Raul Coldea: Haikus from the Ghetto

Cluj, Romania

AltArt organized a series of haiku-writing workshops for Pata Rât children and youth.

The idea was to use this sleek, refined, high-class form of artistic expression, hijack it, and create new, subversive content that could break the cultural barriers between the ghetto and the rest of the city.

Led by theatre director and haiku poet Raul Coldea, 12 children from Pata Rât participated in 4 workshops, learning the haiku format and producing their own haikus.

In terms of cultural insertion, we

-asked one of the best known theatre actors of Cluj to read the poems

-talked to the public radios of Cluj (e.g. Radio Cluj) to insert these recordings in their programming.

-produced a booklet with the haikus – this was distributed in the community and in the city

-produced an interactive game through which people could explore the poem-base – we organized 2 game-playing sessions for Pata Rât children

-organized a public debate on cultural programming of the ghetto community, with regard to creating a community radio.