There’s an alternative “Black Friday” from which CultureLabs may be inspired

If we say Black Friday the mind goes to the hectic, and sometimes compulsive, shopping day of the fourth Friday of November.

But this year we collected an alternative, that took place the third Friday of December. A way to escape from the Christmas hustle and bustle, a peaceful moment to listen someone else stories: that’s our favourite “Black Friday”, organised by MALTE – Musica Arte Letteratura Teatro Eccetera, Hexperimenta and Casa delle Culture in Ancona.

The last Friday 21st December, in the main pedestrian and crowded shopping street of Ancona, a group of migrants decided to give as presents to the interested citizens their Christmas stories. 7 locations were positioned at 100mt distance each other, with two facing tools, one for the migrant and the other for visitor. Who sat there could listen a short recorded story through cuffs, without interacting with the silent teller.

“Black Friday in the United States is the day that starts Christmas shopping. We have also decided to invent a Black Friday, made of gifts, packages and reciprocity. The difference is that our Black Friday is really black. And that for us the gifts are not objects, but people, real people, of flesh and blood, who tell us their Christmas, their Christmas, and they do it without asking anything in return, as a gift” said the organisers.

What does CultureLabs can take from this experience?

• the event aims to share how Christmas is in different countries, cultures and religions, thus making migrants’ cultural traditions known;
• it is a way to reformulate the concept of “gift” giving the citizens a story as a Christmas present;
• it represent a co-creation example: migrants are directly involved as they are the tellers of their stories, which they offer to whoever wants to listen to them;

… so it is a perfect recipe for our CultureLabs platform!

If you would know more about it, just following our upcoming pilots activities.