S3E22. Three is a magic number
BarBalkans' third year comes to an end. A season that followed the promises to put the Balkan voices at the center of this project and to organize new events. Let's look back at it all together
Hi,
welcome back to BarBalkans, the newsletter (and website) with blurred boundaries.
This is it. We have reached the moment of the year when we have to take stock of an entire season spent together.
Another season of BarBalkans. The third one, to be precise.
Three years of this newsletter, never tired of discovering new stories and acting like a sounding board for them.
Because the Western Balkans have enormous potential, far beyond stereotypes, simplifications and fear-mongering when some tension flares up.
Today’s stop concludes the third season of this newsletter and renews the will to always do better.
To constantly improve a product that now has its own identity. To pose increasingly bigger challenges and never take anything for granted. To keep the fire of curiosity always alive.
I have to tell you. This BarBalkans’ third season has shown even more that you can make a difference.
Because an independent project like this cannot survive without the support of the readers.
A job well done needs many hours and energy, taken away from free-time. Also to make it an increasingly original product, with new ideas, interviews and collaborations.
Looking for sources, studying, interviewing, writing, organizing trips and events, translating newsletters and articles. Because BarBalkans cannot exist without its Italian version BarBalcani.
For this reason I kindly ask you to consider the possibility of donating, to support the many faces of BarBalkans’ project. Click on the image below for more information:
In any case, BarBalkans newsletter will remain for free. And this will never change, it is a matter of principle. The right to be informed should be granted to anyone who wants and feels this need.
The only difference, for those who will decide to support the project, will be the access to a content reserved for subscribers. The monthly article-podcast on the Yugoslav Wars, to find out what was happening - right in that month - in the Balkans 30 years ago.
A sort of time machine, to deepen a topic that is often mentioned but with too little knowledge.
The preview with highlights is open to everyone - you can find it on Spreaker, Spotify, Apple Podcast and Google Podcast - while the detailed article published every second Wednesday of the month is only for subscribers.
If you are intrigued, try to throw an eye on the latest episode:
I hope I have been able to make you understand how important you are for this project. Regardless of what you will decide, thank you. From the bottom of my heart.
From the beginning
Today’s stop is a recap of what happened during this BarBalkans’ season, that can also help the last of the 575 subscribers who joined this journey to catch up.
While the second season was the time of confirmation, the third season has been inevitably the moment of creating a more defined identity.
If you remember, we set the foundation at the end of last season:
“The promise for the third season is to put these voices even more in the center, with many interviews and stories from the places where they are taking place”.
We were talking about the voices of European citizens - Balkan and non-Balkan people - who are building from below with their own initiatives an idea of society, economy and culture far from the stereotypes about the region.
We found them in all areas and it has been like a breath of fresh air.
From the beginning of the new season, with the words of EuroPride 2022 coordinators in Belgrade, Goran Miletić and Steve Taylor, about the complexity of organizing a crucial event for LGBTQ+ rights in Serbia. Or with Croatian Maja Sever, the first woman journalist at the head of the European Federation (EFJ).
Of particular high value also the dialogues on Kosovo. From the European Nomadic Biennial of Contemporary Art Manifesta 14 in Prishtina with architect and Creative Mediator Carlo Ratti, to Anibar International Animation Festival with festival director Arba Hatashi, and the discussion with MEP Thijs Reuten, rapporteur on Kosovo visa liberalization.
Halfway, in the 9th episode, Donald Niebyl told us The legend of the fraternal Spomeniks. These particular monuments that recall Tito’s Federation utopian ideals are spread throughout the former Yugoslavia, but nowadays have to come back from oblivion.
Talking of legacy of the past, we found both positive and negative examples. In the 15th episode, we discovered that innocent people can still die because of The invisible threat of landmines, 30 years after the end of the Yugoslav Wars.
In the 16th episode we dove into The heart of the Empire with three cultural initiatives on the heritage of the Roman Empire in the Balkans: Macedonians Zorica Velkovska and Milan Tanceski explained two technological tools that put the visitor at the center of the historical experience, while Serbian Vladan Krečković the ‘Roman Emperors and Danube Wine Route’.
Concerning wine, in the 17th episode we had a pause to Fill the glass, Open Balkan(s). In 2023, the international wine exhibition Vinitaly hosted Wine Vision by Open Balkan project, and Slovenian star chef Tomaz Kavćić led us through wine regions that are more and more renowned on the international scene.
Year 2023 started with two streams of analysis, among new interviews and unexpected stories.
The first thread is on folklore and spirituality. In the 11th episode we analyzed Wednesday Addams’ Balkan werewolves, and in the 12th episode we went in search of The pagan spell of life and death of the Vlachs in Eastern Serbia, thanks to the support of Marija Stevuljevic.
The second thread is on music. In the 14th episode Alen Đokić, aka Doppelgänger, showed us how the Italian rap is surfing the Balkan wave. The previous episode has been an opportunity to ask an almost existential question: What is this obsession with Balkan music? And Gabriele Roccato, singer and founder of Babbutzi Orkestar, tried to give an answer.
Since “whys” are our bread and butter, in the 19th episode we also tried to clarify What you have to know about the word ‘Balkans’. Sociologist Chiara Milan explained many things that we really should keep in mind.
Another trending topic on BarBalkans is the enlargement of the European Union to the Western Balkans. Once again this year - thanks to the support of subscribers and Eunews (the newsroom I work for) - it was possible to attend the EU-Western Balkans Summit in Tirana, Albania, on 6 December 2022.
A few weeks earlier, in the 6th episode, we analyzed the tour by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in the Balkan capital cities: we named it A sky full of crises. While in the 4th episode we followed The dawn of a new Europe: the first meeting of the European Political Community and its impact on the Western Balkans.
Finally, it was impossible to forget one of the most important issues since the birth of this newsletter, and for the whole of Europe: migration and the Balkan route.
We continued to follow this topic with an analysis of the walls already built, under construction or dismantled - in the 5th episode, The cost of tearing down walls - but most of all with two other highlights in this third season.
An interview with Andrea Segre, director of the documentary film Trieste shines at night, denouncing the illegal police operations against migrants at the border between Italy and Slovenia.
And BarBalkans’ second event, “Poveri noi. Tales from Bihać and from the Balkan Route” at Piolalibri, with Marta Gionco (Apriamo i Porti), Lorenzo ‘ULULA’ Garofalo and Nicola Veronesi. An event that brought many people to Brussels to learn more about EU policies, grassroots initiatives and stories of the people trying to reach the European Union along the Balkan route.
I saved the best till last, as it should be. The most careful of the readers may have noticed that a crucial milestone for BarBalkans’ third season was missing in the thread on music.
The Special edition - Dubioza kolektiv. A special edition not only because this is an exclusive interview with the famous Bosnian group, but especially because it was conceived and realized by two friends and contributors to this newsletter - Chiara Catelli and Walter Fiorini.
And this brings us to the promise for BarBalkans’ fourth year.
While cultural events and voices from the Western Balkans will always remain at the center of the project - with interviews and stories from the places where they are taking place - the goal for the next season is to open this newsletter to external original contributions on everything that concerns the Balkan region. Politics, culture, society, sports, art, film, cuisine, spirituality...
More details will be provided before the start of the new season.
You just have to stick around and find out what will come out!
This is the very end of BarBalkans’ third season. Thanks again. For your patience, your time, your curiosity, your trust.
And now, let’s continue our journey. See you in a few weeks, with the beginning of a new year together.
In the meantime, in case you feel homesick, don’t worry. I anticipate you an appointment - to keep the promise to organize new cultural events - where you can find me along the way.
Like last year for the first BarBalkans’ event - The Langer-Sassoli Project’s final event - once again this summer the Italian bookshop & wine bar Piolalibri opens its doors for our new cultural event.
On July 6, “Kosovo in the new millennium - Justice, rebirth and tensions” will be an opportunity to find out why we have been hearing more and more about Kosovo and Serbia.
We will talk about it with Benedetta Arrighini, author of the book Kosovo tra guerra e crimini. More information will be provided soon on BarBalkans’ social media channels.
In the meantime, to make this experience grow, you can invite whoever you want to subscribe to the newsletter:
This last stop of the season is devoted to the memory of Franco, who always wanted a printed copy of BarBalkans’ articles, tirelessly. Because knowledge must be granted to anyone, regardless of the support available for the reading.
Wherever you are, just keep helping us to be determined, stubborn and obstinate in pursuing what makes us really happy.
This is really all. A big hug and have a good journey!
Yours,
Federico