental needs of the people. The
rules and the outcomes are made up and modified along the way, in hope
each time to make a step further. This is all happening in "praxis", in
life, and we are now in a new phase of the project since a year ago. We
call this phase: "School networks - communities for multicultural
development". The main goal in this phase is creating ties between
schools of the post-conflict regions, with other regions in the country,
and beyond our country: in other words, we are trying to get out of the
isolation and closed circles, and build of new spaces (not only
geographical, but also spiritual, historical and cultural ones).

So, the main reason for this introduction is a multi-medial event which
we are preparing for Saturday, Feb 25, 2006. This is, for us, a phase of
the VISION in this project. Our main goal is is to build, based in
experience, an IDEAL of the "Freedom of Communication FOR..."
(creativity, future, togetherness, ... everyone can finish the sentence
with their own world). This event is organized with the students and
teachers form 10 schools and a great number of invited guests: artists,
psychologists and other unusual people (220 of them). The space will be
big and stimulative and they will have 10 creative workshops which will
all be connected in the end into one big happening. No one knows what
exactly will happen, how will it go. But we all have ideas which we need
to put together into an "unframed frame" in the worlds of Vesna
Ognjenovic (from "High Neighbor"). Children, youth and adults, people
from different cultures and languages will participate in these
workshops together, not separated by their talents and strengths. The
idea is that everyone experiences something not experienced before,
something they did not envision in their wildest dreams. We will play
with transformations and changes in a safe and friendly atmosphere and
we will give a great opportunity to everyone's creativity to emerge. For
instance, the names of some of the workshops will be: "bread", "white
linen" (association on a known Macedonian folk song),"word", "movement",
"drama", "message","drawing","installation" etc.
Our guests will among others be "High Neighbor" from Belgrade and Baja
Luka - Vesna and Bojana are coming with them. We will also have guests
from Kosovo and Portugal. During the event children from our schools
will be connected on-line with schools in Denmark, Sweden and Argentine.

This is what I wanted to share with you, as you invited us to play. We
will maybe use the poem you sent for our workshop named "The WORD". I am
writing in Serbian because it is easier and quicker and I do not have to
put the text through a spell check.
A lot of warm greetings from
Lina from Macedonia

-------- Original Message --------

Subject: O kreativnosti
Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 02:11:59 -0800 (PST)
From: Lina Kostarova - Unkovska <linaffps@yahoo.com>
To: Ana Marjanovic-Shane <ana@zmajcenter.org>

Draga Ana,

Duze vremena se spremam da vam odgovorim, prvo na vase decembarsko
pismo puno prijateljstva i poddrske, ali i drugim povodima i temama u
krugu XMCA-ovaca. Ipak clanak o Creativnosti o kome pisete, koji sam
i sama sa velikim uzbudjenjem citala i jos uvek citam, kao i dogadjaj
koji spremamo u okviru naseg projekta na temu: "Sloboda komunikacije
ZA..." sa decom i odraslima, a sada i Vas poziv za igru - krajnje je
vreme, osecam, da vam napisem ove redove.

Vec nekoliko godina imamo veliki Projekat sa osnovnim skolama /iz
postkonfliktnog regiona/ u Makedoniji, koji na kreativan nacin i uz
aktivno ukljucivanje dece istrazuje i resava pitanja nasilja, i to je
duga i ubudljiva prica. Projekat smatramo razvojnim jer mi samo
gradimo uslove, nadovezujuci se na ono sto vec postoji u zajednici,
ali treba ga otkriti, ohrabriti i izvuci na povrsinu, da bi isli
dalje. Znamo pravac, koji je trasiran basicnim ljudskim pravima i
razvojnim potrebama ljudi i zajednice, dok pravila i ishode, pravimo
i menjamo usput, uvek u zelji da napravimo korak dalje. To se stvarno
desava u praksi i dovelo nas je do nove faze u projektu koja je
pocela pre godinu dana - i koju smo nazvali "Skolske mreze-zajednice
za multikulturni razvoj". Glavni cilj ove faze je povezivanje skola
iz post-konfliktnih regiona, sa drugim regionima sirom zemlje, ali i
van zemlje - drugim recima izlazak iz izolacije i zatvorenih krugova,
i gradjenje novih prostora /ne samo teritorijalno, vec i duhovno, i
istoriski i kulturalno/...

E, pa glavni razlog za ovaj uvod je multimedijalni dogadjaj koji
spremamo u Subotu, 25.02.2006. Za nas je to faza VIZIJE u projektu,
koja ima za cilj iskustveno gradjenje IDEALA na temu Sloboda
Komunikacije ZA.../stvaranje, buducnost, bliskost ..., svako dopuni
recenicu svojim znacenjem/. Dogagjaj ce biti realizovan sa ucenicima
i nastavnicima 10 skola, veliki broj gostiju, umetnicima, psiholozima
i drugim neobicnim ljudima - njih oko 220/ u velikom i stimulativnom
prostoru, gde ce se odrzati 10 kreativnih radionica, koje na kraju
treba da se povezu u zajednicki happening. Niko ne zna kako ce se
stvari odvijati, ali svi imamo ideje, koje trebamo nekako da slozimo,
kako kaze Vesna u tzv. "neuokvireni okvir". Deca, mladi, odrasli
razlicitih uzrasta, razlicitih kultura i jezika, ce ucestvovati u
radionicama, ne po talentu i sposobnostima...Ideja je da svako dozivi
ono sto nije, a nije ni pomislio da moze biti. Drugim recima igracemo
se promenama u sigurnoj i prijateljskoj atmosferi, i dati
kreativnosti velike sanse... Na primer, imena radionica ce biti:
testo, belo platno, rec, pokret, ICT, drama, poruka,
crtez,instalacija.
Bice nam gosti i "Zdravo da ste" - dolaze nam i Vesna i Bojana, a
imacemo i goste sa Kosova, Portugalije, dok ce za vreme dogadjaja
deca nasih skola biti povezana on-line, sa skolama iz Danske, Svedske
i Argentine.

Eto to sam htela da podelim sa vama, na vas poziv za igru. A, pesma
koju ste poslali, mozda cemo je iskoristiti i u nasoj radionici REC.
Pisem na srpskom, jer mi je lakse i brze, a i ne moram da stavljam
tekst na spell check.

                 toplo i sradacno vas pozdravlja, Lina iz Makedonije

Lina Kostarova Unkovska, Director
Center for Psychosocial and Crisis Action (CPCA)
Bul. Partizanski Odredi, 23/1-3
1000 Skopje, R. Macedonia
tel/fax: + 389 2 3298 238
info@cpca.org.mk

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ana Marjanovic'-Shane,Ph.D.

151 W. Tulpehocken St.

Philadelphia, PA 19144

Home office: (215) 843-2909

Mobile: (267) 334-2905

ana@zmajcenter.org <mailto:ana@zmajcenter.org>

http://www.speakeasy.org/~anamshane <http://www.speakeasy.org/%7Eanamshane>

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