Unboxing Troubadours # 2: A Troubadour Seeks for Lyrics and Inspiration

Following Omonia, the 2nd live-streaming presentation of Troubadours Digital dedicated to Exarchia took place on Sunday 7/3 with an e-carnival mood!

For the needs of this virtual meeting, George Sachinis dressed as a troubadour and set out to look for inspiration, longing to transform the city stories into songs. Katerina Protonotariou as embodied inspiration and muse, guided him and the participants through the stories collected from Exarchia, presenting them in...rhymes. During the tour, we met Kostis who “still remembers the smell of the bitter orange trees, sometimes feels the Strefi Hill night breeze”, Angelos who shares a lot about local cafés, self-organized spaces and the notion of dialogue in the neighborhood, Michalis who loved Exarchia as a street paper (Shedia) seller, Maria and more...All of the narrators were introduced through their interviews’ excerpts, but also through short and creative presentations of their stories.

Short presentation of Kostis´interview

The audience stayed with us throughout the virtual, and responded to a creative challenge! Inspired by the stories shared, the participants of the 2nd Unboxing Troubadours shared, through the chat, - more than 20 - rhymes created in a flash!

The stories of Exarchia were collected by the participants of the oral history workshops, part of the SaBarBar project, while their presentations were the creative result of an internal dramaturgy session. These sessions were followed by two music creation workshops, during which lyrics for four songs already emerged. The lyrics were read in the course of the live-streaming and some of them were accompanied by videos of their creators.

We hope that in the third - and last - live-streaming of Unboxing Troubadours we will be able to present you complete songs, inspired by these stories. Until then, the Troubadours Digital platform is waiting for you to discover it and add your story or song!

You can watch Unboxing Troubadours # 2 here

* Troubadours Digital is implemented by Alternative Tours of Athens and Ohi Pezoume/ UrbanDig Project and is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Sports.

** The live streaming presentations are broadcast by "Local Stage" studio coordinated by Maria Hatzigianni (m-word Web radio).

*** SaBarBar was co-created by Momina Algaga, Vasia Valkanioti, Yaman United, Fani Katecho, Anna Magoulioti, Katerina Protonotariou, George Sachini, Mohammad Tayeb. It is implemented by Ohi Pezoyme / UrbanDig Project and Fabrica Athens. The project is part of the co-Athens initiative, implemented by the European pilot program of the Municipality of Athens, Curing the Limbo. This project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the Urban Innovative Actions (UIA) initiative.