Hakaya Meetings

The first Hakaya meeting:
18 and 19 November 2006

The first regional meeting on "Hakaya: the centrality of stories for learning, art, and life" was organized in Amman on 18 and 19 November, 2006 at the Arab Education Forum headquarters. Twenty three experts and practitioners from Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Egypt took part in the discussions and presentations over the two days to look at ways in which stories can be re-instated as a central component in learning, art, and life.

This meeting was the culmination of several years of cooperation and dialogue amongst various individuals and groups in the Arab world regarding the centrality of “stories” in individual development, and cultural growth. This initial meeting brought together artists, oral historians, story-tellers, and educators in a 2-day event which presented “story-telling” in its various forms and showed how it enriches the theatre, the arts, and is crucial to the formation of identity and inter-cultural dialogue.

The Participants:

Jordan:

1. Samar Dudin – Drama in education specialist/ Jordan
2. Serene Huleileh – Regional Director/ Arab Education Forum and specialist in reading promotion and cultural management.
3. Raed Asfour- Director of Al Balad theatre, and executive director of the Arab Theatre Training Center, and a Scenographer/ Jordan
4. Raghda Boutros, director, The Arab association for sustainable development.
5. Rabeea Nasser, librarian, the Arab Association for sustainable development.
6. Ziad Hamzeh, the Ammarin Bedouin association, Petra.
7. Sheikh Suleiman Al Ammarin, head of the Ammarin Bedouin association and story-teller, Petra
8. Oroub al Abed, Oral history researcher specialized in Palestinian and Iraqi refugees.
9. Fawwaz Salameh, Oral historian, the Palestine remembered project.
10. Reem Abu Kishk – Drama therapist/ Jordan

Palestine:

11. Denise Assad – Story teller involved in several story-telling program for women and children in cooperation with the British Council/ Palestine
12. Faihaa AbdulHadi – Oral history and women specialist/ Palestine
13. AbdulSalam Nakhleh, Tamer Institute for community education
14. Mayssoun Sharqai, Shashat organization for women's cinema

Lebanon:

15. Cynthia Choucair – filmmaker/ Lebanon
16. Sabine Choucair – performing artist specializing in clowns and story-telling for children.
17. Clarisse Chebli- Assabil Association for library development

Syria:

18. Hanan Kassab-Hassan – Theatre and art specialist/ Syria
19. Kifah El Khouss, actor and story-teller

Egypt:

20. Hasan Geretly – Alwarsha theatre group artistic director/ Egypt
21. Emad Tharwat – Salama Moussa association for community development
22. Hussam Kasseb – SCF-UK
23. Amal Omar – writer of stories in colloquial Egyptian

Program/ Activities:

The meeting program was divided into two sections: the first day was dedicated for 15-minute presentations by the participants about their work as it relates to the subject of the meeting. These presentations were interspersed with stories told by the story tellers in the group. The second day was dedicated to in-depth discussions about the potential for a common project (or projects) that the group (collectively or separately) can implement to achieve the common objective of promoting stories as a central component of learning, art, and life.
Some of the controversial ideas which were discussed and/or referred to were documented to be included in an ongoing discussion and dialogue that will be opened up to include other stakeholders in this project. These were:

The relationship of art (story-telling) to development
o Animation programs
o How do we develop a "healthy" relationship between art and development.
o Development and strategic planning vs a relaxed "artistic" outlook and attitude to life and community work.
The tendency to "filter" stories: is it a necessity or does it spoil the spontaneity of the art? Or is it something else? What is "useful" and what is "harmful" and for whom? Who can decide? Doesn't the Arab saying go: What you think is harmful might end up being useful?
Values in stories.
Relationship between theatre and stories
o Theatre needs stories and not the other way round
o The role of the story within a theatre text.
o The story as an entry point for regaining the originality of Arab theatre.
Training on story telling is not technical but rather an attempt to re-discover an old relationship with story telling, a process of "plumbing" to remove all the layers and blockages.
o Story telling is spontaneous and does not necessarily require a technique.
What is the use of telling stories? What is the use of this question?
The role that children can play in telling their own stories.
Children's theatre: can it be defined within certain pedagogical constraints or can be opened up to the world of art and aesthetics?
Are women better story-tellers than men?
Colloquial and classical Arabic in story-telling.
Creativity and conservatism in the text of the traditional story: story as the fuel for contemporary creativity.
What happened to stories in children's lives?

As for recommendations for future work, they were as follows:

There is a need to develop a database on story-telling initiatives and story-tellers in the Arab world.
Organize an annual meeting for people involved in this field of work with theoretical presentations as well as practical applications.
To develop a strong lobby with policy makers to reach youth and children with this project.
Organize a regional event for Arab story-tellers (story-telling festival) from the Arab world and Arab story-tellers in other countries.
Support productions that focus on stories as the central tool for developing theatre as well as story-telling productions.
A long-term advocacy campaign to preserve our oral tradition of story-telling.
Develop a website for stories and story-tellers where people can post their stories as well as talk about their work in this field and exchange information and experience.
Develop a movement of "story-tellers without frontiers".
We need to reach satellite television to ensure wide exposure. This can be done through tapping into the joint resources of people who are connected to these TV stations and story-tellers as well as those involved in collecting people's stories in the Arab world. Another possibility is to develop a network between the NGOs and individuals on the one hand and TV production companies on the other.• Develop story-therapy workshops for children.
Promote mobility of young artistic productions focusing on stories and story-telling.
Organize residencies and apprenticeships with story-tellers.
Look for new resources: books, articles, etc… and translate them into Arabic if they are not available in Arabic.
Each participant should start by writing his/her story and sending it to the others.
Document this meeting in a book and film.
Ensure that future meetings will provide time for practical applications for practitioners to give the participants a clear idea about the type of work we do.
There are interesting experiences in the world (Turkey, Africa, etc….) where theatre is based on oral histories and testimonies and people's stories resulting in a powerful presentation of people's lives in a dramatic context. Other experiences such as playback theatre are also relevant in this regard. Such experiences should be contacted and presented as inspiring examples for ways in which stories can be used in the theatre and life.

2. Performances: During the meeting, Denise Assad and Kifah El Khouss presented examples of stories that they tell. Sheikh Suleiman Ammarin also presented another model for story-telling which is of a spontaneous nature connected to people's daily stories. On the evening of 18th November, the performance "Stories Under siege: staged readings" was presented, performed by Reem Abu Kishk, Samar Dudin, and Sawsan Habeeb.

Follow Up:

The first outcome of the meeting is a collaboration project between Kifah El Khouss (Syria) and Sabine Choucair (Lebanon) for a theatre production to be produced by Al Balad Theatre (Jordan) and tour the region. All three partners are already discussing the details.
The Arab Education Forum and the AlBalad Theatre will try to fundraise for the production of a booklet and film documenting the meeting in addition to previous meetings held around the same topic (in particular the meeting organized in cooperation with UNESCO in December 2004 in Jordan).
The Safar: youth mobility fund will allocate a section on its website for "apprenticeship opportunities" with story-tellers so that youth from the Arab world can make connections and Safar can cover their travel costs.
The Arab Education Forum and the AlBalad Theatre will formulate a project with multiple components based on the recommendations of the participants to be developed and finalized by the group and later on mobilize resources for its implementation. Most prominent of these components are:

a. Annual pan-Arab meeting (with connection to other world experiences).
b. Annual itinerant festival for story-tellers
c. Website on story-telling in the Arab world
d. Develop apprenticeship projects.