It is around four years since we began to ask ourselves about the possibilities of working with the young people who frequent Tabakalera. The questions had to do with thinking about the use we make of the open spaces of the building, in the occupation of the corridors and the corners of the old tobacco factory, in the assumptions that we usually associate with the label ‘young’. Those first reflections soon began to focus on the needs of those who appeared in Harrotu ileak every Friday: people who had recently arrived in Donostia and were living in situations involving vulnerability and constant racism.
Harrotu ileak is a workshop with young people. It is a weekly meeting to have tea and tell us how the week has been. It is a film. It is a play. It is a group that has produced its own brand of clothing. It is a space full of feelings, tensions, desires and expectations that are sometimes fulfilled and sometimes not. It is one of the projects that has most shaken the foundations of our educational practice.
During the 2020/21 academic year we began a new phase. Harrotu ileak became a collaborative programme of the Tabakalera mediation area and the recently created Darkum association, made up of “racialised” people. Together we think about ways to express what we feel, about different types of workshop to invite other young people who are interested to participate in. Together we create a space for agency. We enable conversations about racism and about feminism. About privilege and oppression. Harrotu ileak defines itself in the gerund: it is about being, it happens by happening, it is done by doing.
We meet up every Friday from 17:00 to 20:00 in different areas of Tabakalera. Come along!
