The young artists of the 1st EPAL Kordelios, as part of a project, outside of the human rights curriculum, created an entire production.
Good mood, social sensitivity, artistic concern, creativity, teamwork, talent and a teacher in the role of inspiration. These were the ingredients of success for a group of his students 1st EPAL Kordelio in Thessaloniki, who from scratch created a modern ode to human rights.
The reason for a group of teenage students of the 1st EPAL Kordelio!
The young artists created an entire production in the context of a project, outside of the curriculum on human rights, which was supervised by the school’s Economics teacher Sofia Konsta. They wrote lyrics, composed a rap beat, shot a video clip and edited an artistic product, without having the proper media. The mood, the passion and the social message they wanted to send were the only arrows in their quiver!
Human rights in the classroom
As the professor in charge of the project, Sofia Konsta, explains to GRTimes, “human rights are unfortunately not a school subject. It is part of a project chosen by the students and is an extracurricular activity. I have been implementing this project for several years in school classrooms before extracurricular programs and teacher evaluation became mandatory. So any student who is willing joins the program. Every year I order the educational package with books, electronic and printed material and it is distributed to those interested. So this year I chose this project as coordinator and we started working with the children on the basic principles of human rights. Throughout the previous period, the children had been in contact with tools such as KMOP, Live Without Bullying and ANTIGONI”.
The inspiration and creation of the song
“In this context one day I asked the children in the class if any child has any talent or inclination with the arts. And suddenly Christos raised his hand, a very low-key child and says “I write lyrics”, another child says he takes pictures. And so it began. Within a week, the child wrote the song and brought it ready, I started to cry as soon as I heard it” says Mrs. Konsta visibly moved.
And he adds “the motivation of creation is touching. A child in the second year of high school, only 16 years old, wrote a song in a week by himself. And of course the whole result was teamwork. Then we sent it to America for a competition and it was well received. We were invited to the world forum that will take place in July in New York for the International Organization “United for Human Rights”.
“When we want to do something, adverse conditions do not stop us”
In closing, the teacher and initiator of the project, Mr. Konsta, proudly mentions for her students that “singing in itself is not the issue. It is the circumstances and the motivation that mobilized the students. We are talking about an EPAL in the western districts of Thessaloniki, which is co-located with a General High School and uses what is left over from the General High School. In these conditions, I try to convince the children that when we want to do something, adverse conditions and limited resources do not stop us. And it’s great that it resonates.”
“If we know what our rights are, they cannot take them away from us”
The lyricist and performer of the song, Christos Gotsis, for his part, points out to GRTimes that “the message I wanted to convey with my lyrics is that we must know our rights. Because if we know them, they cannot deprive us of them and encroach on them”, adding that both he and the rest of the team are proud of the result.
Listen to the song:
The coefficients
Lyrics: Chris Gi, Christos Gotsis
Video: Fly T, Tasos Kouklidis
Translation & Subtitles: Eugenia Mouza
Beat: AnkBeatz – Fast Boom Bap
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