Active Citizens Sound Archive

An arada performance by the SGYF Al Fawares Culture Band, live at Panepistimiou, 26/06/21. For Assembly 02 of The City Talks Back. Greetings to Damascus! Greetings to Palestine! Greetings to Athina! Παράσταση αράδας από το SGYF Al Fawares γκρουπ, λαιβ στην Πανεπιστημίου, 26/06/21. Για το Assembly 02 του πρότζεκτ Η Πόλη Ανταπαντάει. Χαιρετισμούς στη Δαμασκό! Χαιρετισμούς στην Παλαιστίνη! Χαιρετισμούς στην Αθήνα! Photos by Eleni Methymaki / Φωτογραφίες της Ελένης Μεθυμάκη

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A radio roundtable with Tom Western, Penelope Papailias, and George Mantzios A radio conversation, an anticolonial imagination. This broadcast brings together members of the ‘Memory – Monuments’ working group of Decolonize Hellas, Penelope Papailias and George Mantzios, taking Tom Western’s piece from The City Talks Back Assembly 1, ‘Παγκόσμια Ηχώ | Echos-Monde | The World is Echo’, as a jumping off point. The piece is a remapping of Athens. It finds its cartography through an imagined conversation between Athenian poets […]

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Becoming the City presents our work as active citizens in Athens. It showcases perspectives from members of our team, speaking as individuals and as one, across and through multiple languages. The piece centres on citizenship, activism, art, and the political voice: how we use diversity to create the city, find shared histories and connected cultures, use art to assert presence and belonging, and work to become Athenians. Our narratives stretch across geographies and borders. From this emerge rebellious methodologies that […]

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‘The Movement Exists in Voice and Sound’ is an audio piece produced by Kareem Al Kabbani and Tom Western, co-founders of the Active Citizens Sound Archive in Athens, Greece. In the piece they explore the sonic qualities of active citizenship through public protest and song, from Al Kabbani’s birth city, Damascus, Syria, to the pair’s adopted home city of Athens.  (Abstract written by George Kafka) Published in the collection Sonic Urbanism: The Political Voice in November 2020, edited by &beyond […]

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by Kareem al Kabbani A report by Kareem al Kabbani from Khora Social Kitchen and Café in Kypseli, Athens. With discussion of food as a way of gathering, the work of food distribution in corona times, and making spaces of inclusion.

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Trailer for forthcoming video project! ‘Becoming the City’ presents our work as active citizens in Athens. It showcases perspectives from members of our team, speaking as individuals and as one, across and through multiple languages. Our thoughts centre on citizenship, activism, art, and the political voice: how we use diversity to create the city, how we remind ourselves of shared histories and connected cultures, how we use art to tell the city we are here, how we work to become […]

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by Tom Western This piece is a remapping of Athens. It finds its cartography through an imagined conversation between two poets – Édouard Glissant and Nicolas Calas – who both think in circles and circulations, and make a musical language that sounds out the rhythms and relations of struggle. From this imaginary, an Athens emerges that sings long histories of movement, encounter, exchange. It consists of three videos. Part One, ‘Η Πάλη Η Πόλη’ (‘The Struggle The City’), finds Athens […]

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by Tom Western Published in IDEES, 51 (2020), special issue on ‘A New Vision for the Mediterranean‘

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by Kareem Alkabbani, Wael Habbal, and Tom Western Published in Forced Migration Review, 63 (2020), special issue on ‘Cities and Towns‘

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A radio programme we made, commissioned by Onassis Cultural Center and presented for the first time as part of MOVEMENT FESTIVAL 1920-2020 https://www.onassis.org/whats-on/movement-1920-2020 Al’athinioun is Arabic for ‘Athenians’. It speaks to new Athenian identities that develop through movement and diversity. In this programme, we discuss being and belonging in Athens, resisting the label of ‘refugee’ and instead becoming citizens. This is soundtracked by music, dance, protest, and an array of everyday activisms. ” الاثينيون ” وتعني سكان اثينا . تتحدث […]

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