Breaking Walls, an international youth empowerment movement, in partnership with Rainbow Dreams Trust will premier their fourth annual creative writing, performance and peace-building Initiative in Cape Town from October 3 through 7, 2018. Breaking Walls will bring 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 Initiative will be represented by young people from Rainbow Dreams Trust, Groenvlie High School, and Constantia Waldorf School.
Creating Art together
Through creating Art together, the Breaking Walls artists learn 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 will participate in several artistic activities, with the theme of this year in mind: “The Thirst For Truth – Words Matter”. On Thursday, the 4th of October, the young people will create 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 entire Initiative, Breaking Walls artists will perform a devised theatre piece together. After expressing in writing their feelings, their home situation and their concerns for the future, their words will be transformed into a script. Our Director of Theater Performance will then direct them through rehearsals and the devised theater piece will be performed as the climax of the boot camp, on Saturday at 6:30pm on the 6th of October at the Novalis Ubuntu Institute.
Why do we need such initiatives?
“These teenagers are the leaders of tomorrow”, states founder of the Breaking Walls Youth Empowerment Movement 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, Director of Leadership, adds: “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.”
