prostor
718/784-9121
fax: 718/784-1858

a n n o u n c e m e n t s
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Community Space Discussion List The Balkans Pages Cyber-Yugo Project Nada Women In Black Snowboard Peace Camp News, Updates and Job Opportunities

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. 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

Tuesdays 1 pm - 6 pm

Domestic Violence MEHLEM ZA DUSU - domestic violence support group with Indira Kajosevic

Works with constituency that needs advice on domestic violence issues and strengthening personal resources. Offers weekly drop-in or scheduled counseling sessions, 2 hour support group for women, as well as a monthly 2 hour parenting support group working together with a facilitator.


"Our" Language Classes

We will probably have small classes, which means that it will be easy to adapt to people with various skill levels. 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.
In reply to the earlier question on Raccoon's
listserv, regarding which particular language we will be studying: This depends entirely upon your individual needs. Say, if your spouse and all his or her relatives come from Belgrade and Nis, then the choice of Serbian makes eminent sense. But if you are planning to spend your summer 2003 hopping the islands in the Adriatic, Croatian should be your first choice.

Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian - English On-Line Dictionary

We are offering just the intermediate course on Tuesdays with Bojana Zezelj. Price is $100 for a semester:
Tuesdays, 7 - 9 pm by Bojana Kovacevic-Zezelj, for intermediate level students.
Class days are marked blue on the calendar.


Raccoon Soccer Raccoon's Soccer Reconciliation Club
Mondays, 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.


When announced in the Special Events Window on the right:
Raccoon Film

FILM EVENINGS

A decade of wars following the breakup of Yugoslavia is an intriguing era for the filmmakers. The times were dangerous and full of everyday challenges: the politics got confusing, ethical behavior all but abandoned, "national survival" became an imperative.
Continuing our film series, RACCOON will be showing current feature films and documentaries, shorts and series relating to the events affecting the peoples of former Yugoslavia. Films will touch on a variety of issues: causes of the crisis, experiences of the refugees, breakup of the country and the war that ensued. Also, included in the series will be those films that try to revive common cultural experience of what once was called Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Click here for the film schedule for season 2005. Film days marked brown on the calendar.
Temporary coordinator: Ivo Skoric.


Women's Group

Monthly meeting at Raccoon Space. Facilitator: Nada Khodlova. Thursday evenings: October 20, November 17, December 15, January 19, 7 - 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.


Food Memories

Dinner at Raccoon Two Saturdays, February 26 and May 7, 2005, 6 - 9 pm. Host: Deanne D'Aloia
In this activity people will share their memories and stories through food recipes from the old place. Bring your favorite food dish from back home and we will make a feast. Bring the recipes, too!



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 - Saturdays and Sundays12-4 pm SUMMER ONLY
  • Women in Black weekly vigils on Wednesdays
  • No more Children Art Workshops, but we recommend this one at Women's Studio Center.
  • Dragon Day Celebration, every May 6
  • Disseminate conflict resolution guides to community leaders, TBA
  • 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.

Bookstores in Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia

Traveling to the Old Country This Summer?!

PAN LINE travel
1-800-479-5387, 1-718-278-8395 fax:1-718-278-8396
41-04 30th Ave Astoria NY 11103
Saka, Zenaida Radoncic

Croatia & Bosnia Travel
1-800-662-7628, 1-718-726-6700, fax: 1- 718-956-3988, sales@croatiatravel.com
32-66 Steinway St. Astoria NY 11103
Air Bosna
1-718-777-8609, 1-718-777-8614 fax:1-718-777-5345
31-01 Steinway St. Astoria NY 11103

ADRIA
1-718-777-0555
Queens, NY


Special Events

October 2005.
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October 13 Thursday, at 6pm, Raccoon Space showing of Human Rights award winning documentary VIDEOLETTERS. Click the 'news' icon for info on the on-going exhibit of 9 Sarajevo photographers in New York.

Upcoming Events:
Thursday, November 3: Anti-War Photography Exhibition Everyday Heroes, featuring women of Bosnia, by Lisa Kahane, opens.
Monday, November 7, 6:30-8:30 PM: Housing Law in New York: Your Rights - Diane Brody, a housing law expert and lawyer, will outline the fundamentals of renting and interacting with landlords and various housing agencies. This is an opportunity to ask questions you have always wanted to ask about maneuvering the complicated world of what it means to be a tenant, or an owner in New York City.
Thursday, November 10, 7 PM: Crossroads: Films from ex-SFRJ
Friday, November 18, 6-8 PM: Anti-War Photography Exhibition Everyday Heroes, featuring women of Bosnia, by Lisa Kahane, opening reception.
Sunday, December 4, 7-9 pm: Sreca Perunovic presents The Breakup of the Former Yugoslavia and the Road Towards Reconciliation; video clips from VIDEOLETTERS
Monday, December 5, 5-8 pm: Panel: Dayton Peace Accords and Bosnia Ten Years After From The Perspective of Foreign Journalists. Confirmed panelists: David Rohde of The New York Times; Stacy Sullivan;
Thursday, December 8: Anti-War Photography Exhibition Everyday Heroes, featuring women of Bosnia, by Lisa Kahane, closes.


Raccoon's partner site in Netherlands - domovina.net - brings us wealth of historic information:
history of past events
read mission statement
sign up for e-mail update
Search Balkan Pages

Radio 101
Film evening and discussion
Children Workshop
Raccoon for kids
Kids playing in Raccoon's lair
Support Group meeting in the backyard of Raccoon's old space
Party at Raccoon Space



how to find us
43-32 22nd Street, Suite (buzzer) 301 in Long Island City, between 43th and 44th Avenue
subway to 23rd Street, Ely Avenue
o n e subway stop away from Manhattan


This project was made possible by a generous grant from The New York Foundation