ALEXANDRIA - The ‘Hakaya Regional Meeting – Tales of an Arab Spring: Who Writes People's Histories?' opened yesterday in Alexandria. The four-day meeting is part of the Hakaya programme, an Arab/Mediterranean programme that believes in the importance of ‘stories' in people's lives. The event has been organised by the Arab Education Forum (Jordan), the I Act Institution (Egypt), el-Balad Theatre from Jordan, el-Mawared (Resources) Centre for Popular Arts from Lebanon and el-Warsha Troupe for Storytelling and Theatre (Egypt). The meeting has brought together artists, oral historians, storytellers and educators in a network, residencies, workshops and itinerant festival, representing storytelling in its various forms and showing how it enriches the theatre and the arts, and is crucial to the development of literacy and the formation of identity and inter-cultural dialogue. During the meeting, which ends on April 26, there will be concerts, storytelling evenings, movie screenings, exhibitions and other events. Hakaya is a culmination of several years of co-operation and dialogue amongst various individuals and groups in the Arab world, regarding the centrality of stories in individual development and cultural growth.
