Si Oran m’était contée © Le petit lecteur d’Oran
From 12h to16h of March 2012, the organization « Le petit lecteur d’Oran » organized the the 6th edition of story telling festival in Oran. The cultural event is now considered as a major attraction. Several components take part in the success of the popular participation in fairy tales, legends and stories.
A varied program : stories from here and there, in the old and new days.
This year again, the festival programming includes Algerian but also foreign oral patrimony, thanks to the participation of Africain (Congo) and Mediterranean (Lebanon, Italy, France) strory tellers.
The program propose a varied range of tales : from traditional to modern, in Arabic and French, and reflects the universal nature of this ancestral form of expression. The artistic forms of the events also experience cross-disciplinary collaboration : music and danse fuel go with some stories.
This year, the program includes the talk of :
- Meslem Mahi Seddik : (Sidi Bel Abbès, Algeria), artistic festival director
- Paule Latorre (Montpellier, France)
- Elisabeth Troestler (Bretagne, France)
- Kamel Zouaoui (Paris, France) : d’origine kabyle, conte en français
- Ghiwa Allam : (Beyrouth, Lebanon) : bibliothécaire à l’association Assabil, conte en arabe
- Rafik Harbaoui, (Besançon, France) : d’origine algérienne, conte en français
- Ljuba Scudieri et son musicien Davide Chimenti (France and Italy) : stories from Méditerranean area
- Jorus Mabiala (Congo et Bordeaux, France)
- Hanifa from les perles d’eau company– Alger
- Djamila Hamitou – story teller from « Le Petit lecteur »
To combine beauty with utility, the edition of the year proposed a story telling training program. Young story tellers have been initiated to the art by Muriel Bloch, invited by the French Institute in Oran. Moreover, young Algerian tellers trained in the past edition, participated in the program.
A popular event with many stages.
The festival claims to put the story telling practice as close as possible to the young and adult audience. It displays shows in several districts of the city : open-air show, as the walk along
The pond, or in the rose garden, private atmosphere as in the Turkish bath of Sidi El Houari, in the heart of the popular district of the city, or in public spaces as in the Abdelkader Alloula theatre, the Ahmed Wahbi conservatory, or in the cultural city centres… All the social classes have been part of the audience !
Some events are even considered to be essential, now : young public shows in the regional Abdelkader Alloula theatre of Oran, fairy tales night in the French Institute, and the story walk in the Ibn Badis garden achieved a great success.
A local network with actors on the social stage.
The fairy tale festival is supported by the Oran local council Assembly. This year, inauguration aroused a big interest in the population : the Algerian story tellers welcomed the foreign one in the Oran city council.
Like the previous years, the French Institute of Oran, takes part in programming the fairy tales night and the organisation COBIAC support the festival by sending two story tellers and by following the artistic direction and organization.
Le Petit Lecteur also developped new local partnerships, with associations and institution : women organisations, cultural and social organization, training centres, diocese of Oran… and with the faithful partner : the organisation « Bel Horizon »…
All these energies serve a unique objective : meeting the public.
The fruits of a long term effort : an awareness campaign for reading.
The Oran fairy tale festival would not be as successful without the tireless action of the organization to promote child and young people reading, in the city. The organization support the increase in the number of reading spots in the city –primary, secondary schools, cultural and social centres in off-centre districts…, organize children and young people activities, display a constent effort in training the staff and the volonteers to the new practice of reading and knowledge access, and develop a partnership method to build a local network in order to closen young and books.
A real painstaking of proximity actions, that have been implemented since 1993.
