Annotations for Location: Space Significance

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.

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.

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 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.

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.