Kamel Suleiman © Espace lecture Vaillant-Acelem
Kamel Sulieman is a team mate of the Tamer Institute, which leads many initiatives on reading and writing in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip : writing workshops, publishing of several collections of books, creation and support to libraries in refugee camps… He came to do an internship in Marseille, Aix-en-Provence and Martigues in May 2012, invited by the COBIAC and the City of Martigues. For a week, he participated to the media-library life and met several local cultural stakeholders of reading and multimedia, like ACELEM, ZINC, the BDP13…
A favoured cooperation link with Martigues
Patrick Mégel, librarian at the media-library of Martigues, says: « The visit of Kamel Sulieman in Martigues takes part in a partnership wished by the City of Martigues with the COBIAC since 2001, to contribute to the reading development in the Bethlehem Governorate.
A professional partnership between libraries was born, directly in Bethlehem with missions organized by the COBIAC (buying new books, helping setting up a resources centre for youth), or in Martigues at the Media-library Louis Aragon (hosting intern, inviting a story-teller for the “Odyssée de Martigues”). These actions improve the skills of librarians and local cultural contributors, especially with young audiences.
By inviting Kamel Sulieman in Martigues, we wanted him to meet people and discover structures able to expand his horizon. He visited the several reading places in Martigues and Châteauneuf-les-Martigues, and exchanged with stakeholders of the book world and early childhood. Kamel participated as well to the Odyssée, cultural event of Martigues, where he discovered children’s author (Rémi Courjon, Renaud Perrin, Laurent Moreau) and assisted to many shows.
There was an important moment when a few kids of Martigues, during a Mediabus visit could hear some Arabic thanks to a tale from his country.
Kamel’s visit in Martigues was a rewarding meeting between reading stakeholders of different horizons, but all joined by a common passion.”
Professional meetings and openings
Then, Kamel stayed in Marseille, where he met the teams of ZINC, ACELEM, the BDP Bouches-du-Rhônes, and two libraries members of the BDP’s network.
With the team of ZINC, he discovered the Friche la Belle de Mai, some examples of multimedia creative projects and the resources blogs like the one of the MEDiakitab platform (which the Tamer Institute is a member), and the ones of ZINC: Clavardages or the current project Alif, alpha et arobase…
At ACELEM (Cultural Association of Reading and Writing Rooms in the Mediterranean) in the district of la Joliette, Kamel visited a reading room.
He participated to a tale workshop, where he told in Arab the kids the story of the lion and the rat, from the book of Kalila and Dimna, and a few stories of Djoha.
After a presentation of the BDP and its missions, especially the youth actions, Kamel visited two libraries of the local network. In the first library, he assisted to a “told hiking” with the storyteller Sylvie Vieville.
In the second library, Kamel could observe the reception of classes (primary school) with a Reading challenge and a theatrical production. The librarian introduced him to the library and explained him the youth politics.
Report and continuations
The aim of this visit was to allow an activity coordinator at the Tamer Institute to enhance his knowledge and to show him some possible activities to do in public reading places.
This experience should be a bonus for the three-days training course of librarians he had to give at the end of June in Bethlehem.
He will be able to testify that public reading is about organization and animation, helping audiences, especially the young ones, to get a taste for books.
Kamel Suleiman © …
