In 1956, the Roma revolutionary fighters were the last ones to surrender on 11 November. According to the surviving documents, none of them testified against their comrades after the revolution was crushed. The discussion have been realized in the frame of the 'Rikardo cooked something - kitchen, fashion, culture in the 8th district' event organized by the Goethe Institute Budapest .

In this scene of her play I declare at my own risk , Alina Serban questions whether she will be able to continue her studies after graduating from high school. Finally, she got accepted to more than one university and became an internationally renowned actress. Not believing that our dreams can come true is absolutely normal and does not mean that we should let those dreams go. Interview with Alina Serban >>>

What can a young girl growing up in a Romanian Zlatar community do, if she does not want to marry at the age of 13? What if she wants to continue her studies, against the will of her family? Roxana comes up with various unusual ideas to achieve her goal. I n her play  Del Duma – She Speaks,  Mihaela Dragan presents the complex topic of early marriage that determines the life of several Roma women in Romania even today. The artistic director of Giulipen theatre does not want to judge, she merely passes on the stories of women who have different views on early marriage. Interview with Mihaela Dragan  >>>

The play of Dijana Pavlovic gives insight into the almost completely unknown Swiss genocide of nomadic Jenish people, through the life of Mariella Mehr. The program that was run by the government until the ‘70ies teared families apart, women were sterilized, children bore compulsory treatment in order to ‘cure’ their nomadic genes – the aim was to raise the members of a community that had been deprived of their human rights as ‘normal’  Swiss citizens. Although the state apologized 30 years ago, the details of the program were made secret for 100 years, the teachers, doctors and organizations – amongst them Pro Juventute Stiftung – have continued their work without interruption. Interview with Dijana Pavlovic >>>

A scene from The Hardest Word, a play by Richard R. O’Neill, in which Jess Smith decides: the Scottish first minister must apologise to Traveller people for the long centuries of discrimination. The play has had a huge impact in Scotland: as a result, in the 21 st century, Scottish Travellers were finally recognized as an ethnic minority, and, although the government did not apologise, the church did so and started several services for Travellers. Thus, in a country where pubs often have signs forbidding Travellers to enter, health services such as cancer screening became accessible for Traveller people. Interview with the author >>>

Alina presented her auto-biographical play, I declare at my own risk, at Roma Heroes Festival. The play provides insight into the difficult moments of Alina’s life, her important decisions, her often controversial but always true thoughts and feelings. According to the actress who got to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London from a Romanian Gypsy yard, having climbed a mountain doesn’t mean that you have arrived. You may get some rest before you start climbing another mountain. She claims that we must consider carefully what Roma image we show and how it reinforces the superficial stereotypes that are present in many people. The human similarity is much more important than otherness. Roma theatre is theatre, same as non-Roma theatre. It is vital not to treat Roma people, nor Roma theatre as something ‘special’. If the topic and the artistic realisation is good enough, the artists should be in the mainstream instead of a cultural ghetto – from where they can step out on som...

The Romanian actress founded her own company, Giuvlipen. The name is a neology and refers to feminism. The members of the company are professional Roma actresses who, in their plays, confront the Roma and non-Roma audience with important but often sensitive issues. The show Del Duma - She Speaks , performed at the festival, discussed the topic of early marriage, whereas other plays focus on homosexuality or Roma slavery. She thinks it is vital to move on from the current situation – there are only three state founded, permanent Roma theatres in Europe: in Russia, in Ukraine and in Slovakia. In the rest of the continent, Roma artists must work without significant stable financial background. We, finally, have to occupy our place in the cultural sphere – Mihaela believes. The interview series were made with the help of the students of CEU: Ignácz Judit, Sadie Luetmer és Mayya Kelova, Frederik Ørskov; and the professional supervision of Jeremy Braverman. The videos were edited b...

The actress, now living in Italy but coming from the former Jugoslavia, had given up socio-political activism for a while as she had experienced too many losses because of her activism. She wanted to be ‘just’ an actress. However, she couldn’t turn a blind eye to the injustice both in her homeland and in the country of her choice, to the communities left alone, to the stories never told. Her play presented at the festival,  Speak, my life!, shows the decades-long genocide of Jenish people in Switzerland, which was surrounded by dead silence, through the eyes of the author Mariella Mehr, who herself was one of the victims. As an activist, Dijana fights against the discrimination that Roma communities face and strives to establish and put into action the European Roma Institute, the goal of which is to promote the creation and dissemination of works by Roma artists. In all her life, Dijana have found it important to fight instead of pitying herself whenever she faced any challe...

The Hungarian premier of the play ‘ The Hardest Word’ by the British writer and storyteller took place at Roma Heroes Festival. The story is about a Scottish woman who gets it into her head to force the first minister to apologise for the centuries-long discrimination of Scottish travellers. His other play, ‘ The Management Reserves the Right’ focuses on the everyday practice of Scottish barmen not letting Traveller guests enter the pub. The heroes of his plays, just as Richard himself, turn to other people as equal partners with smiling firmness – no matter whether the other is the first minister or the barman. Richard believes that  –  even in hard times  –  it is indispensable to keep our sense of humour and respect each other: that is how we can get on. Books and writing have outstanding importance in Roma and Gypsy communities: the world will get to know our point of view, our children will find plays or even tales portraying their own culture only if we ...