sunrise

The Untamed Episode 38 ──── Yi City

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the first societies dealing with Roma education, culture and social issues were established in Yugoslavia. One of the main initiators of the idea of ​​interconnecting the Roma within Yugoslavia was the pioneer and writer, Slobodan Berberski. He was also the president of the First World Congress of Roma held in London in 1971, when decisions were made in the spirit of the national awakening of Roma: a common name was established for all Roma in the world, the appearance of the flag and the Roma anthem The activities of the Yugoslav delegates at the following congresses proved to be decisive for the networking of Roma communities worldwidemIn the context of the mentioned initiatives, a cultural event of great importance for the Roma in Yugoslavia, but also in the world, is emerging. "The first review of Roma cultural achievements" was held in Nis in 1974 with the efforts of a prominent Roma activist, the then president of the "Roma Association" from Niš, Saito Balić. The first festival included a literary evening, an exhibition of paintings, an exhibition of old Roma crafts, a panel discussion on Roma culture and a folklore festival. The event was attended by 19 societies with 540 performers, and it was opened with a parade of all folklore groups through the city center, while the main part of the cultural and artistic program was held on the Summer Stage in the Niš Fortress. Petar Otoranov, a photo-reporter for the newspaper "Politika", who has immortalized the landscapes, cities, society and cultural events of Yugoslavia in his long-term work, had the opportunity to notice the festival, whose tradition is still nurtured in the culture of the Roma people.

“In the US, Roma are targeted by ‘Gypsy police task forces’ and face persistent discrimination, as shown in this Harvard Study. But we are not represented in the US Census or in politics, and barely feature in the media. In fact, many Roma in the industry hide their ethnicity if they’re able to and pretend to be something else to avoid repercussions.”

Third, Romani is a racial identity that gets conflated with ethnicity. Our vitsi are our ethnicities. This is something someone else tried to explain to you, but clearly you don’t actually care what Romani have to say about our own race, you only seem to argue with semantics. “White Romani” aren’t a thing. Argue with the wall on that, only 1/64th “my great great grandma might have been a Gypsy” types make that claim, and those are gadje, too.

TIG NOTARO as Marianne Peters ARMY OF THE DEAD (2021), dir. Zack Snyder

ETERNALS 2021 | dir. Chloé Zhao