Raccoon Community Building Space Project, Queens, New York City

prostor
718/784-9121
fax: 718/784-1858
a n n o u n c e m e n t s

The Space will enhance our work accomplished on the Internet by providing a physical space where members of diverse communities can participate together in varied activities. Through the organization of workshops, support groups, counseling and cultural activities, the Space will solidify and expand conflict resolution and reconciliation efforts within the exiled Balkan communities in the New York Metropolitan area. This is who we are. Generally, The Space shall be open for public daily, but please call before you come: 718/784-9121. Our schedules may change. For the last minute changes and news flashes click on the news icon above. To view our history, click here.

Workshops & Programs

Last Monday of the Month, 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
RingeRaja Logo

Do you think that it would be nice for your children to play "Ide maca oko tebe" ili "Ringe ringe raja," but they don’t have friends who know these games? Would you like your kids to know how to write in our language, but there is no one around to teach them? Would you like to meet other similar parents? If the answer to the above questions is yes, Raccoon’s weekly workshop "Ringe-Raja" is the place for your children and you. The main idea behind the "Ringe-Raja" workshop is for kids to gain knowledge and friends while playing in our language. Among other things we plan to read them popular fairytales from back home, to broadcast cartoons in our language, and, while playing, to teach them the letters and basics of reading and writing. The program of the workshop will be adjusted to the participant’s age.
All interested should e-mail Marija. Let us know the age of your children, what would you like them to learn, and if you and your children can attend on Mondays from 3.30pm to 5.00pm. Depending on interest and availability we may be able to change the day and/or time.
Raccoon’s “Ringe Raja” workshop is free of charge. The first meeting will be held on March 31 at 3.30pm at the Raccoon Space.
Workshop days will be marked blue on the calendar.

Tuesdays 11 am - 1 pm

Health care workshops with Marija Sajkas

Works with constituency that needs advice on health care issues and strengthening personal resources. Offers weekly drop-in or scheduled counseling sessions, click Project NADA for more info. Workshop days marked brown on the calendar.

"Our" Language Classes

9 Wednesdays, 6:30 - 8 pm, from May 14 to July 9. You may already know that Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian standard languages are less than 100 percent identical. We will alert you to the linguistic differences when they appear and will be encouraging you to speak in the version that you are most interested in.
The cost for the whole semester is $100.
Please, come and try out a class on May 14. The average level of the students already in the class is beginner/intermediate. Some students are more advanced than others, but everyone has been able to learn and make progress in the past couple of years. Another reason why it is a good idea to "test" a class is to find out what it means when all three varieties of the language are taught at the same time. Please email Bojana Zezelj, the class teacher, to confirm attendance.

Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian - English On-Line Dictionary

Raccoon's Soccer Reconciliation Club
Thursdays, 8:30 pm; Facilitator: Amir Cekic

Come and play soccer at Cornell University (69th St. between 1st Ave. & York). Bring running shoes. When weather gets better we play outside! Suggested donation: $1. Click here for indoors pictures. Soccer days are marked green.

Only when announced in the Special Events Window on the right:

FILM EVENINGS

Women's Group

Monthly meeting at Raccoon Space. Facilitator: Nada Khodlova. Thursday evenings: tba in Special Events, 6 - 9 PM
Our monthly gatherings are a place to learn, support, share, and have fun in the great land of womanhood. Come and join us in a variety of topics for exploration, such as art and history of belly dancing; arts in recovery; women and children; women's crafts; women's bodies; women's history and more! Guest presenters and video presentation will be included. Women's Group days are marked green.

Sometimes we hold Food Memories events at Raccoon, where people revive memories through food that they prepare and bring or just share recipes from the old place. At other times we simply order food from Stari Most in Astoria.

Call for Personal Stories!
If you are coming from any place in former SFRY, please write us a short story about the city, township or village you are coming from. Also, write us about the beautifull places you visited there. Raccoon will link the best of your stories with the locations on the map in the Cyber-Yugo Project. Please, e-mail your stories to raccoon@balkansnet.org. During wars for Yugoslav succession, many observers were confounded with the fact that many events were not what they appeared to be, and even remained understood and explained entirely different by the different sides of the conflict through today. Narratives can be used to reconstruct past events, and they can deconstruct competing narratives in advance, as events unfold, and after the fact. Some stories prevail publicly. Some stories appear to be obvious from the causal mechanisms of history. But even those that lay claim to detailed knowledge of unfolding events are tentative, incomplete, and doomed to remain so. Centuries ago, philosopher Immanuel Kant cleverly proposed that pure reason cannot contain sociohistoric inquiry. Social reality is a many-layered thing: dark secrets and lies are its necessary parts. Consequently, no reconstruction, by participants or observers, before, during, or after the fact, gets the whole story. There is no whole story, only stories from various points of view. And each one of them is immensely valuable to us. Peace is possible if each individual story is given value!

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Project Nada - healing our communities
Cyber-Yugo
No more Children Art Workshops, but we recommend this one at Women's Studio Center, and the upcoming RINGE RAJA workshop.
Dragon Day Celebration, every May 6
Click here for a ten second video instruction on how to dance Balkan KOLO.
As of November 2003 there is an NGO Rakun established and registered in Croatia, to extend Raccoon's work to the region of its founders, following its mission and fulfilling its purpose. Rakun is registered as a Croatian based NGO. Click here for the directory of all U.S. based non-governmental organizations present in the Balkans (maintained by the US Foreign Military Studies Office). Presently, we want to set up a series of winter peace camps in the region.
Raccoon's Balkans Pages present you Bosnian artist Nebojsa Seric-Shoba in an on-line exhibition.