Lalela Project gears up for Mandela Day

Leading up to Mandela Day, July 18, 2011, learners from both Imizamo Yethu and Hangberg communities will learn about portrait photography from Hasan and Husain. Lalela Project will then pair learners from Hangberg’s Cape Coloured community with learners from the Imizamo Yethu’s Xhosa community. They will learn about each other through conversation and exchange and then they will photograph one other. The week before Mandela Day, they will post their portraits on each others’ homes and in each others’ communities to showcase the beauty, similarities, and shared values they found in their new friends.

 

Beginning on Mandela Day, international French photographer and TED prize-winner, JR, will continue his global INSIDE OUT project by blowing up the learner’s portraits and pasting them on iconographic buildings in Cape Town. During the day, Hout Bay High School will host an assembly where learners will showcase their photographs and express what they’ve learned to members of both communities. Later that evening, the One and Only Cape Town will graciously host a reception to launch INSIDE OUT’s city-wide photography exhibition of the learners’ works.

 

“Lalela Project aims to show that cross-cultural and racial understanding is possible,” said Andrea Kerzner. “We believe that if we take the time to get to know one another, we will find there is so much for us to share and celebrate together, despite our differences. We are, after all, the same.”

 

About Lalela Project

 

Lalela Project (www.lalelaproject.org) is a non-profit organization that empowers youth through the arts. We are dedicated to delivering art and music based educational experiences to South African at-risk children during the after-school and weekend hours when they are at their most vulnerable. We are presently conducting weekly workshops in three communities in the Western Cape: Imizamo Yethu, Hangberg, and Masiphumelele. Learners from 7 to 18 attend, and are encouraged in self-expression, teambuilding, and listening and concentration skills. Ultimately the goal of our programme is to help the children develop their imaginations, encourage them to set attainable goals and dreams, and to provide them with the tools to achieve these dreams.

 

About INSIDE OUT

 

INSIDE OUT (www.insideout.net) is a large-scale participatory art project that transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work. Everyone is challenged to use black and white photographic portraits to discover, reveal and share the untold stories and images of people around the world. These digitally uploaded images will be made into posters and sent back to the project’s co-creators for them to exhibit in their own communities. People can participate as an individual or in a group; posters can be placed anywhere, from a solitary image in an office window to a wall of portraits on an abandoned building or a full stadium. These exhibitions will be documented, archived and viewable virtually.