This project is sponsored by the British Council and will bring together writers from the Maghreb to work with UK-based writers and academics.
The aim is to bring together writers from the Maghreb and the UK in a unique form of inter-cultural dialogue which will enrich all partners.
The project will provide an opportunity for writers from the Maghreb to bring their work into a wider international forum.
Background
For the past two years British Council Morocco has played host to the Moroccan Writers’ Community. This was a group of dedicated Moroccan writers and scholars who have been writing in English and in collaboration with a variety of UK-based writers.
All writers agreed that that they had been enriched by the experience. UK writers, in particular, declared that they had been enormously impressed by the quality of writing from this culturally rich and diverse part of the world.
On the back of the success of this Community, it was decided to move the project to a larger level, encompassing Tunisia as well as Morocco.
Medi-Café in Marrakech
The new project, with the title Medi-Café, was launched in Marrakesh on 23 February 2007. The launch brought together the writers from the Maghreb and UK writers and academics in a series of workshops and seminars, culminating in a project on ‘Writing the City, Writing Marrakesh’.
Medi-Café project specializes in three key areas reportage, fiction and poetry, each mentored by Dr Andrew Hussey, Professor Stephen Regan and Dr Kate Pullinger, established writers as well as academics.
Most exciting of all is the expectation that a new generation of writers from the Maghreb will emerge from this creative encounter.
Medi-Café and Edward Said
The project is inspired by Edward Said’s notion of ‘imaginary frontiers’; this is a motif developed throughout Said’s work as a notion which both destroys and rebuilds the notion of comparative literary aesthetics, finally working towards the possibility of a true ‘world literature’. This is a crucial trope in the development in the emerging discipline of inter-cultural studies.
The specific aim of this project is therefore to bring together theoretical and practical aspects of this notion, and to investigate therefore what it means to be writing within and beyond cultural boundaries.
The project took the form of a series of workshops, readings and online mentoring sessions held in Morocco and Tunisia throughout 2007.
Medi-Café in Paris
These activities culminated in a conference sponsored by the British Council and the University of London that took take place in Paris on 14 and 15 March 2008.
The conference was attended by the Medi-Café project mentors and participants from Morocco and Tunisia. The workshop was preceded by a press conference organised by Professor Andrew Hussey, Dean of London University in Paris.
Medi-Café in Tunisia: 28 and 29 November 2008
The two days Medi-café workshop that took place in Tunis on 28 and 29 November 2008 were exceptionally animated. All participants (Tunisians and Moroccans) gave positive feedback about the high quality of the lectures and interaction with the UK mentors.
On the first day, Kate Pullinger, one of the UK mentors, delighted and honoured participants, with a reading from her latest book (soon to be published) "The Queen of Nothing".Andrew Hussey, facilitated an interesting workshop on "travel writing" where he invited the participants to write their own little piece of travel literacy. Steven Regan, Head of the Department of English Studies at Durham University, gave an entertaining and highly interactive session based on Shakespeare's moody work "The Tempest".
On the 2nd day everyone received an interesting lecture on Algerian "bloody history" by the Algerian history expert Natalya Vince. All of this took place in the romantic Carthage seaside, in the historical palace of "Beit Al- Hikma" where the "Tunisian Academy of Science, letters and Arts" is residing. In the afternoon, the whole group went sightseeing in Tunis's old Medina quarters, signalling the end of an intensive and highly constructive two days.
The next and last workshop will take place next March in Rabat.
Medi-Café in Rabat: 6 and 7 March 2009
Once again, participants and partners in the Medi-Café project joined each other for one last workshop in Rabat on 6 and 7 March.
The two-day workshop was held in the heart of Rabat at le Pietri hotel, known for its weekly jazz performances,. The mentors, Dr Andrew Hussey, Professor Stephen Regan and Dr Kate Pullinger, met the Moroccan and Tunisian participants for one last round table.
The themes discussed included 'Introducing Film Poetry' by Stephen Regan, 'What is Non-Fiction, and Why it Matters?', by Andrew Hussey and 'Speaking in Voices/Speaking Out Loud', by Kate Pullinger.,The participants also had to read aloud to the rest of the group one of their original pieces written as part of the project.
Stephen Regan had these words to say about the event, 'I thought it was an excellent event in every way. The levels of energy and enthusiasm were high, as always, and the support from the British Council was superb. There was a real feeling of achievement at the end of the session (and the end of the current phase), a sense of having travelled over those imaginary frontiers.
The British Council wishes good luck to all the participants for their future endeavours in the world of writing and publishing. Some are already going to have their work published in the UK magazine The Grove as a result of their work in Medi-Café.
For more information visit the website: http://medi-cafe.britishcouncil.org
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