FundAction Talks

Talk#6 invited Dobrica Veselinović (Belgrade) - active in the civil sector, in the claim for public spaces and greater participation of citizens in decision-making processes related to urban development - to discuss the project Block 22, in Novi Belgrade.

Association Block 22 was created in 2017 with the desire to improve the living conditions and the immediate environment in Block, which today has a total of 1500 apartments and about 7000 inhabitants. Activities in the neighborhood extend from collective clean up and gardening of the common areas to child care and the organization of the New Year's celebration, including fireworks. The empowering essence of such local activities has made itself felt even more during the Pandemic. Resist grant has allowed Block 22 to organize and guarantee solidarity aids and activities such as disinfection of all buildings and the surrounding public spaces which are not under maintenance of the municipality; purchase of additional disinfectants; distribution of solidarity packages of food for about 30 families living in the neighborhood.

Joelle Sambi Nzeba is a congolese writer, poet, and lesbian activist based in Brussels. She’s a FA member, co-chair of EuroCentralAsian Lesbian Community and member of Mothers and Daughters, a Lesbian* and Trans* Bar*? with Café Congo & the initiator of the slam poetry project/group Koko Slam Gang, which has been awarded with the FA Resist Grant. During this FA Talk, Joelle tells us about her personal path as a poet and activist and the genesis of the Koko Slam Gang: an 12 elderly Congolese woman between 65 and 88 years old with whom she works on a slam poetry show for seniors. The show is being circulating in different theaters in Belgium since 2019. “I see and practice poetry as a tool for revolution and liberation. Poetry open to public to the unexpected because it allows you to express your point of view differently, in a less frontal way”.

In today's episode we talk with Vlada Thor, with insight on the effects of Covid19 in Russia on the Lesbians community.

Proposed by our member Silvia Casalino & the EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Community (EL*C), we discussed with Vlada about the extension of the LLL (LOCKED-DOWN LESBIANS LISTENING) to Russian speaking women who identify as lesbians community and its profound need.

LLL was launched at the beginning of April as a specific response to the first calls for help received from the community in the early stages of the Covid-19 crisis as a safe space which twice a day, 7 days a week, gave a virtual collective room for lesbians from all countries to meet, but only in English.

A discussion about solidarity and communities with Gergő Birtalan, from Gólya  Szövetkezet in Budapest, and Filippos Polatsidis from Pervolarides, in  Thessaloniki. Their projects, even though with a different target  public, are complementary, because both focus on helping the  communities, creating solidarity among people and helping them build up  on this.

Pervolarides is a diverse community formed by volunteers since 2013  that supports an increasing number of people who are struggling to  survive and meet their basic needs, and who experience socioeconomic  exclusion because of loss of income, homelessness or because they are  classified as refugees and migrants. Gólya Community House and  Cooperative operates based on a social mission, building a community  around them, and recently they started a bike courier service in order  to help the crisis relief effort locally.

With Aleksandar and Vladimir we spoke respectively about the joint action of Station – Service for Contemporary Dance with Association of Independent Culture of Serbia, the Visual Arts Association (ULUS), the Vojvodina Visual Arts Association (SULUV), the Association of Art Critics (AICA) and the Association of Applied Arts Artists and Designers of Serbia (ULUPUDS) to establish the Cultural Workers’ Solidarity Fund, available to all artists and cultural workers who had not any alternative sources of income, yet whose contribution to Serbia’s cultural life is significant.

Likewise, Vladimir for Oberlith Organization in Moldova told us about the Coalition of the Independent Culture Sector from the Republic of Moldova (CICS): an informal platform of around 20 culture organizations started in 2019 around the preexisting Zemstvei Culture Center in Chisinau, with the aim to improve the working conditions of independent artists, cultural organizations and initiatives in our region. Their aim is to act collectively and engage in a more direct dialogue with local and national public authorities.

An introduction to FundAction.