Thanks, Lina, for letting us know about the event (I wish I was able to be
there with you in person). Adding to the invitation to play, I send along
the following poem by a student in our International Class, which was the
next message in my mail box after yours. Seems fitting!
Lois
Either or
is very boring
when there is so much more
for us to draw on,
for us to explore...
Singular
plural
urban and rural
we are all part of the great big mural
the writing on the wall..
I am
in relation to you...
a relative relative of yours.
We
are in relation to more
we
if
we want to be...
And, if not,
we are alone in a plot
which is filled with action,
every frame a fraction of our lives
every line a dialogue of knives
or a bowl of cherries...
cutlasses or berries
machetes or dinner with the dignataries
who decides?
Do we have to take so many sides
Do we have to make divides
so wide
between either
or?
or
can we be a bit more
creative,
a little less
legislative
when it comes to
possibility?...
What can we possibly bring to be
that is not about
´me´...
that does not require the abduction of diversity
in order to exist...
Are we a group if there is no activity?
Is there ever no activity?
Can we engage
what others have for so long separated?
Is alienation not water to be navigated?
Are we not divorced from each other without
ever having been wed?
Should we not go on honey moon
instead?
Should we not be led more by our instincts
than by the forces of dread and the power
of what gets said?
What is the point of the daily grind, getting your shoes shined, wining and
dining and being confined to meanings that are underlined by people inclined
towards not being undermined?
what kind of ore can we find in a group mind?
What kind of threads and knots can we unwind
if we try together to unbind
rather than getting everything defined...as if we needed clarity
in order to progress...
as if we are reliant on logic to process stimulii
as if a dependency on abstract assumptions that agree
will avoid addiction to emocionality.
Good, bad and ugly,
is it possible to be all three
at once?
truly, madly, deeply...
which is the performance
for now?
How do we choose who we are?
Are we ever any one?
How do you carry on knowing that what you have done or said
is not what you thought in your head and
not what you wanted to do or say
yet you did it or said it and now it is done...
You have to go on from there you cannot run away
to start again...
although you are taught that you may.
> From: Ana Marjanovic-Shane <ana@zmajcenter.org>
> Reply-To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 18:30:46 -0500
> To: Xmca <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> Subject: [xmca] re: creativity -- translation of a letter from Macedonia [Fwd:
> O kreativnosti]
>
> 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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