A La Muntagna
“Mountains are the cradle of the heroes”

How a song can inspire international solidarity
An event of talks, music, theatre and togetherness

A la Muntagna – Li Serê Çiya – Up to the Mountain

From the mountains of Southern Italy to the peaks of Kurdistan, the bilingual singings lead us through the footpath of rebellion and freedom. Two distant places and two different histories have never been so close.
The main power of the song lays on this deep sense of a different but at the same time so reciprocal recognizable history. A common ground for a profound nexus of true international solidarity.

In 2019 when we heard A La Muntagna played by an international band in a political underground space in Utrecht, The Netherlands, tears and memories overwhelmed us. We decided then to create a new song based on the old original one, linking the old struggle of the people in Southern Italy with the Kurdish effort for a cultural and political dignity.

At the end of the nineteenth century, immediately after the Italian unification, Southern Italy suffered greatly under the hegemonic power from Northern Italy. Many people in the South went up to the mountains and became ‘briganti’, outlaws, starting a struggle against the oppression and in the name of freedom. The original song A La Muntagna, in Southern Italian language, tells this story.
The same story is still very much true today for the Kurds. Mountains as a synonym of fight for freedom and dignity are very much a feature of the ongoing Kurdish struggle. The struggle against oppression starts from the mountains.
So now the solidarity of Southern Italians with the Kurds lives within the song A La Muntagna, ready to reach out to a full international solidarity. From the mountains to the valleys, anywhere international solidarity is needed in the name of liberation from political abuse, geopolitical hegemony, wars, social injustice and brutal imperialism.

The project has been realized without any financial support and thus personally paid by Harun Turan, its initiator. Musicians and singers from Kurdistan and Italy have come together to create this artistic work of music, video and grassroots arts.
Now A La Muntagna is all yours. We wish that you are ready to embrace its artistic value and its human and political meaning.

A project by Harun Turan in collaboration with AstaroTheatro and Our Footsteps

Acoustic guitar: Harun Elki
Percussions: Şener Yolal
Tongue pipe: Erdi Aslan
Ukulele: Cem Dikmen
Bass guitar: Uğur Nazlıer
Melodika: Yasar Ilgın
Mix/Arranger: Harun Elki
Mastering: Özgur Yurtoğlu
Kurdish singing: Şervan Turan
Italian singing: Irene Rametta, Alice Casarosa, Sara Bianchi
Composer Italian Lyrics: Eugenio Bennato
Kurdish Lyrics: Tuncay Korkmaz and Harun Turan
Video animation maker: Selen Kilinç
Story playwright: Tuncay Korkmaz and Harun Turan

Many thanks to: Humeyra, Maşuk Erten, Yunus Bilir, Aydin Gelmez and to the many friends supporting this project. Special thanks to Ru Paré for hosting this event

A La Muntagna
“Mountains are the cradle of the heroes”

How a song can inspire international solidarity
An event of talks, music, theatre and togetherness

Friday 25 March
Ru Paré
Chris Lebeaustraat 4 Amsterdam

 A la Muntagna – Li Serê Çiya – Up to the Mountain

From the mountains of Southern Italy to the peaks of Kurdistan, the bilingual singings lead us through the footpath of rebellion and freedom. Two distant places and two different histories have never been so close.
The main power of the song lays on this deep sense of a different but at the same time so reciprocal recognizable history. A common ground for a profound nexus of true international solidarity.

In 2019 when we heard A La Muntagna played by an international band in a political underground space in Utrecht, The Netherlands, tears and memories overwhelmed us. We decided then to create a new song based on the old original one, linking the old struggle of the people in Southern Italy with the Kurdish effort for a cultural and political dignity.

At the end of the nineteenth century, immediately after the Italian unification, Southern Italy suffered greatly under the hegemonic power from Northern Italy. Many people in the South went up to the mountains and became ‘briganti’, outlaws, starting a struggle against the oppression and in the name of freedom. The original song A La Muntagna, in Southern Italian language, tells this story.
The same story is still very much true today for the Kurds. Mountains as a synonym of fight for freedom and dignity are very much a feature of the ongoing Kurdish struggle. The struggle against oppression starts from the mountains.
So now the solidarity of Southern Italians with the Kurds lives within the song A La Muntagna, ready to reach out to a full international solidarity. From the mountains to the valleys, anywhere international solidarity is needed in the name of liberation from political abuse, geopolitical hegemony, wars, social injustice and brutal imperialism.

The project has been realized without any financial support and thus personally paid by Harun Turan, its initiator. Musicians and singers from Kurdistan and Italy have come together to create this artistic work of music, video and grassroots arts.
Now A La Muntagna is all yours. We wish that you are ready to embrace its artistic value and its human and political meaning.

A project by Harun Turan in collaboration with AstaroTheatro and Our Footsteps

Acoustic guitar: Harun Elki
Percussions: Şener Yolal
Tongue pipe: Erdi Aslan
Ukulele: Cem Dikmen
Bass guitar: Uğur Nazlıer
Melodika: Yasar Ilgın
Mix/Arranger: Harun Elki
Mastering: Özgur Yurtoğlu
Kurdish singing: Şervan Turan
Italian singing: Irene Rametta, Alice Casarosa, Sara Bianchi
Composer Italian Lyrics: Eugenio Bennato
Kurdish Lyrics: Tuncay Korkmaz and Harun Turan
Video animation maker: Selen Kilinç
Story playwright: Tuncay Korkmaz and Harun Turan

Many thanks to: Humeyra, Maşuk Erten, Yunus Bilir, Aydin Gelmez and to the many friends supporting this project. Special thanks to Ru Paré for hosting this event

Event Program:

18:30-20:00
Dinner

20:00-20:05
Welcome and brief presentation of the event

20:05-20:55
Panel: From the mountains to the valleys
International stories of struggles, resistance and liberation
With: Berfin Çelebi (Kurdistan), Michela Rossi and Luigi Lorato (Italy), Nataly Bernal (Colombia), Betina Abi Habib (Lebanon), Jesse van Duijl (The Netherlands)
Moderator: Basak Sila Kaymak

20:55-21.00
Short break

21:00-21:25
Live Music and Theatre
Yunus Bilir
Baschira
AstaroTheatro

21:25- 21:45
A la Muntagna – Li Serê Çiya – Up to the Mountain
Introduction to the song A La Muntagna
Video A La Muntagna
Q&A

Entrance by Donation. Note: this is a non-profit project. Your kind donations will help us to cover all the necessary costs to make this project possible

Four Seasons in a Lost Year
Four Artists in One Venue
Four Artists come together, carrying their personal and artistic history, ready to share it with the audience of AstaroTheatro.
It’s hard to say whether ‘Time present and time past’ are lost or ‘Are both perhaps present in time future’.
What’s sure is that Four Seasons in a Lost Year is a much-needed event of renewed community sharing.
We have been distant for too long, now it’s time to get closer.

Four Artists (in no particular order):
Victor Sams
Madam Bruno
Godfrey Lado
Roberto Bacchilega

One Venue:
Saturday 6 November
20:00 Doors Open.
20:30 Start of Four Seasons
AstaroTheatro
Sint Jansstraat 37 Amsterdam

Entrance by Donation

Victor Sams:
Victor Sams the singer, multi-instrumentalist was born on Statia a Caribbean island which was also called once upon a time because of its history the Golden Rock. The kamélé ngoni he plays comes from the harp family in Mali which is referred to in West Africa as the mother of harps. His musical story is rooted in a social combination of Caribbean-African music. victorsams.nl

Madam Bruno:
Madam Bruno hails from one of the most historic, cultured, creative and beautiful place on the planet, Napoli in Italy. Coming from a region so diverse and rich in culture, since a child, Madam Bruno took full advantage of her surroundings.
Her pallet of taste and inspirations is vast and matches her experience within theatrical and musical productions.
www.madambruno.com

Godfrey Lado:
From A War Child to Asylum A Refugee, from a Refugee to Assignment a medium of social cultural change and exchange.
Godfrey Lado is a multidisciplinary and a multidimensionally free soul; speaker, teller, poet, singer and a writer.

Roberto Bacchilega:
Performer and artistic director at AstaroTheatro. He presents:
The Want
An excerpt from ‘In the solitude of the cotton fields’ by Bernard-Marie Koltès
The Dealer is always there to remind you that ‘you must want something’. So be aware that you are nothing but a consumer in a consumers’ world. Unless you don’t want The Want.

AstaroTheatro Acting Class

The necessity and urgency of the theatrical performance
The physical, mental and emotional preparation of the actor
The energy, motivation and presence of the actor
Theatre games and improvisations
The actor in the theatre space
The voice of the actor
The action of the actor
The actor envisions an action and acts it
The memory of the actor as a tool for triggering true emotions in acting

Interested? Contact us: info@ourfootsteps.nl

Footsteps against racism at Aseed-Food Autonomy-Lutkemeerpolder
Moments of past migrants’ lives and of current theatre and activism
From voices of dolphins guiding migrants across threatening waters to singings of protest and revolution. And also strong voices against oppression, torture and discrimination, the cry of a refugee camp and the scream out of a box of definitions.
And now here we are, captured in our daily routine and yet still struggling as before. But now somehow knowing better how to break the boundaries of our constraints.
Footsteps Against Racism is a theatre performance created by the same migrants and refugee’s collective that has successfully performed Our Footsteps throughout 2019 and the beginning of 2020

Opening AstaroTheatro again feels like seeing a beloved friend after too long time.
Setup for filming Commemoration 106 years of Armenian Genocide.
Open the theatres! Especially grassroots venues with a non-mainstream narrative.

Footsteps against racism
Moments of past migrants’ lives and of current theatre and activism
From voices of dolphins guiding migrants across threatening waters to singings of protest and revolution. And also strong voices against oppression, torture and discrimination, the cry of a refugee camp and the scream to racism visible even in a colorful world map.
And now here we are, captured in our daily routine and yet still struggling as before. But now somehow knowing better how to break the boundaries of our constraints.
Footsteps Against Racism is a theatre performance created by the same migrants and refugees collective that has successfully performed Our Footsteps throughout 2019 and the beginning of 2020. Now the collective is here, ready for Week Tegen Racisme

Week Tegen Racisme 15-19 March
Pakhuis de Zwijger
Friday 19 March, 20:30-21:30 Footsteps against racism at “Words Against Racism”
LIVE via link: https://dezwijger.nl/programma/words-against-racism

Performers: Arif Murat Gür, Aysenur Akin, Erhan Calihan, Harun Turan, Maral Jefroudi, Maurizia Mezza, Rahila Yideaiti, Roberto Bacchilega, Zeki Barlin
Original text “The Dolphins” co-written  by Mohamed S. Bah and Aysenur Akin
Original texts by Arif Murat Gür, Erhan Calihan, Rahila Yideaiti
Brackground scenery by Karin Schoutema
Pictures by Melanja Palitta | BalansLaB

Many thanks to IIRE International Institute for Research and Education for supporting and welcoming us
An “Our Footsteps” and “AstaroTheatro” production
(Pictures from our dress rehearsal)