Bold, Beautiful, Blooming Barcelona asks: What would it mean to win?

The Gracia community garden radio documentary trilogy and accompanying article

1 – Entering, Breaking ground, dreams of a greener barrio.
2 – Murals and kids
3 – Lauras garden tour

VIDEO : Hort de Gràcia Web: http://horteres.org/

The Gracia community garden radio documentary trilogy and accompanying article Springtime in Europe and the Earths life’s cycle is in bloom again. The 3 parts of the radio documentary capture magical moments in the recent history of one of the most exciting projects in Barcelona at present, our community garden in Gracia. This article was written after a lovely Valentines weekend of much open, shared and participative activity; the highlight of which was our collective mural day in the garden. It is hoped that some of the life, current ideas, projects, tools, spaces, bargains, oddities, dreams, passions and goings on of the city and her peoples are communicated here-in.

Friday… Thinking about winning

Saturday… Painting pictures and feeling like we are winning

Sunday… Sharing passions, playing and doing, Remembering the South.

9th World Social Forum Kicks Off in Brazil

Another World is possible! Is it? If so, how?

(this article was first published on IMC-IE)

In Brazil, more than one hundred thousand people are gathering for the ninth World Social Forum. A crowd of some fifty thousand kicked off the event Tuesday with a march through the Amazon city of Belem. The World Social Forum gathers social movements from around the world under the theme of ‘another world is possible.’ It’s timed to coincide with the gathering of corporate leaders in the Swiss town of Davos.

Watch latest vids from WSF TV. Listen to AMARC live radio broadcasts.

All infos on main site: WSF 2009 @ Belém – Pará – Brasil: 27 jan – 1 feb

AMARC AUDIO # 1 : Walden Bello on role of WSF and beyond

Foro Social Mundial @ Kenya 2007 (mostly in Portugese)

IMC-BRASIL @ WSF 2009

Whats all this Climate Camp stuff then?

As part of the last few days of GEF 08 (Global Eco Forum) there will be a gathering in La Teixadora (a squatted social centre in the Poble Nou barrio (neighbourhood) of Barcelona) during which we will talk about the origins and very successful growth of the Climate Camp movement that originated in the UK 2 years ago and whats being talked about for Copenhagen in December 2009, COP 15

Peaceful protestors meet heavy handed police??? see 2.45 of following

architecture and dissent

(Originally posted on EASA Saturday, 19. May 2007)

Architecture and Dissent
(And from talking to action…)

The Berlage Institute (an architectural laboratory) have organised a series of Springtime public lectures on the theme of Architecture and Dissent.

This program of dialogues addresses the relations between architecture, power, and political dissent. By debating the cultural currents transforming contemporary daily life and, subsequently, shared spatial practices, this series of events promotes an open dialogue reflecting on today’s architectural condition.

Can architecture politically engage a global market-driven power structure? Is it possible to find alternative means of operating architecturally within this dominant system? How should architecture and urbanism address economic development, popular culture, and a design-driven consumerism? Does architecture—as both an intellectual discipline and a professional practice—contribute to stabilizing the inherent social inequalities of the contemporary city?

The talks can be viewed by live braodcast, heres the program

Tuesday 13 March – Instant City: The Rise of Dubai

Tuesday 27 March – Gated Communities in the Age of Extreme Individualism

Tuesday 17 April – The Cult of Celebrity: Superstars Architect in the Academy

Tuesday 8 May – Signs, Symbols, Spectacles: The Architecture of Global Corporations

Tuesday 15 May – Living Outside: Uneven Metropolitan Development

Tuesday 12 June – Beyond Degenerate Utopias?

Tuesday 19 June – The Power of Sprawl

Indymedia radio support for WSF 2007 from Kenya

This project has taken off, with your help it will get a lot bigger: Turn on, Tune in, speak out

The impact of the World Social Forum (WSF) on the people of Kibera: “People think it is quite a failure” (radio file – transcript at end of article)

Several IMC members are traveling to Narobi, Kenya this month to support an Indymedia convergence during the seventh annual World Social Forum which runs January 20-25th. Media activists from Africa and around the world will be reporting in the World Social Forum, providing hands-on media production workshops, building two low-power radio stations in Kenya, and creating dialogue and cooperative production across borders.

Other IMC members are not traveling to Narobi but are staying at home to support the network by attempting to widen the discussion with the Global Listening Nodes project: a proposal to Syndicate content from different nodes in social centers and other alternative media outlets during the WSF and combine it with content from Nairobi also. A kind of global collaboration on both virtual and physical. Basically getting more social centres and other spaces to open up during WSF as local nodes around planet for people to go to to firstly listen to stuff live from kenya, but also maybe where they could have 2 way systems: being able to participate in forum without physically being there.

But the journey of the WSF has not been without its criticisms. Some claim that the Charter of Principles, which form the core of the WSF process, are not always adhered to with the result of alternative fora being created, as happened for the 2004 European Social Fora in London. Worse still is frustration with the entire social forum process, as happened at the 2002 Argentinian Social Forum because “Radical perspectives were not included within the forum’s debate.” But this year old and new African IMC´istas are working hard to attempt to take the WSF story to the next stage, and for that they are looking for ever more solidarity and collaboration.

WSF links : WSF official page | indymedia WSF page | WSF on wikipedia | Kenya Indymedia | Livre radio wiki | Global Listening Nodes | WSF 2007 in internatinal news : IPS | Ciranda | Lama | Demokrasia-Kenya-blog | Znet

Past IMC WSF coverage : 2006: Venezuela | Bamako, Mali | Pakistan (Znet) : 2005: Porto Alegre, Brazil : 2004 : Mumbai, India : 2003 : Porto Alegre, Brasil : 2002 : Porto Alegre, Brazil : 2001: Porto Alegre, Brazil

How you can help : Tune in: ((radiolivre)) (((imc))) International Radio Show | inform your community | make a listening node | contribute views to IMC-Kenya | Publicise locally | get local radio station to restream | donate cash to the project | tell us what else needs to be done

(This article was first published as a feature on Indymedia.org | Related posts appeared on Indymedia Ireland [1|2] Indymedia Barcelona and Indymedia Kenya)