Location Tags Used in Events

The streets of Athens

The Olympia Theater is one of the city’s most iconic cultural institutions. For decades, it was the home of the Greek National Opera and the center where major artistics productions were showcased. This theatre was renamed Olympian Theatre Maria Calls to honour the famous Greek American soprano's legacy.

Outside the theatre

Pedion tou Areos is the largest public park in Athens. During Covid-19 its role was vital, as Athenians and mostly residents of the neighbourhood of Kypseli spent time in the outdoors there.

The Athens City Hall is a neoclassical building in the center of Athens that houses the services of the Municipality of Athens. Connecting the dots with the statements made about citizenship and belonging in the previous materials annotated, this building is where all the bureaucratic procedures relevant to the preparation of documentation for citizenship take place. Black Greeks born in the center of Athens get their birth certificates issued in this building and they only return here when preparing their documents (editing name spelling, acquiring additional documentation missing in file system) to file for citizenship. So, having access to this building and performing on the roof top the song A Change is going to come, is a great gesture of collective hope and resistance, to signal that the legal restriction and bureaucratic barriers shaping Black life in Greece are not permanent.

Omonia Square

The Parthenon

Monastiraki Square is one of the oldest flea market neighbourhoods in the old town of Athens, making it a historically dense location. The area is filled with elements of the Roman, Byzantine, Ancient Greek and Ottoman periods and due to the train and metro, today is a very vibrant public space with a variety of restaurants, cafes, souvenir shops, multiple street vendors and street artists. Monastiraki is always crowded, and it is a place that attracts a lot of tourists.

The Monastiraki Square

The Parthenon

The Zappeion is one of the city's most renowned modern landmarks, as it was one of the first buildings constructed specifically for the revival of the Olympic Games in the late 19th century. Zappeion has a strong symbolic charge as it symbolizes Greece’s place within Europe, and it is associated with the country’s national identity, public visibility and modernity.

Zappeion

This performance took place in the neighbourhood of Kypseli, on the terrace of a local bookstore called: Literature House. Mc Yinka was inspired by poetry and improvised using rap. He also performed two of his original songs.

The neighbourhood of Kypseli

The Benaki museum is one of the most significant cultural institutions of the country, as it preserves and exhibits Greek art and artifacts from prehistoric times to the modern era. Its collection includes artifact from ancient, Byzantine, Ottoman, and modern Greek culture, making it a comprehensive chronicle of Greek history and identity, while it also reflects the contributions of the Greek diaspora.

Athens

This teaser clip is a 51 second extraction from the 14minute movie that was created in 2019 by the Documatism collective and members of the African Diaspora in Athens Greece. The short movie with the title the AfroGreeks was the official inauguration of this collective community project, which before then, did not have a title. In the clip, Mikel, one of the first protagonists of the project, explains what being an Afro-Greek is. Mikel is the first to introduce the term Afro-Greek to the collective and propose it as the title of the short movie.

This clip starts with a close up of Dimitris, a third generation Afro-Greek playing djembe (a traditional drum originally from West Africa) at the Anasa Cultural Center of African Arts and Cultures in Athens. The sound of the drumming remains in the background throughout the clip.

A large percentage of Afro – Greeks, were born and raise in Greece to parents from African countries. They have not been to their countries of origin and tend to explore their roots through a diverse variety of ways. The ANASA cultural center is a place that give Afro-descendants that opportunity. ANASA is the only cultural centre of African arts and cultures in Athens, founded by Michael, a second generation of Nigerian descent who was born and raised in Athens. Michael is an actor, musician and activist who implemented the idea of creating a cultural center inspired by initiatives, by young people of African origin born in Greece. The center was created in an effort to tackle racial prejudice, xenophobia and racism, through art and culture. The cultural Center empowers and supports young individuals who are members of the African Diaspora and Michael also teaches West African multi-rhythm and drumming (djembe, dundun) introducing African culture and heritage to the Greek society, including the Black communities.

Kypseli being a home: Kypseli is a typical example of a metropolitan neighbourhood, as it incorporates historical layers of urbanization, social mobility, migration flows, and contemporary trends in the reuse of space. In the 30s the area was developed by upper-class residents who created residences and later apartment buildings. The area was then subsequently shaped by waves of internal and international migration, from the arrival of refugees from Asia Minor to immigrants from Eastern Europe and the rest of the world. This composition led to a multicultural everyday life, where locals and immigrants coexist, redefining public space and forming new practices of urban life. However, the area also went through phases of decline, with abandoned or neglected properties, which then returned to the housing market, often thanks to immigrants who revitalized them by occupying them for cheap rent. Up till recently Kypseli was an isolated and invisible neighbourhood where most foreigners in Athens lived, the majority of which were of African descent. The neighbourhood was once seen unsafe and dangerous to walk around during night hours but the residents of the neighbourhood never gave up on Kypseli, making it one of the most colourful neighbourhoods in Athens, where you can still experience hospitality and community. A place with a plethora of artistic initiatives, studios, cafes and the most beautiful neoclassical buildings and oldest bars, diners and theatres in the center of Athens. Kypseli’s historical trajectory, from a "good investment area" to a zone of "degradation" and then back on the rise, is directly linked to contemporary gentrification processes, making Kypseli a living laboratory of urban complexity, where it once functioned as a "ghetto" for marginalized populations and today is part of gentrification trends, while still maintaining the microcosms that make it unique.

Afro - Greek