Benefit for No Border Kitchen Lesvos

Thursday May 21st 2020, No Border Kitchen Lesvos Benefit, Volkseten Vegazulu, Take Away People’s kitchen, vegan food, no reservation necessary (or possible!). Falafel with salad n’ sides! Pick up food from 7pm till 8:30pm. See you on the Steve Bikoplein.

Today’s meal is a benefit for No Border Kitchen Lesvos. This is what they do:
A message from Lesvos to Amsterdam.
Lesvos, Greece. A beautiful Island. The Biggest Prison in Europe.
No Border Kitchen is a horizontal and self-organised collective with and for the people on the move on the Greek Island of Lesvos. Since 2015, we have been providing basic needs to the people that are left behind at the walls of Fortress Europe. We provide support mainly in two ways. We provide cooked food every day to about 300 people in the Mytillni area. This is mostly aimed at people that are either forced to stay in the streets or are living in squats, rented houses or somewhere slightly outside of the city. Then there is the food-boxes. A food-box contains dry food, oil and fresh vegetables and is meant to support people that are living in Mytillini and pay rent but get no state support. We want to provide these things to make it more accessible for people to live outside of the refugee camp, Moria. With the donations we have been receiving recently we have been able to upgrade the food-boxes with hygiene items and some other things that were to expansive before, like coffee, spices and better quality vegetables.
A silent war is being waged in the Aegean and the Central Med. A new cold war, with migrants as the nuclear weapons of the 21st century. Since November of last year, with the announcement of amendments to the Greek migration & asylum laws, we have been bracing for the start of 2020.

And so far, it has been not been great. Starting from February there has been an increase in xenophobic groups attacking migrants, activists and volunteers. After a period of increased threats and violence, the Covid-19 measures started. This put a temporary stop to the violence but made continuing our day to day activities rather difficult. However, we were able to find a way to continue our work. With the implementation of the amendment to the Greek migration & asylum laws we are entering a new era of racism and oppression against people on the move. They aim to deport a greater group of people with maximum efficiency. Already on the sea border the amount of illegal acts has also increased. Under cover of night, boats that try to reach Greece via sea have their engines disabled and are being set adrift towards Turkish waters by the Hellenic Coast Guard.
This will send a message to all the people that want to try to get to Europe.
The message is: “If you try to get here, you will be held in a camp isolated from the rest of the world with nothing and if you are not recognised as a ‘legitimate’ refugee we will send you right back where you came from”.
The idea that migrants are so radically different from us is false. National identities are made up. And they are made so that it appears as though we have more in common with millionaires or career politicians than with people who risk everything seeking the same thing most of the people in the world want: Safety.
No Border Kitchen Lesvos https://noborderkitchenlesvos.noblogs.org/

Benefit voku for Apatris, Greek anarchist newspaper

Monday December 23rd 2019, Benefit voku for Apatris, Greek anarchist newspaper. Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm.

The street newspaper APATRIS (https://apatris.info/) began in 2009 from Heraklion (Crete) and for a year was distributed only locally. In 2010, comrades from other places in Crete began to collaborate with the project. Since then, Apatris has been issued as a Pancreatan anarchist newspaper. You can find it everywhere around Greece and further in various social centres around Europe, Joe’s Garage included!

Joe’s Garage is always looking for cooks. Any help is welcome in the kitchen. Experience not required. If you want to know which days are still available in the schedule, mail us and book yourself the night. You can, of course, also participate by rolling up your sleeves and doing the dishes.

Aman molli: Last Practice of Modal music for 2019

Friday December 6th 2019, Workshop of Modal music.

The last Aman Molli gathering for 2019, let’s meet to practice together and exchange knowledge of modal music! First half is the practice of repertoire our guests showed us last year, open to all levels! Second part is open to improvisation and experimentation. Bring your instruments and your best mood!

The Fig House (Pitzi Kampouroglou, 2019)

Monday November 11th 2019, special screening: The Fig House (documentary from Pitzi Kampouroglou, 2019), 102 minutes, in English with English subtitles. Doors open at 19:00 with food. Film starts at 21:00. Fee entrance, donations welcome.

The independent collective Amanita Films presents their new documentary The Fig House. The filmmakers will be present for questions and a discussion before and after the film screening. The film tells in twelve chapters the misadventures of ten friends and a cat, living for seven months in a squat in Greece. Activists and refugees all together, they come across the everyday troubles of living on the edge of society, while trying to reach Germany through the refugee’s Balkan Route.

Amanita Films is a project born from the making of the documentary The Fig House, a self-produced work by the same protagonists of the film. Amanita Films does not respect the rules of the film industry, believing that they are just instruments to preserve the privileges of those who have all the interests to prevent the free circulation and creation of art-works. We therefore do not recognize the copy rights of commercial exploitation neither our own neither others’ art’s works. We believe in a cooperative form of film production and in the creation of an alternative distribution network to the official one.

The idea of getting in a car and taking the film a tour around Europe, was born precisely from this need to get out of invisibility, to build a network of contacts that could become the basis for the diffusion and self-financing of independent audio-visual works.
The Fig House had its premiere at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, registered with false names and fake documents, winning the young jury special prize. Despite this small success, however, no distributor has declared to be interested in distributing a work that cannot be commercially exploited since it does not comply with and is registered to any copyrights.
We are now only a month away from going to Athens to start filming our next documentary: Love in Time of Crisis. We decided to go there by car, a one-month road trip to close a circle with our previous work and at the same time to open a new one.
We will depart from Zurich to arrive to Greece via Germany, Holland and Italy and we will stop in every city where there will be an squat, a cultural center, an private association, willing to support our project by hosting a screening of our previous documentary: The Fig House.
The purpose of the tour is also to be able to finance part of the expenses for the filming of Love in Time of Crisis through the support of our same spectators. The screenings will always be open to everyone and free; at the exit there will be a donation box where, whoever wants to, can leave a concrete support.
We want to share the experience of The Fig House with the largest number of people. The donation is not at all a discriminating factor in this sense, but only a possibility for the spectator, after having seen the film, in case it is liked, of being able to help Amanita Films to continue to produce cinema in a free and independent way.

Topics: The small mishaps of everyday life in the squatted house are the reason to raise some questions about immigration and solidarity, in particular on some issues that are not discussed very often. The film questions the vicious circle “illegality – poverty – prison”, as well as the topic of the “invisible wounds” – the psychological traumas connected to the migrant status. The documentary is essentially a story of friendship and solidarity, instability and despair. An opportunity to ask ourselves what kind of Europe we are building and if there is space for a better common future.

Synopsis
A group of friends, activists and migrants, decide to organize an escape plan through the Balkans, in order to reach illegally Germany from Greece. To accomplish their plans, they decide to divide the tasks, and while some are dedicated to find a suitable means of transport for the group, others are looking for an abandoned ruin to turn it into their home. When things seem to be going well, they have to face small unforeseen events that inevitably delay the completion of the plan: the cat of the house breaks his leg, a friend is arrested and one of the boys decides not to leave anymore. These continuous blows of misfortune end up weakening the psychological resilience of Ilias, one of the boys, who begins not to withstand the psychological pressure anymore, what is complicating the situation and putting the plan at risk.

For more infos: amanitafilms [at] protonmail [dot] com

Aman molli, modal music workshops

October 18th, November 1st, November 29th 2019, Aman molli, modal music workshops, from 19:30 to 23:00

Let’s gather to practice together our repertoire and exchange knowledge! First half is the practice of repertoire our guests showed us last year, open to all levels! Second part is open to improvisation and experimentation.

Aman Molli special concert

Saturday October 12th 2019, Aman Molli special concert.
Aman molli is proud to host one more special concert with traditional Greek and Turkish music.
Alexandros Papadimitrakis, Vanessa Kourtesi, Dimitra Metzaki, Duygu Alkan, Eirini Zogali and many more will be with us for a special winter welcoming concert, full of singing and music playing.
Melodies from all around the sunbathed Aegean Sea, Greek islands, Turkish sores, middle east bazaars, and desolate Arabic deserts will warm our hearts!
The doors will open at 7 pm. 7:30 pm food will be served! Music around 9pm.
Aman Molli: https://radar.squat.net/en/aman-molli

Aman molli special: workshop and jam session by Alexandros Papadimitrakis and Vanessa Kourtesi

Sunday June 2nd 2019, Aman molli special, workshop and jam session by Alexandros Papadimitrakis and Vanessa Kourtesi. Door opens at 16:00. By donations. Bring on your instruments!

Alexandros Papadimitrakis and Vanessa Kourtesi will be with us for a special workshop full of singing and music playing! In this workshop we will go on step further by practicing in parallel repertoire of east Mediterranean on vocals as well as melodically and rhythmically. In the end we will try to assemble all together! Don’t miss another unique opportunity!
Alexandros Papadimitrakis teaches Turkish Music (Oud & Lavta) at the World Music department of Codarts university in Rotterdam. Vanessa Kourtesi is singing with the Serenade Ensemble, a group of five talented young musicians from Greece and Turkey. Alexandros and Vanessa have been actively participating in the Aman molli workshops and performed a few times at Joe’s Garage.
Alexandros Papadimitrakis with Michalis at a music Sundays Rodos: https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=CazagBfmimk
Vanessa Kourtesi The Circle: https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VsE6FcP1lk
Somewhere in Athens: https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuyJt185ITE
Aman Molli: https://radar.squat.net/en/aman-molli

Aman molli: workshop by Alexandros Papadimitrakis and Vanessa Kourtesi

Friday April 12th 2019, Aman molli: workshop by Alexandros Papadimitrakis and Vanessa Kourtesi. Door opens at 19:30.

Alexandros Papadimitrakis and Vanessa Kourtesi will be with us for a special workshop full of singing and music playing! In this workshop we will go on step further by practicing in parallel repertoire of east Mediterranean on vocals as well as melodically and rhythmically. In the end we will try to assemble all together! Don’t miss another unique opportunity!
Alexandros Papadimitrakis teaches Turkish Music (Oud & Lavta) at the World Music department of Codarts university in Rotterdam. Vanessa Kourtesi is singing with the Serenade Ensemble, a group of five talented young musicians from Greece and Turkey. Alexandros and Vanessa have been actively participating in the Aman molli workshops and performed a few times at Joe’s Garage.
Alexandros Papadimitrakis with Michalis at a music Sundays Rodos: https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=CazagBfmimk
Vanessa Kourtesi The Circle: https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VsE6FcP1lk
Somewhere in Athens: https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuyJt185ITE