Claude Bunny Massassa is a contemporary artist from Gabon. She created Bunny Studio in 2016, a start-up dedicated to photography production, which became DWABI Studio in 2021. As an artist, she has represented Gabon in many international exhibitions in Senegal, Uganda, France, the United States, and Italy. In her art, she denounces social stigmas around issues of identity and mental health, and explores themes of traditions and myths.
Executive Director Kimberly Aceves- Iñiguez has been passionately committed for over 20 years to social justice organizing and advocacy efforts that bring voice and power to youth, LGBTQ people, people of color, and working-class communities in the Bay Area. Before coming on as the Executive Director for RYSE, Kimberly served as the Executive Director for Youth Together, the founding organization of the RYSE Center.
Kanwarpal Dhaliwal is one of the co-founders of RYSE and currently acts as the Associate Director. She supports and guides the implementation and integration of healing-centered practices, grounded in racial justice and liberation, and also develops, promotes, and advocates for policies, investments, practices, and research that enliven healing, justice, and liberation. Kanwarpal believes that the purpose of her work and life is to contribute to movements, communities, and legacies of liberation that honor the ancestors who fought for her existence and survival, and to forge a world that is just and gentle for future generations.
Sagal Ali is the founder and executive director of SAF. After a few years in her career in heritage protection in the cultural sector, she decided to develop the initiative to directly support young creatives in Somalia by launching her own foundation. She hopes to bridge the social gaps and inequalities women face in Somalia, both in society and in the arts scene.
Co-founders Catherine Dunga and Marleen Palmaers created Kitambo to bridge the gap between the African diaspora in Colombia and the narratives from the continent. From Kinshasa and Antwerp respectively, they work to connect African artists from the continent and their peers from the Colombian diaspora.
Martha Kazungu is a curator, art Historian and Founder of Njabala Foundation, an organization that curates periodic exhibitions and organizes a public program of activities to create a safe space for female artists to thrive and blossom.
Alicia Hansen is a photographer and teacher from New York. She founded NYC SALT in 2008 and, beyond teaching valuable creative skills to her students, has developed a long-term support system to uplift them through school and into their early artistic careers.
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What have we accomplished together?
lettera 27 was the first international partner of Changemaker Schools Africa. This collaboration allowed for the individualization and selection of the first 60 Changemaker Schools in seven African countries, contributing to launching the Storytelling Workshop, an educational format replicated by Ashoka worldwide, along with the WikiAfrica Workshop devised by lettera27. Additionally, we contributed to and participated in the first symposium of the Changemaker Schools in South Africa held in Cape Town, from which a series of initiatives arose for changes in the country’s education system.
Ashoka Storytelling Workshop at ASE. Photo by Siphosihle Mkhwanazi
Ashoka Storytelling Workshop at ASE. Photo by Siphosihle Mkhwanazi
“The big vision: each school will be its own ‘storytelling hub’, illustrating and promoting the power of youth-led social innovation within the school, community, country and beyond.”
Ashoka Africa
Storytelling Workshop at the African School for Excellence
Storytelling is a fundamental practice of the present world. It provides ideas and suggests solutions to long-standing issues; it allows you to identify with others, to put yourself in their shoes, to relive their experiences. Being able to tell the story of someone else is a key skill for a “change maker” — the one who triggers social change. That’s why both lettera27 and Ashoka identify storytelling as a key element to be developed for the Changemaker Schools in Africa.
Ashoka Storytelling Week at ASE, WikiAfrica workshop. Photo by Siphosihle Mkhwanazi
A five-day storytelling workshop took place on 19-23 October at the African School of Excellence (ASE) in Johannesburg, where some 30 students learnt the basic techniques of script writing, storyboarding, video making, vlogging, and video interviewing in order to be able to tell the changemaker stories of their school and community. The workshop represented a pilot experiment to be later replicated in other schools in Africa, creating new “storytelling hubs.” In addition to the workshop, lettera27 conducted a two-day learning project dedicated to WikiAfrica, with the aim of introducing students and teachers to the most widely-used online encyclopedia in the world, and encouraging students to share stories related to their local communities and cultural heritage. During the workshop, the students jointly created the entries in Wikipedia for their county, Tsakane.
Summary
Online platform
ashoka.org
Colophon
Ashoka Global Team Leader
Bill Carter
Ashoka Africa Team Leader
Coumba Toure
ASF Storytelling Workshop Ashoka Team
Maggie Lemere
Mohsin Mohi-Ud-Din
Amy Badiani
Changemaker Schools Leader
Autumn Williams
Photo and Video
ASF
Storytelling workshop on Flickr
