In narrating this journey, which is also a countdown, I'd also like to share a little of what I've experienced in relation to the preparations for this huge event. Since 2021, I have been invited to serve as a Counsellor to the Executive Committee of ASSITEJ International, and you can only get a sense of a structure by looking at it from the inside. There are many difficulties that we must always be aware of and one of the biggest is certainly the continuous effort to ensure that the association always maintains its global perspective. Aspects such as cultural differences and expressing ourselves in different languages are a constant challenge. Therefore, stimulating the growth of the Association's activities in the most diverse parts of the globe is an objective that should always be in the sights of ASSITEJ International. And holding this Congress is definitely a move towards this.
Bebê de Soares and I were assigned the creation of this opening text for the newsletter, as a commemorative milestone for the month in which we will have our long-awaited Congress in Havana/Cuba. For us, symbolically, it’s an impossible feeling to describe in this text. It brings an extra dimension of belonging to this International Association that manages to bring together so many people, from so many places, with diverse interests, who converge in the fight for the rights of children and young people to enjoy, experience, and participate in the performing arts. We agreed that I would take a look back at this idea, which was planted in 2019 at the 5th ASSITEJ Uruguay Festival, an event that included a meeting of the ASSITEJ Executive Committee and members of the Ibero-American Performing Arts Network for Children and Youth. At this meeting, Irene Borges Lara brought a concealed proposal in her suitcase, that took us by surprise and immediately enchanted us: the possibility of holding a Congress of the Association in the Americas, strengthening National Centers and the nuclei of professional networks in the region. This idea matured at ASSITEJ Cuba and was launched in 2021 at the 20th ASSITEJ World Congress – Performing Arts Festival / MIRAI, with a video featuring several children inviting us to take part in Voices of a New World: 21st ASSITEJ World Congress and Performing Arts Festival 2024 (Cuba).
Since then, the Ibero-American Network has worked intensively with the expectation of collaborating in the realization of the Congress, which has strengthened us as a network. So it’s difficult to measure whether it was the prospect of the Congress that further increased this integration or our regular, daily work as a network, which began in 2005 at the Congress in Montreal, that gave ASSITEJ Cuba the courage to make this bold proposal. But finding it out is not important. What matters is that we are together in this project and, even though we all have butterflies in our stomachs as the opening approaches, we are sure it will be unforgettable. Since the meeting in Uruguay in 2019, the Ibero-American Network has held two meetings: the first at the XV Paideia Festival in São Paulo, Brazil, August 2020 (online) and the second at the Terceras Jornadas de Teatro THT in Tijuana, Mexico, August 2023 (on ground), promoting debates on important aspects for the region that will be revealed in various activities at the Congress.
In narrating this journey, which is also a countdown, I’d also like to share a little of what I’ve experienced in relation to the preparations for this huge event. Since 2021, I have been invited to serve as a Counsellor to the Executive Committee of ASSITEJ International, and you can only get a sense of a structure by looking at it from the inside. There are many difficulties that we must always be aware of and one of the biggest is certainly the continuous effort to ensure that the association always maintains its global perspective. Aspects such as cultural differences and expressing ourselves in different languages are a constant challenge. Therefore, stimulating the growth of the Association’s activities in the most diverse parts of the globe is an objective that should always be in the sights of ASSITEJ International. And holding this Congress is definitely a move towards this.
In May 2023, I was able to visit Havana, where we toured many potential spaces for the various activities. I had mixed feelings. Firstly, the concrete realization of the complexity of the event and all the challenges it would entail. But it was also a certainty: holding the Congress in Havana, a city that in 1993 had already hosted the 11th ASSITEJ World Congress and Performing Arts Festival for Children & Young People, makes it possible to think about different formats for meetings and performances, to propose a different look at what we’ve been doing. Some aspects have brought about this perception. The first was through the various spaces in the city, which showed the potential for occupying urban spaces and the various cultural centers. The second was the clarity that, in Cuba, there is a collective concern for children and young people, which is revealed by the focus on education, the arts and a sense of community – data that played an important role in structuring the Congress program. But lastly, and certainly most importantly, was the commitment and passionate adherence to the event of everyone involved: all the members of the ASSITEJ Cuba board, artists, researchers, teachers and venue managers. Let’s pack our bags!!!!
