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?
Since 2009, in collaboration with local associations and institutions in a number of Italian cities, we have been collecting authentic and significant stories from Italians and first- and second-generation migrants and publishing them on posters in high-visibility meeting places and on public transport. They are published in Italian, the shared language, as well as in the authors’ own language.
The stories tell of “common places,” experiences that have shaped people’s identities, symbolic imagery and different languages. Circulating in the streets of the city, these stories reveal the hidden wealth among the people, giving each of them a face and a name, and turn a careless and hurried moment into a chance to smile and involve ourselves with others.
“My son was born here and was four years old when we went for the first time to the Ivory Coast. When we exited the plane, he looked around and said ‘Mum, they’re all black!’ ‘Yes, darling, you’re in Africa,’ I responded. ‘Yes, but isn’t there even one white?’ When he saw a white, he smiled at me and said ‘Look mum, a white! And another one!’ He was so happy.”
Since 2010, in collaboration with teachers, we have been collecting the voices of Italian and foreign children, as they explain what they feel, how they live, and how they handle interaction with each other. We do it at school because it is a “common place,” a meeting space between different personal stories, a time for discussion and education among their peers.
The video This is Why I’m Here: Kids Have Their Say produced with the children and their teachers in a school in the outskirts of Milan, is the result of an experimental scholastic activity, which involved not only the participants, but the entire school and the families, in a journey of mutual discovery. In 2013, Modena per gli altri and Voice Off produced a collective video called Io sono qui perché (I am here because) – inspired by This is Why I’m Here: Kids Have Their Say – from a laboratory within the Fermo Corni Professional Institute in Modena.
Summary
Creator and curator
Flora Forte
Team
Valentina Forte
Tania Gianesin
Cristina Perillo
Vanessa Lanari
Colophon
Partners
CISS Cooperazione Internazionale Sud Sud, Naples; Centro di Servizio per il Volontariato di Modena, Modena per gli Altri Onlus, Kenzi Production, Parma per gli Altri, Associazione di studi Transculturali per l’Oncologia e la Salute (ATOS), Cantiere delle Idee, Logo Nuova Generazione, Centro Studi Ricerche Sociali G. Arnao, Erripa Achille Grandi, Ass. Culturale I Fiori Blu di Sicilia, Coop. Soc. I Sicaliani, Ass. Mainstreaming Agenda.
Collaborators
Alma Mater, Asinitas Onlus, Associazione Itaca Corsico, Circumvesuviana S.r.l., CISL Milan, CTP Naples, L’Orientale University of Naples, Centri Territoriali di Educazione Permanente, Casa delle Culture, African, Asian and Latin American Film Festival of Milan, Movimento Primo Marzo Palermo, Kala Onlus, Centro Astalli, Laboratorio Zeta, Centro di accoglienza per migranti Santa Chiara, Life and Life.
Sponsors and Contributors
ATM Milano, Ente Autonomo Volturno S.r.l., IGP Deacux, Migrart, Moleskine, Province of Milano, Campania Region, Smemoranda, Emergency, Voice Off, European Union, Ministry of the Interior, Province of Palermo.
Watch the stories on Flickr
Luoghi Comuni/1 – Milan
Luoghi Comuni/2 – Naples
Luoghi Comuni/3 – Modena
Luoghi Comuni/4 – Parma
Luoghi Comuni/5 – Lampedusa
Luoghi Comuni/6 – Palermo
Watch the videos on YouTube
And listen to the interview with Flora Forte (Part 1 and Part 2)
Luoghi Comuni/The Directors’ Voices 2010
Luoghi Comuni/Kids Have Their Say
Luoghi Comuni/The Directors’ Voices 2011
I am here because – 2013
Downloads (PDF)
Luoghi Comuni Catalogue/1 Milan
Luoghi Comuni Catalogue/2 Naples
Luoghi Comuni Catalogue/3 Modena
Luoghi Comuni Catalogue/4 Parma
Luoghi Comuni: Kids Have Their Say | Didactic Kit
