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Bristol Latin American Forum Report Back

bristol | globalisation | news report

Monday March 03, 2008 10:53

by Kevin - BLAF

On Saturday the 1st of March, the Bristol Latin American Forum took over Bristol University's Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies for a third year running. The forum incorporated plenaries, information stalls and workshops by a wide range of Latin American organisations and solidarity groups with performances, motif explanations and practicals by music, dance and cultural outfits, food and drink by the Kebele Social Centre, an all day film screening by Cinema Klandestino and a World Café 'interactive topic discussion' experiment - leading on to a rip-roaring after party at The Kuumba Centre. As in the years before, the day was a huge success.

9.45 am: Kebele cafe readies to face the fray!

The day kicked off with people milling around stalls, picking up and studying programmes as musicians and workshop organisers prepared and set up their equipment. In the main lecture theatre, brief introductions were given by Matthew Brown and Ben Pearson from Bristol University. A group of contemporary Bolivian musicians (Tradición Andina) then led off with traditional Andean instruments, guitars and an electronic drum. Half way through this performance, the musicians were joined by costumed dancers in a colourful and energetic indigenous dance that expressed the life and history of the Andean peoples (see movies).

The plenaries were kept to a minimum this year, with Amancay Colque from the Bolivia Solidarity Campaign speaking on the current struggle in her country, Andy Higginbottom from the 'Frontline Latin America' newspaper giving a political and economic overview of the continent, and Venezuelan Consular to the UK Alvaro Sanchez talking about recent events and ongoing projects in Venezuela, followed by a short question and answer session (see movie).

Then followed three rounds of workshops, with 6-7 to choose from in each session, punctuated by a bargain Latin American style lunch provided by the Kebele Social Centre. The workshops ranged far and wide in topic and approach, (for example) discussing the impact of climate chaos on Latin America, on through an up to date account of the indigenous Mapuche people's struggle for self-determination, through a history/ practical demonstration of Capoeira dance and its key place in Afro-Brazilian culture, to the role of photography in public memory of the dictatorships in Chile and Argentina. And while all this was going on, Cinema Klandestino was running a continual stream of Latin American films in a separate room.

Finally the day's events came to a close with a World Café, a relaxing but dynamic experiment in collective discussion, facilitated by Claire Hall of Espacio and Hilary Cole of Cuba Solidarity, before a much needed break and the evening's after-party at the Kuumba (see the follow on sections 'World Café' and 'After Party' below for more).

Lunchtime: Forum stalls in full swing

Afternoon: Cumbia workshop with Colores de Mi Tierra

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Comments (2 of 2)

BLAF World Café

by Kevin

Mon Mar 03, 2008 12:11

The World Café at the BLAF 2008 was a space for reflecting on the day's events and for the exchange of experiences and insights, to create positive futures for working in solidarity with the peoples and social movements of Latin America.

Unlike a conventional plenary, the principles of the World Café encourage an interaction where everyone is a participant and nobody is an expert. Everyone has something to contribute.

At the BLAF World Café, there were two questions to discuss (see picture 01a) at small tables in three rounds of conversation. One person (the 'host') stayed at each table to welcome travellers (see below), and to introduce/ share the points made in the earlier conversations, while the rest of the participants were 'travellers' who contributed and then moved to a new table at the end of each conversation (see picture 03a). At the end, the written 'conversations' (from ten tables) were put up on a wall for the departing BLAF participants to generate further discussion and action. The documentation process of each conversation on its respective sheet of paper was in fact quite creative in its own right, so a sample is included here (see pictures 07-10a).

01a

02a

03a

04a

05a

06a

07a

08a

09a

10a

BLAF After Party

Mon Mar 03, 2008 12:50

What to say on this part of the event? Except that it was great (and sweaty, dancey) fun, and all three acts performed their hearts out. The opening band was the subtle El Mercado di Miran, performers of Colombian folk sounds with delightful rhythms and melodies. Second up to perform was the wonderful Colores de Mi Tierra, who are also the charismatic and lively family of world renowned Colombian musician Toto La Mompesina, and experts in the Afro-Indigenous western Colombian style of 'cumbia'. And headlining was Bristol's own contemporary salsa orchestra - Orquesta Montpelier, who finished the evening off with fantastic style and bags of energy. Last but certainly not the least act to mention was the improvised stage invasion by two dancers performing in sexy African style who added so much to the final encore.

See the pictures for a flavour. Please note I have A LOT more pictures (and a few movies too) of the after party. Bands who would like to see these images feel free contact me at blazesboylan(at)talktalk.net

NOTA BENE: Please everyone be patient for the BLAF videos. They are on their way but I have some compression and cutting to do before Bristol Indymedia can upload them. Hopefully (fingers crossed) they will be online by Tuesday the 4th of March.

El Mercado de Miran

Colores di Mi Tierra

Orquesta Montpelier (and dancing crowd shot)

Orquesta Montpelier (close up)

Stage invasion dancers during Orquesta Montpelier's performance

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Bristol Latin American Forum Report Back

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