What?
The project M4=Media for Equality was born with the aim of encouraging intercultural dialogue and promoting an anti-racist culture among the younger generation in three Italian regions (Emilia Romagna, Piedmont and Sardinia). The project intends to develop and foster debate and discussion among young people around issues relating to xenophobia, discrimination and migration. The project involved young, recently arrived migrants as well as second generation migrants in the creation of teaching materials and the decoration of spaces designed for intercultural interaction among young people.
How?
Within the framework of the M4=Media for Equality project 19 educational workshops were carried out aimed at both middle and high schools in the Emilia Romagna, Piedmont, Sardinia and Trentino Alto-Adige regions. Examples include comics workshops, anti-racist food-culture workshops and street art and mural workshops. During a number of the workshop activities young migrants cared for by the welcome centres and the SPRAR structures took part as well, both as testimonies and as active protagonists in the creative process.
Comics workshops (10 hours)
The workshop aimed to work with youngsters on issues relating to racism, discrimination and migration. The work saw the youngsters take a strongly active and constructive role, primarily through games which made them reflect and later through the scripting and design of a comic book.
Street art-murals workshops (16 hours)
In accordance with the management of each school, the best spot to create the anti-racist murals on a wall of one of the school buildings was chosen. The project aimed to create anti-racist pieces of work on a “forgotten” or aesthetically unpleasant wall in a way that brought together the intercultural artwork with the task of caring for and protecting one of the most important public spaces; the school. The students thus became involved in a journey which saw them both learn about different cultures and value their school and its buildings.
Antiracist food-culture workshops (10 hours) in catering institutes
The students of hotelier institutes worked with the illustrated kit of “antiracist recipes” to grapple with the creation of recipes which encompass flavours from around the world. The recipes are the result of a blend of flavours and dishes which already exist in the original culinary cultures of different countries as well as typical dishes from the students’ own country of origin.
All the works carried out by the students were published on the project’s blog: http://mediaforequality.tumblr.com/. In addition to this, a paper publication was issued featuring the best works from the workshops.
The project was carried out with the financial support of Otto per Mille della Chiesa Valdese.