The objectives of the circle include:

  • Experimenting and promoting peaceful coexistence in plurality, acknowledging our differences and hospitality as richness.
  • Weave social bonds in all spaces, replace and reassert care as the core of our human relationships, open inclusive spaces where it is possible to be, without label or judgement.
  • Building a community of people committed to fostering a more peaceful world, deprived of structural, cultural and systemic forms of violence, in which we experiment the world we want to see where care is at the heart of our being and acting.
  • Equipping and empowering people to be actors/actresses of peace in their lives, in society and on Earth, starting with themselves.
  • Facilitating the integration of people with a migration background into our society in France and the opening up of French society towards newly arrived migrant people.
  • Contributing to deconstructing prejudices and addressing cultural and epistemic violences induced by our current society and world.
  • Promoting and facilitating dialogue and reconciliation in France around issues of identity, decoloniality and race through the recognition of our stories and of existing discriminations.

 

Coordinators: Célia Demoor (celiademoor@gmail.com), Léa Cogné (lea.cgn@gmail.com), Cynthia Di Penta (cynthiadipenta@gmail.com), Léa Rémy (remylea9@gmail.com),  Aurore Marboeuf (aurore.marboeuf@gmail.com), Barbara Markesic (barbara.markesic1@gmail.com), Sabrina Ho-Bing-Huang (sabrinahbh@icloud.com).

Volunteer Members: Marina Oracolo, Atigou Sow, Elise Deschodt, Muneir Abdelazim Mustafa, Laura Rodriguez Thuriot, Abeer Almobanin, Jamal Omer, Abulgasim Abakar, Natalia Jamiolkowska, Alseny Sacko, Elio Neto, Farah Maréchal, Lucie Dujardin, Emma Garin, Ignace Nshimiyimana, Mikhaïl Adjali, Hélène Nivesse, Milena Mouchenik, Luna Rivero, Lina Maria Ramirez, Maryam Saad, Richa Sharma

Supporting Members (Circle’s ‘heartfelt’ volunteer members): Pierre Devigne, Paya Ndiaye, Alhassane Bah, Brigitte et Jean-Noël Petit, Lyes Tiouti, Abdelnasir Muhanna, Tyler Durnion, Jeanne Barrié, Kevin J. Brenneman, Islam Gabi, Justine Berthelot, Emma Monbrun, Coleen Matton, Souhoufia Issouf, Margaux Auroux, Albert Tossou, Matthieu Dumont, Nicolas Beaussart, Salah-Eddine Amini

 

Projects (current and planned):

  • Bénédeep: Monthly events dedicated to our members to meet, weave ties, slow and strong, build friendships.
  • ‘The Other is me!’ Project: A safe space to explore hospitality and interculturality through the improv’ theatre and the arts, mixing local people, old and new – with and without a migration or refugee background – weekly workshops resulting in one or more community evening shows twice a year.
  • ‘The Other is us!’ Project: The ‘Other is me!’ adapted to a mixed group of teenagers in local high schools – resulting in a community show at the end of the school year.
  • Raising awareness among the youth on migration and discrimination – on hold now.
  • Oui Act: A project for the youth in collaboration with Initiatives of Change France to build dialogue around their place, their role and their relationship with society and the world – in discussion, yet to be implemented.
  • Women Peace Circles: A space for women of diverse backgrounds to explore how to be creators of peace in their lives, their communities and the world. Also a space to build bridges across religious, ethnical, racial differences – This project will start in 2021 and is being implemented in collaboration with Creators of Peace International.
  • Reading days: Sunday gatherings to share and dialogue around our recent literary inspirations and our cultural foods.
  • Intergenerational Hike: A yearly event bringing together people of all ages and cultures for a 10-km walk in the countryside around Lille.
  • Decolonial Dialogues: at the conceptual stage for the moment.

 

Past projects:

  • The “Voices of Migrants” Films (2016) : shot in the Calais migration camp in 2016 which consists of short testimonies of habitants of the camp from Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, etc, talking about their lives, their journeys, their dreams.
  • Citizens’ Dialogues (2016): Safe spaces gathering people of all ages and faiths to dialogue around our differences and what it means to be a citizen in our country.

The World Biggest Eye Contact Experiment (2016-2017): The local manifestation of a global event initiated by The Liberators International whereby passersby are invited into a public space to stop and stare at another person for 1 minute in silence, a way to connect differently and feel our shared humanity.