For the full program: spaziogriot.org
Curated by SPAZIO GRIOT
promoted by Assessorato alla Cultura di Roma Capitale and Azienda Speciale Palaexpo
Co-organized e co-produced by SPAZIO GRIOT and Azienda Speciale Palaexpo
In collaboration with American Academy in Rome, Lateral Roma, Collettivo Gastronomico
I write What I like: Selected Writings by Steve Biko was published in 1978. It contained Biko's writing from 1969 to 1972 when biko was banned by the apartheid regime from publishing, and featured his writings as a student activist in Durban. In 1973 he was deported to his home town King William’s Town alongside many other activists who were relocated to disparate and isolated locations. Apart from negatively influencing the capacity of the organisations to function, the bannings were designed to demoralize activists and immobilize them. “The system concedes nothing without demand” Biko wrote, “for it formulates its very method of operation on the basis that the ignorant will learn to know, the child will grow into an adult and therefore demands will begin to be made. It gears itself to resist demands in whatever ways it sees fit. When you refuse to make these demands and choose to come to a round table to beg for your deliverance, you are asking for the contempt of those who have power over you”.
In the past months, students on campuses all over the world have been at the forefront of making demands, bringing attention to various forms of ongoing injustice and putting their universities in precarious positions. Making demands is one of the hallmarks of student activism. In the present moment, the legacies of student activism are alive and well, showing a continuity in the methods used in the struggle against injustice.
SPAZIO GRIOT public programme in 2025 is inspired by this history and practice of making demands. Articulating a vision for the word we want to see brings us one tiny step closer towards that world. In all its manifestations, art is one of the most suitable ways to do so. Join us for several days of performances, conversations, parties and food tastings and be inspired to learn, imagine and make demands towards collective liberation.