This panel discussion on artivism for human rights and against police brutality took place as part of the exhibition and performances event “Shadow to Strength: Resilience in the Face of Adversity”, which took place at Kenya National Theatre in Nairobi in December 2024.
It is an output of the project “Nonviolent Artivism Against Police Brutality in Kenya“.
This series of short videos captures some of the artistic highlights from the exhibition and performances “Shadow to Strength: Resilience in the Face of Adversity”, which took place in Nairobi, Kenya, in December 2024.
Nile Dawta
Event participants experienced Nile Dawta’s transformative Neo-Reggae sound as she performed tracks from her celebrated projects, blending art and activism. With a track record as a musician and gender advocate, Nile Dawta uses her artistry to drive social change. She has won the UN-Human Rights Art Competition and the Brazilian Young Talent Africa Music Awards, solidifying her position as a pioneer in East Africa’s Neo-Reggae movement.
Rebian Artis
Rebian Artis is a dynamic spoken word artist, writer, and activist who champions for equality, social justice, and human rights. Rebian has captivated audiences at @missingvoiceske, Usawa Festival, @mashujaafestival and beyond. Her powerful performances and words ignite conversation and inspire change.
Felicity Mudis
Felicity Mudis is an activist who uses spoken word and fashion. She cofounded with Aikos an initiative called Freedom In Healing that advocates for gender equality, mental wellness, and the eradication of sexual violence and other violations against women and girls through the power of art and media. She is passionate about spreading life and light through her work and has performed on a number of stages including @tedx_official, Jumuika Sikika Mtaani, Mask Awards, @hourpoetic , Poetry Cultural Exchange Uganda, the Annual SRHR and climate change Summit. She is the convener of @sisterdarlingmovement, an annual poetry event that focuses on telling the stories of African women for social change and raising emerging female poets.
A-zee Coptel
The exceptional Urban Sheng Hip-Hop artist and curator A-zee Copter is known for his distinctive vocal style and powerful storytelling. A-zee Coptel brings a unique blend of personal experiences and social commentary, making waves in Nairobi’s Embakasi area. He has collaborated with renowned artists like @julianikenya and @poetteardrops, fusing Afro, zouk, and R&B influences into his vibrant sound. Catch him on stages like Mukuru Festival, Pawa Cafe, Form Ni Gani Concert, Mashujaa Festival, and Good Governance Festival.
Spontaneous the Poet
Spontaneous the Poet is an award-winning spoken-word artist, artivist, and cultural curator with over a decade of impactful experience. Honoured with accolades such as the Africa Women Journal Awards (2023) by @femnetsecretariat, she co-directed the best-spoken word production, Give The Woman Her Flowers alongside @wanguikimoney. As the driving force behind initiatives like the @anikainitiative_ and @femalepoetske, her leadership and mentorship continue to inspire many. Currently serving on the advisory board of @icrw_org and a member of @poetryafterlunch_ke, Spontaneous is dedicated to using her platform to advocate for change through performances, art therapy and social media strategies for positive change. She is also the programs coordinator for Shadow to Strength @peace.tree.network.
King Kadija
“Shadow to Strength” visitors were able to enjoy some of King Kadija’s powerful tracks. He currently has two major projects: SAUTI YA BUBU MIXTAPE (10 songs) and MAOMBI YA MWIZI ALBUM (15 songs).
Ninah Tanya, presented by Shikkieh
Ninah Tanya is a visionary mixed-medium artist known for her work in digital art, murals, graffiti, and live painting. Based in Nairobi, Ninah blends art with purpose, managing projects at Unganisha Cultures to champion cultural awareness and environmental conservation. Her journey is one of creativity and impact, using her craft to inspire others to embrace their authentic selves and protect our planet.
The documentary mini-series “Shared Knowledge on Community Self-Protection” sought to promote knowledge exchange between representatives of communities involved in various projects supported by the Creating Safer Space network in Colombia. It is an outcome of the Creating Safer Space regional meeting in Colombia in 2024, which found that Colombia has a wealth of nonviolent community self-protection experience but often lacks opportunities to link those localised efforts.
To translate the episodes from Spanish into other languages, enable subtitling and auto-translation in the YouTube settings.
Episode 1
Norma, who participated in the project developed in collaboration with the Llano Verde Peace Seedbed in Cali, visited Harlequin and the Jugglers in Medellín, who participated in the Art That Protects project.
Episode 2
Verónica, from the Water Conflicts project, travelled with Luz Dey to Bajo Cauca to learn about the functioning of the Social Guarantee Process in that region.
Episode 3
Verónica, from the Water Conflicts project, shared her experiences at the Water Festival in Nariño, Antioquia.
Episode 4
The researchers from Art That Protects visited Lerma, where they learned about the self-protection experiences of indigenous communities living in the midst of a high-intensity armed conflict.
Episode 5
Laura Jiménez, a researcher with the Creating Safer Space Network, travelled to Buenaventura to learn how the Cormepaz organisation has promoted unarmed civilian protection measures among communities living in a city marked by conflict and extractive economies.
Full documentary
Watch the full documentary here:
These videos document four distinct methodologies for Participatory Action Research developed between communities and researchers in Buenaventura, Colombia. The videos accompany the brochure “Buenaventura: Metodologías sentipensantes de resistencia y re-existencia”, the second of two publications on Participatory Action Research (PAR).
They are an output of the project project “Community strategies for Unarmed Civilian Protection in South-West Colombia: local experiences and lessons learned“.
Part 1: El comadreo (the informal chat)
Part 2: La tertulia poética (the poetic gathering)
Part 3: El sociodrama (the sociodrama)
Part 4: El teatro por la vida (the theatre for life)
The Creating Safer Space project “Civilian (Self-) Protection from Violent Conflict in Papua: Exploring Local Infrastructures and Initiatives” has published a series of 12 podcasts, focusing on unarmed civilian protection in Papua and related topics.
The story of a researcher researching conflict in Papua, Myanmar, and Thailand
Speaker: Arfiansyah
Diversity in Papua
Speaker: Askin Alimda
Papua: Poor Education and Immigrant-Dominated Governance: Is there still hope in Papua?
Speaker: Arfiansyah
A pastor shows a strategy to protect civilians in Papua
Speaker: Pastor Diben Elaby
The Problem of Special Autonomy in Papua and Aceh and the Contribution of Civil Society
Speaker: Dr. Laus D.C Rumayon
Papua in the eyes of a Humanitarian Worker: From Regional Security, Education to Tolerance
Speaker: Lutfi Firdaus
Protecting Civilians without Weapons in South Sudan: Can it be applied to Papua?
Speaker: Hermanto
The story of a Papuan IDP who is reluctant to return home due to armed conflict
Speaker: Lamberti Faan (an IDP woman)
Rarely discussed situations in Papua
Speaker: Marcelus Fernandes Titit
Papuan Student Discusses the Richness of Papua’s Nature and Culture
Speaker: Nelson Sani
The Ups and Downs of Being a Humanitarian Worker in Papua
Speaker: Intanus Gwijangge
Knowing Customs, Culture, and the Potential for Investment in Papua
Speaker: Dr. M. Adli Abdullah
The Creating Safer Space Exhibition was on show at the Temple of Peace and Health in Cardiff, UK, from 24-28 March. It was co-organised with Academi Heddwch Cymru and the Welsh Centre for International Affairs.
We were delighted to receive a visit from the First Minister of Wales, Eluned Morgan, who is the leader of the Welsh Government. We provided her with a tour of the exhibition, and a copy of our new Creating Safer Space brochure.
In conjunction with the Exhibition, we also co-hosted a Lunch & Learn policy event on Civilians and Nonviolence in Crisis Preparedness and Management. Speakers included Prof. Berit Bliesemann de Guevara (Creating Safer Space Principal Investigator), Prof. em. Colin McInnes (Academi Heddwch) and David Warren (Head of International Relations at Welsh Government). Discussion centred on how community-led civilian protection initiatives can be supported by Welsh politics and civil society, and how lessons from other contexts can enrich Welsh initiatives and policies, such as Academi Heddwch’s ‘Wales as a Nation of Peace’ report.
A new Creating Safer Space policy brief was also published for the occasion, Nonviolent Community Strategies Make Civilians Safer (available in English and Welsh).
The Creating Safer Space Exhibition was on show at Quaker House Brussels from 4-7 February 2025.
On the first day, we held a policy event on “Civilians and Nonviolence in Crisis Preparedness and Management”, with several speakers: Berit Bliesemann de Guevara and Rachel Julian (Creating Safer Space), Rosemary Kabaki (Head of Mission, Nonviolent Peaceforce South Sudan), Gaëlle Nizery (Service for Foreign Policy Instruments, European Commission) and Nora Loozen (Belgium Ministry of Foreign Affairs).
During the week, we also held two brown bag lunches. The first brown bag lunch focused on protective accompaniment and community-led Unarmed Civilian Protection in Colombia, with Emily Humphreys (Peace Brigades International) and Berit Bliesemann de Guevara (Creating Safer Space). The second focused on protecting human rights defenders, with speakers from the South Sudan Human Rights Defenders Network and Nonviolent Peaceforce.
The Creating Safer Space Exhibition visited Leeds Beckett University from 4 – 8 November 2024.
The exhibition explores the unexpected power of nonviolence in the protection of civilians living in the midst of violence. The objects, images, and voices originate from a selection of 26 research projects funded by the Creating Safer Space network, which have been conducted in collaboration between academics, self-protecting communities and nonviolent civilian accompaniers. The exhibition draws on experiences from Cameroon, Colombia, Indonesia, Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Palestine, the Philippines, South Sudan, and Thailand, where civilians are harnessing the power of nonviolence to create safer spaces and work towards alternative presents and futures.
Professor Rachel Julian is Co-Investigator of the Creating Safer Space network and Professor of Peace Studies in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Leeds Beckett University. Speaking about the exhibition, she said:
“Having the exhibition at Leeds Beckett was an amazing opportunity for other staff and students to learn directly from people affected by violent conflict, Undergraduate and postgraduate students from both social sciences and arts courses visited the exhibition and made their own responses through poetry and art. At the public meeting about the project, Gordon Crawford spoke in detail about the work in Cameroon which was fascinating. Visitors to the exhibition included research leaders in the University, understanding the global impact of large research projects, especially those rooted in the affected communities. It was such an interesting week and huge thanks to Creating Safer Space!”
The Creating Safer Space project Art that Protects: Networks as strategies for self-protection in the context of urban conflict in the city of Medellín, 2023 has released a series of short films and podcasts. Further background information is available at the bottom of this page in English and Spanish.
Art That Protects and Intersectionality 1: Category Cosmovision – Barrio Comparsa
Arte que protege e interseccionalidad 1: Categoría Cosmovisión – Barrio Comparsa
Art That Protects and Intersectionality 2: Category Age – Robledo Venga Parchemos
Arte que protege e interseccionalidad 2: Categoria Edad – Robledo Venga Parchemos
Art That Protects and Intersectionality 3: Category Socioeconomic Status – Biocomunidad
Arte que protege e interseccionalidad 3: Categoria Estatus Socioeconómico – Biocomunidad
Art That Protects and Intersectionality 4: Category Ethnicity – Arlequín y los Juglares
Arte que protege e interseccionalidad 4: Categoría Étnica – Arlequín y los juglares
Art That Protects and Intersectionality 5: Category Sex and Gender – Renovación Art Corporation
Arte que protege e interseccionalidad 5: Categoría Sexo y Género – Renovación Corporación Artística
Podcast, Chapter 1: Let’s Change the Toys, Let’s Change the Game
Podcast, Capitulo 1: Cambiemos los juguetes, cambiemos la vuelta
Podcast, Chapter 2: Stronger than War
Podcast, Capitulo 2: Más fuertes que la Guerra
Podcast, Chapter 3: Connections that Support
Podcast, Capitulo 3: Conexiones que sostienen
BACKGROUND (ENGLISH):
After conducting a comprehensive review of the literature on unarmed civil protection and self-protection in 2020, we realized that it was important to understand the contributions that art can make within this field of practice. Therefore, in the first phase of the Art that Protects project, we decided to document the self-protective role of art. To achieve this goal, we analyzed the self-protection strategies developed by grassroots artistic and cultural organizations for children, youth, and women living in neighborhoods of Medellín, where urban conflict has severely impacted these populations.
From the findings of this first phase, we understood that the vulnerabilities experienced by children, youth, and women are not uniform. They are influenced by age, gender, social and economic status, ethnicity, and other categories. Moreover, we identified that thanks to the networks and connections with other collectives, cultural organizations create spaces of self-protection in their neighborhoods. Consequently, the second phase of the research focused on these two aspects.
We created a series of audiovisual materials to disseminate the findings from this second phase. First, through a series of five videos, we analyzed how beliefs, age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and gender can simultaneously act as sources of vulnerability and self-protection, using an intersectional perspective.
In collaboration with Luis Fernando García “El Gordo,” founder and director of Barrio Comparsa, we explored how artistic organizations create images and works rooted in their ethical principles and values, reflecting their members’ stories and responding to the demands of their context. Juan Marcos Díaz, director of Robledo Venga Parchemos, shared insights on how violence in urban conflict contexts affects children and youth differently. For this reason, artistic and cultural organizations offer alternatives that help resist the pressures of armed groups.
The founders of Biocomunidad, Nelson Berdugo and Giovany Caro, highlighted how economic precariousness and informal labor impact many cultural and artistic organizations in the city. Also, they emphasized that the social value of artists transcends their financial circumstances. Ludis Soto Cruz and Óscar Manuel Zuluaga, members of Arlequín y los Juglares, discussed how Afro-descendant and Indigenous populations on the outskirts of Medellín face inequalities due to their ethnic identities. However, these communities express their knowledge and perspectives through art, strengthening their dignity. Diana Torres, Iris Andrea Álvarez, and Ana Milena Nanclares, members of Renovación, demonstrated how everyday power dynamics perpetuate gender stereotypes. Cultural organizations foster spaces for resistance and empowerment, especially for women, through community and artistic participation.
Second, through three podcast episodes, we examined how art has served as a self-protection strategy over the last forty years and as a tool for networking. These networks have enabled grassroots artistic and cultural organizations to enter communities and engage with their residents. In the first episode, Luis Fernando García recounted the tools used by Barrio Comparsa to reclaim public spaces for the residents of Manrique in the 1980s. Members of Ziruma shared how their work has made them stronger than the conflict, using theater to narrate the life and memory of the neighborhood and its people. Finally, the members of Sueños de Papel explained how support networks allowed them to recognize and build upon the work of those who had previously established the neighborhood, connecting with community leaders.
BACKGROUND (SPANISH)
Después de hacer un balance amplio de bibliografía sobre protección civil no armada y autoprotección en el 2020, nos dimos cuenta de que dentro de este campo de práctica es poco lo que se ha estudiado sobre los aportes que puede hacer el arte. Por lo tanto, en una primera fase del proyecto Arte que Protege, decidimos documentar el papel autoprotector del arte. Para alcanzar dicho objetivo analizamos las estrategias de autoprotección desarrolladas por las organizaciones de base artísticas y culturales para niños, niñas, jóvenes y mujeres, que viven en barrios de Medellín donde el conflicto urbano ha estado activo.
A partir de los hallazgos de esa primera fase, nos dimos cuenta de que las vulneraciones perpetradas a niños, niñas, jóvenes y mujeres no se experimentan de la misma manera, sino que también obedecen a su edad, género, estatus social y económico, etnia y otras categorías. Además, entendimos que una de las razones por las cuales las organizaciones artísticas y culturales construyen espacios de autoprotección en sus barrios, es gracias a la red de alianzas y redes que establecen con otras organizaciones. En consecuencia, la segunda fase de la investigación se preocupó por estos dos temas.
Para dar a conocer los hallazgos encontrados en esta segunda fase decidimos desarrollar una serie de materiales audiovisuales. En primer lugar, a través de una serie de cinco vídeos analizamos desde la perspectiva interseccional la forma en la que las creencias, la edad, la etnia, el estatus socioeconómico y el género, pueden tener un carácter vulnerador y autoprotector. Con Luis Fernando García “El Gordo”, director fundador de Barrio Comparsa, vemos cómo las organizaciones artísticas crean imágenes y obras basadas en sus principios éticos y valores, reflejando las historias de sus miembros y respondiendo las demandas del contexto. Juan Marcos Díaz, director de Robledo Venga Parchemos, nos relata cómo la violencia en contextos de conflicto urbano afecta de manera diferente a niños, niñas y jóvenes. Por ello las organizaciones artísticas y culturales ofrecen alternativas que ayudan a resistir las presiones de los grupos armados.
Los fundadores de Biocomunidad, Nelson Berdugo y Giovany Caro, evidencian que la precariedad económica y la informalidad laboral afectan a muchas organizaciones culturales y artísticas en la ciudad, pero que la valoración social de los artistas va más allá de su situación económica. Ludis Soto Cruz y Óscar Manuel Zuluaga, integrantes de Arlequín y los Juglares hablan de cómo las poblaciones afrodescendientes e indígenas de las periferias de Medellín enfrentan desigualdades debido a su identidad étnica, pero las iniciativas artísticas les permiten expresar sus conocimientos y perspectivas, fortaleciendo su dignidad. Diana Torres, Iris Andrea Álvarez y Ana Milena Nanclares, integrantes de Renovación, demuestran que las dinámicas de poder cotidianas perpetúan estereotipos de género. No obstante, en las organizaciones culturales, las mujeres propician espacios de resistencia y empoderamiento en la participación comunitaria y artística.
En segundo lugar, a través de tres episodios de un podcast analizamos cómo en los últimos cuarenta años el arte ha servido como estrategia de autoprotección. Además, se analiza la forma en la que el trabajo en red le permitió a las organizaciones artísticas y culturales de base comunitaria entrar en los territorios y articularse con sus habitantes. En el primer episodio Luis Fernando García narra las herramientas que utilizó la organización que fundó, Barrio Comparsa, para recuperar la calle para los habitantes de Manrique en la década de 1980. Los integrantes de Ziruma evidencian que su trabajo los ha hecho más fuertes que la guerra. Ellos han utilizado el teatro para contar la vida y la memoria del barrio y sus habitantes. Por último, las integrantes de sueños de papel sostienen que las redes de apoyo les permitieron reconocer todo el trabajo que ya habían hecho quienes habían construido el barrio. Ellas se articularon con los líderes comunitarios.
A Spanish translation is available here
The exhibition “Let the Rivers Be for Life! Community Self-Protection and Care” represents a significant outcome of the research project “Water Conflicts, Violations, and Forms of Self-Protection: A Multi-Case Study in Eastern Antioquia, Colombia, Phase 2”. This unique exhibition delves into the strategies of self-protection employed by communities in response to conflicts impacting the Paloma, Dormilón, and Santo Domingo rivers, located in the municipalities of Argelia, San Luis, and San Francisco, respectively.
Through the collaborative arts of photography and embroidery, residents of these “hydrosocial” territories narrate the challenges they face. These include the arrival of small hydroelectric plants, mining activities, mass tourism, pressure from riverside real estate development, deforestation, and pollution. Yet, alongside these stories of struggle, they reveal how they have nonviolently protected themselves against these threats: through the weaving of community bonds, water stewardship, and a steadfast commitment to the peasant heritage of their lands.
The exhibition was showcased in October across the three municipalities involved in the study. This provided a space for the research team to share their findings with the communities who participated in the photography and embroidery exercises. Attendees underscored the essential role of water as the lifeblood of their territories. Although Eastern Antioquia has become a key hydroelectric resource for Colombia due to its abundant waterways, the communities pledged to continue their fight for a dignified life, enabling them to stay on their land and preserve their peasant traditions.
