In January 2018, SAMA has started a rich program of activities in AZC Willinklaan, Amsterdam 5 Cafe. The results is an amazing number of friendships and connections we managed to make in only 6 months. The kids of the refugees go to local schools, where the artworks are created, and are now happily acknowledge SAMA team members during the tours, which gives the visitors to the museum and the area a positive impression. This also gives confidence to the new neighbours of Geuzenveld, resulting in more and more refugees asking to volunteer at SAMA. We would like to continue with such programming, only now making more connection with the neighbourhood. We feel confident that with the help of VCA and EigenWijks we can design a project which will bring the residents and the refugees closer together in a positive and highly visible way.
The programming will start in January 2020, considering that the new process requires formal approval of all of the activities by the AZC Committee. The below described activities are also available in the attached form - the formal way of working with AZC, which we have already started in November 2019. The end of the program is expected by June 2020.
Every 3 weeks, SAMA team will visit the AZC Willinklaan with unique program in Dutch and English languages. For this program we have selected local Amsterdam celebrities who in collaboration with SAMA Team shall create unforgettable yet educational experiences where the new-comer kids can pick up some skills and knowledge about the city they are living in.
Xmas Disco with DJ Goldfinger
In order to reconnect with the children from 2019 as a new group and to share the forthcoming 6 months programming, we have invited celebrity entertainer, DJ and a Story Teller Maxim Goldfinger. DJ Goldfinger has made his name in the 80s with the Soviet Pop-Group Sputnik. He has moved in Amsterdam in the late 80s following the collapse of Soviet Union. His work ranges from pop-classics to Italo Disco to folklore tunes. He was responsible for brining to Amsterdam Mongolian Throat Singers, and created sets for Van Gogh Museum and Filmmuseum EYE.
For this particular occasion, DJ Goldfinger will prepare a set where the songs would match Ping Pong matches, thus dictating the outcome of the game.
Be My Valentine Calligraffiti with TeamBlazin
In 2019 we started educational Calligraffiti for children with Apollo School (program sponsored by MOCCA) workshops and writing sessions. We would like to translate our knowledge on the audiences of AZC. TeamBlazin, a calligraffiti artist SAMA had introduced to Ambacht in Beeld Festival in 2015 has since grown into an international phenomenon and is representing Amsterdam in Craft in Focus Festival in New York for the 2nd year in a row now.
In this writing session, we shall teach the children pen control and how to creatively see the European alphabet.
Storytelling with Lady General
Lady General (Mariëm Firdaus Amgharou) loves history and culture and has an ex-musician and storyteller as a father. Her father and mother, the first generation who came to the Netherlands in the 1970s, where 17 and 16. Today Mariëm is a professional story teller who is often see at open mic night in New Metropolis, Stedelijk Museum and Women of Nieuw-West by Amsterdam Museum performances.
We would like for Mariëm to share her passionate story in Dutch and Arabic to the children of AZC as an inspirational example of integration in the Netherlands.
Music Night with Marynka
Marynka Nikolai-Krylova is a famous singer, song writer, piano player, composer and performer born in Russia. When transferred to music academy in Amsterdam in her early twenties she found herself in the same classroom as Ellen Ten Damme. The girls became close friends and that helped Marynka to share her own story of integration into the Netherlands. Marynka teaches piano and there is piano in AZC Cafe 5. We would like to give kids the basic lessons in music as a test. Our expectations are that this will be a great success and shall develop into its now program by 2021.
The lesson will be learning to write notes, recognise the basic notes in writing and in keys of the piano.
Movie Night : Toy Story 4
Because street art is on the street, and as we are aware of the limitations of taking kids out of the centre, we would like to make a movie night with projection in the yard of the AZC. In May it is still early when the sun sets, so we hope to project from 19:00 onwards, before ‘bed time’. We have picked an easy yet latest film, so to connect the children to the contemporary events outside of the camp, and show something that can only be seen on Netflix or Movie Theatres, where they do not go.
We hope that the chosen film will also inspire the follow up workshops (to be developed) on making toys with recycled materials.
Spray it up! graffiti workshop with Keys Art
To celebrate the end of the school year, we shall create a workshop with AZC kids spraying their shoes hanging on the electricity wires. This is to imitate Dutch tradition that is still regularly practiced. This way the new-comer kids learn the little Dutch rituals and in return we hopefully will learn informally about theirs. The workshop will take place in the front yard of AZC Cafe 5 and we shall be working with waterbed sprays, stencils, markers on the A2 cartoon sheets. The kids can keep the artwork, or the centre/cafe can have an exhibition later.
We started the activities with regards to informal education, rather than pure entertainment, after the collaboration with IMC Weekendschool On Tour, who are formally commissioned to work with AZC kids in the neighbourhood. We did a tour and a workshop with them on 19 November 2019, resulting in impact on the aforementioned programming choices.