Breaking Walls and its partner Rainbow Dreams Trust premiered their third annual creative writing, performance and peace-building initiative in Cape Town on October 4 through 8 in Noordhoek. The Breaking Walls Program brought together twenty-four young artists from different backgrounds in order to “break down” their “personal walls” and the walls between one another.
The five day-camp was represented by three Cape Town communities, namely the Deutsche Internationale Schule Kapstadt, the Hout Bay High School of Hangberg Hout Bay and the Rainbow Dreams Trust youth clubs in Hout Bay (Imizamo Yethu, Khayelitsha, Masiphumulele and Philippi Townships).
Through creating Art together, the Breaking Walls artists learned a lot about themselves and unfamiliar youth cultures, enabling them to see they are not alone and to leave prejudices behind. During the initiative the young artists participated in several artistic activities, with the theme of this year in mind: “Changing the world one word at a time”. On Thursday, the 5th of October, the youngsters creatd a one-of-a-kind mural, depicting their thoughts with a cry out for acceptance and not just tolerance, amongst each other. At the culmination of the project, Breaking Walls artists performed a theatre piece together. After expressing in writing their feelings, their home situation and their concerns for the future, their words were transformed into a script. Our Director then directed the artists through rehearsals and the play was performed as the climax of the initiative, on Saturday at 6.30pm at the 7th of October at the Deutsche Internationale Schule, Tamberskloof, Cape Town.
“These teenagers are the leaders of tomorrow”, states founder of the Breaking Walls Program Fran Tarr. “Breaking Walls empowers youth to discover their voices and offers them a platform from which to speak in their own words.” Dannie Kagan, founder and director of the partner organization Rainbow Dreams Trust, adds: “Here in Cape Town there is a great division between the different youth communities. By sharing each other’s stories, the young artists can learn so much about other cultures they didn’t know before. Consequently, they can spread the word in their own community, which will lead to less prejudices towards each other and a greater understanding and acceptance.”
Cape Town artist Athenkosi says it all: “When we artists work together doing our creative writing and rehearsing for our performance, we see only one race; the human race.”