hakaya :

Hakaya is a 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 project brings together artists, oral historians, story-tellers, and educators in a network, residencies, workshops, and an itinerant festival which will present “story-telling” in its various forms and show how it enriches the theatre, the arts, and is crucial to the development of literacy and the formation of identity and inter-cultural dialogue. The partners in the first phase are: The Arab Education Forum, The Al Balad theatre (Jordan), The Arab Theatre Training Center (Lebanon), L'echangeur (France), MS (Denmark), Tamer Institute for Community Education (Palestine).

Residency/ apprenticeship on story telling in Egypt 25 January – 5 February 2008 In cooperation with the Jesuit center in Minya, Dayer Ma Ydour in Siwa Oasis, and Hasan El Geretly/ El Warsha group in Egypt, Hakaya organized an apprenticeship/ residency on story telling from 25 January- 5 February in Upper Egypt and Siwa Oasis.more

Al Balad Theatre, in cooperation with the Arab Education Forum and several other partners in Jordan, organized the first Hakaya festival from 12 – 16 January 2008. This festival presented “story-telling” in its various forms and showed how it enriches the theatre, the arts, and is crucial to the development of literacy and the formation of identity and inter-cultural dialogue. The festival reflected the vision of the project through stories told by Arab and international artists in various artistic forms, in addition to workshops and meetings to deepen and expand the dialogue around these concepts. More

Second Hakaya meeting 8 and 9 February 2008 Alexandria/ Egypt The second “Hakaya” meeting was held in cooperation with the International independent theatre forum (I-Act) in Alexandria, Egypt on 8 and 9 February 2008. This meeting brought together several members of the consultative committee of Hakaya as well as all the partners and those interested in joining the project. The meeting discussed and assessed the first phase of the project and future plans. The minutes of the meeting will be available online during the last week of March.