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Description
Poland is seeing an increase in nationalistic attitudes and hostility towards foreigners. We would like to counteract those trends by showing our sensitivity, curiosity and hospitality towards different cultures that call Poland home. For three years now we have been organizing Travel Meetings in Toruń and they have been getting increasingly popular. The key element of each meeting is a lecture by an invited guest from another country, who is currently living in Poland and is willing to tell the audience about their homeland. We believe that we can counteract stereotypes pertaining to other cultures, hear a “first hand” account on life in a different part of the world, and develop some “travelers” sensitivity, or step outside a typical European tourist perspective. We will organize an event with an engagement of the citizens of Toruń and our partner organizations. We will conduct workshops entitled “Let’s Get to Know Each Other” about multi-culturalism and immigration for the Polish and immigrant youth, and their families. Our partner, Emic Foundation, will support us in conducting theater and educational workshops and in creating a short orientation film for other institutions that would like to organize similar events. With another partner, the Academic Culture and Arts Center “Od Nowa,” we will organize the National Immigrant Poetry Slam entitled “Babel,” during which both immigrants and Polish citizens will share their poetry composed in English. We will organize a series of meetings about the country of Georgia, Morocco, and Columbia during which citizens of these countries will talk about their cultures, cuisines, and traditions. We will cook together some of their traditional dishes. Together with our third partner, Dwór Artusa Culture Center in Toruń, we will host the third edition of the Worldview Festival. The festival will host lectures on Georgia, Morocco, and Columbia, as well as arts classes and a traditional Georgian music concert.
Summary of project results
Nationalist movements and general hostility towards foreigners have been increasing and growing in Poland for a while now. Through our project, we wanted to address it by showing our sensitivity, curiosity, and hospitality towards different cultures present in Poland. We’ve been organizing expedition meetings in Toruń that have been gaining in popularity. The key element of these gatherings was always a guest speaker from a different country, currently living in Poland, and willing to tell us about their homeland. That way we wanted to fight stereotypes pertaining to other cultures, learn about them “first hand,” and gain some of the traveler’s sensitivity and go beyond our traditional European frame of reference.As part of the project, we have organized a much larger event, involving residents of Toruń and other partner organizations. We conducted workshops on multi-culturalism and immigration for young people from both Polish and immigrant families. Emic Foundation, which acted as our partner, supported us in running our educational and theater classes, as well as in creating an instructional video for other institutions willing to hold similar workshops. Together with another partner, the Academic Center for Culture and Art “Od Nowa,” we have organized a Nationwide Immigrant Poetry Slam “Babel,” during which both immigrant and Polish poets shared their work in English. There was also a series of meetings about Georgia, Morocco, and Columbia, during which citizens from these respective countries told us about their homelands. As part of our meetings, we cooked traditional dishes. Along with our third partner, Dwór Artusa Cultural Center in Toruń, we have organized a third edition of the “ŚwiatoPogląd Festival.” Once more, lectures on Georgia, Morocco, and Columbia took place, as well as arts classes and concerts showcasing traditional music from these countries.The completion of our project helped individuals living in Toruń get familiar with cultures of other nations and provided an opportunity for closer integration between city’s residents. From our conversations with participants, we know that they were able to make new acquaintances with foreigners living in their city and notice many advantages of having many different cultures present in their hometown.
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