Power is everywhere!

With its new office in Tirana, which opened in October, the Heinrich Böll Foundation now accompanies political and social developments in Albania directly on the ground. New social movements and actors have an increasingly transformative role in an environment of growing social dynamics. On this evening, the Heinrich Böll Foundation will introduce some of the actors and activists of the new social movements: 

For ten years now, activists from Aleanca in Albania have been advocating the rights of the LGBTIQ+ community, ensuring their visibility and recognition, fighting discrimination and offering protection and support for LGBTIQ+ people in need. A group of young journalists founded the independent online media start-up Citizen Channel, which reports on local news and protest movements, at a time when press freedom and freedom of expression are coming under increasing pressure worldwide. Local environmental organisations have built long-term and close relationships with international actors and launched vibrant campaigns to protect the wild river Vjosa. The TekBunkeri initiative aims to promote community-oriented social innovations and is setting up a new cultural centre for this purpose.  Alternative formats are also developing in the arts and culture scene, with the recent founding of the "wasbleibtkollektiv".

These aspiring new agents of change are contributing with their dynamism to the development of a sustainable, more inclusive political culture and pointing out inadequacies and deficits in everyday political life with their new and progressive ideas. This evening, we will discuss local practices, democratic possibilities and current struggles with actors and activists. We ask how Albanian civil society can sustain the momentum of increasing social dynamics at the grassroots, open the space for more citizen participation and be more intersectional in its own practices.

With

• Xheni Karaj, LGBT rights activist and executive director of Aleanca LGBT, Tirana
• Lorin Kadiu, Journalist and executive director of Citizen Channel, Tirana
• Ivo Krug, activist and co-founder of Tek Bunkeri, Tirana
• Rosella Pellicciotti, performer and producer of was bleibt kollektiv, Tirana
• Aleksandër Trajçe, researcher and executive director of PPNEA, Tirana
• Chaired by Anja Troelenberg, Program Coordinator for Democracy, Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Tirana
• Welcome: Dr. Ellen Ueberschär, CEO, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Berlin & Dr. Gökhan Tuncer, head of Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Tirana

The hybrid event will be held in English with Albanian simultaneous translation. For the digital audience in ZOOM there is, additional to Albanian, also German simultaneous translation provided.

The address to attend the talk face-to-face is: Destil Creative Hub, Zogu I Blvd, Tirana 1001, Albania.

Information
Katja Giebel, department of East- Southeastern Europe, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Berlin, E giebel@boell.de T 49(0) 30  285 34 -388

Note: The technical requirements for  the digital participating in the event are a computer, tablet or smartphone with a speaker. Online events will be held using the Zoom software, which will provide a link for participating. The event will be recorded. On first using Zoom, this access link will initiate the download of the client software ("Zoom-launcher.exe"). This software must be executed or installed (recommended) on your computer. Otherwise you cannot use the translation function! If you prefer not to download it, please click on the link "join via browser". Note: This option is only available for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge and does not contain different language channels. Please join the event a few minutes before its start time. After registering for an event, our privacy policy applies. The Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung is not liable for the Zoom software. The Zoom privacy policy is available here.