Rising Voices

Project leader Álvaro Ramirez posts a short introduction of Hiperbarrio and Convergentes:

HiperBarrio is the name that brings together several neighborhoods in Medellin, Colombia using various free publications on the Internet to promote new forms of knowledge, exchange and interdependence.

Convergentes, a part of its projects, is a creative community of young users of the Pilot Public Library of La Loma in Medellín, Colombia. We use blogs and other digital media to publish stories, photos and videos to share with our readers and hundreds of spectators.

Members of Hiperbarrio & Convegentes in a public library. Image by stralunato.

The decision to revamp the activities of the Hiperbarrio project paid off as we see a successful video workshop took place on February 21, 2009. Catalina Restrepo Martinez writes in the project blog:

We were working in teams of 2 to 3 persons in the conduct of short videos through which talk of La Loma or convergence. The activity suggested by Mr. Alvaro - proved to be productive. The challenge was that the work does not exceed one minute in duration and that the editing was minimal. The result is the following:

Another video with subtitles was published earlier in Rising Voices.

Medea writes on the outcomes of the video workshop with Henry Barros:

Catalina and Milthon, from Convergentes have put together a video during their videoblogging workshop that exposes the lack of safe places to play for children in their community. They play ball on a sloping street or on a monkey bar right next to a steep ledge that drops down to the street below. In their post [es], they reflect on how adults seem to raise money for different church related activities, but don’t concern themselves with the children’s lack of safe places in which to exercise and play.

Here is the video with English subtitle:

Argos writes about a walk tour of La Loma which took place on February 22, 2009 with the support of the bureau of labor of the local government:

We realized that if we wanted to write and talk about our “neighborhood/village,” we should go out to explore the vast and beautiful places to get a fair idea of their surroundings and their limits.

Catalina updates on the fund drive for building a home for Suso:

We have received $ 200 (424,200 pesos), which were spent for the completion of the home for Suso, a proper gate was acquired and also repaid debts incurred earlier.

Thank you all for supporting us!

Now let us see what the members of Hiperbarrio are updating in their personal blogs.

Akenaton, who completed a diploma course on clown performance at the University of Antioquia writes:

Being a clown is not done to disguise the funny. The clown is not in the nose or on the costume, being a clown is in the heart. The red nose is just a slice of warm, throbbing heart in the face. The clown is a state of the soul, therefore, by the squad is not disguised, but rather it is released. The word costume, due to the notion of a lie, but the word is due to release the truth. No one dresses up as a clown, with his celebrated a more pure, and is dressed for the occasion.

Being a clown means to have a mission in life: to be the dumbest among fools, the most defenseless creatures. Lowered to a level lower than that of the poorest and most wretched, to make you feel, sir, and lucky. Being a clown is to give joy to have hands full. [machine translation]

Blueandanit writes on the occasion of the Women's Day:

It makes no sense to demand our rights as women, we do not like and respect us ourselves, when we let ourselves be carried away by sexism, when we see a fat woman on TV and began to criticize when we see a man hits a woman and say that is because he knows that women like us are like this….

Catalina Restrepo also writes on the social position of the women in other parts of the world.

Friends of Carmen Paniagua at a Lunas Lomenas (full moon recitation meet). Image by blueandtanit

Jorge Montoya posts a video depicting the nocturnal beauty of Colombia:

Catalina describes how a dawn in La Loma looks like. Camela is outraged by the new spread of violence in Colombia.

Álvaro Ramirez writes about the future plans of Hiperbarrio:

The project will go ahead to extend HiperBarrio to new neighborhood communities. We are considering to return to Santo Domingo, based in the Pilot Central Library (located strategically in the neighborhood and neighboring Carlosé of the Iguana).