We celebrated the power of the activism for rights and nature

Wow, what a festival day! Hundreds of smiling faces all around us, dozens of activities for creative activism and a powerful civic energy that shook the whole South Park. We experienced it all this past Saturday, August 31, at our long-awaited Festival for rights and arts CIVIC ALARM CLOCK! 

For the fourth year, the Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law put the rights on stage with lots of color, lots of cheer, and lots of emotion, all tied together in the common cause of being awake about our civil liberties and knowing how to protect them.

From early dawn the Bulgarian National Radio, media partner of the Festival, broadcasted the "Radio Coffee" programme from the venue. From the broadcast studio of Radio Sofia we told about all the upcoming activities in the program and the symbolism of our collaboration with the Rivers of Sofia.

Nearly 300 children took up the challenge of the " The Awake Rooster" game to learn about their rights while having fun. This time they also had the special task of finishing the stories themselves, in which they had to decide how they would use the power of association, freedom of speech and peaceful protest.

With excitement and curiosity, the youngsters stayed for hours in the reading corner of Knigovishte and Vijte to immerse themselves into the world of books. Reading turned into play and play into useful knowledge to develop general culture, civic awareness and critical thinking.

Together with the Rewilding Rhodopes Foundation, young and grown-up activists recognized the footsteps of wild animals, talked about biodiversity in the Rhodopes and how they can contribute to its conservation. And in the interactive Climate Fresco game, they traced the path of human actions that affect climate change and possible solutions to the ecological problem.

BCNL legal experts "translated" the complex laws into human language. In an engaging way, they demonstrated how citizens can submit signals and opinions to the institutions, how to practice their right of peaceful protest and defend it. In turn, the tailed friends found their "lawyers for a day" and broke all urban myths and legends about stray animals.

Civic Alarm Clock artists offered non-traditional workshops for socially engaged art. Throughout the whole day, the young activists created animations with environment conservation themes, guided by animation artist Tanya Bozhinova.

In the action of painting protest posters with messages for clean air and nature conservation, artist Georgi Georgiev-Arshata assisted.

Visual art lovers talked about documentary photography and the process of selecting photos with Denislav Stoychev, who also took on the role of a photographer of The Festival.

 The cyanotype workshop, led by visual artist Stefan Kamenov, was also of great interest. The guests of the event were looking forward to immerse themselves in this, we would call it "magical" process of creating photographic images without a camera. And their masterpieces in blue reminded why it is so important for all of us to preserve the natural features of the urban environment.

And so, the most exciting moment of the festival program – the award ceremony for the authors of the Civic Alarm Clock 2024 Competition – came. Meeting all our talented artists, partners and supporters was not only energizing, but also extremely uplifting. What we saw from the stage is that civic activism is alive and well, and the quest for the rule of law and a protected nature is shared. With the belief that we are all the builders of modern Bulgaria and the change we want to achieve depends on our activism.

Boyan Kutevski, representative of our partners from Monbat, gave a special message about civic energy as the most important energy we need to charge our social batteries and move forward as a society.

We're proud to have awarded 19 incredibly talented and inspiring Civic Alarm Clock artists this evening who have bravely stood up for our right to live in a clean and healthy environment.

Here are their names: 

 

PHOTOGRAPHY CATEGORY

The visual works were evaluated and ranked by a jury composed of Nadezhda Pavlova, Miroslav Marinov and Alexander Nikolov, with the participation of experts in the field of environmental protection: Rumiana Ivanova and Rada Boneva. PHOTOGRAPHY CATEGORY

The awards were presented by Maya Klevtsova, Marketing Manager of Accenture Bulgaria:

First place: Ilian Milushev for the photographic series Coexistence

Second place: Nikolay Shabarkov for the photographic series Our Plastic Sea

Third place: Vanya Ivanova Tonova for the photography series The Change Outside Begins Inside

Honourable distinction: Nadezhda Kisova for the photograph New Life

Honourable distinction: Miroslava Dacheva for the photograph All Animals Need Our Support

Honourable distinction: Plamen Berchev for the photograph Together For Beautiful Parks And Happy Bees

Audience Award: Michaela Dimitrova for the photograph Autumn

 

 

LITERATURE CATEGORY

The works were evaluated and ranked by a jury composed of Zornitsa Hristova, Stefan Ivanov and Lyudmil Iliev, supported by experts in the field of nature conservation: Rumyana Ivanova and Rada Boneva.

The awards were presented by Ekaterina Angelova, Project Evaluation Expert at the America for Bulgaria Foundation: 

First place: Ryan Z. for the short story In the East, A Natural Home Under Threat

Second place: Svilena Velcheva-Ganeva for the journalistic text Dozens Of Trees Burned "Accidentaly" On The Varna Zelenika Street To Clear A Construction Site

Third place and the Audience Award: Angelika Ivanova for the short story Planting Love

Honourable distinction: Anelia Dzhevizova for the story The Life Of One Bottle

Honourable distinction: Anna Dimitrova for the triptych City and Nature: Green, Spring, Dreamy

Honourable distinction: Tanya Bozhinova for the poetic text Steam Predator

 

 

ILLUSTRATION CATEGORY

The works were evaluated and ranked by a jury composed of Velina Mavrodinova, Rosalina Burkova and Vesela Dancheva, with the advisory voice of experts in the field of nature conservation: Rumiana Ivanova and Rada Boneva.

The awards were presented by the long-time supporter and friend of BCNL – Monika Dimitrova- Kovachka: 

First place: Neli Ivanova for the illustration The City And Its Green Robes

Second place: Valentin Georgiev for the series of illustrations Let's Save The Urban Nature

Third place: Tanya Bozhinova for the illustration Peace

Honourable distinction: Karina Dobreva for the illustration series The Green City for the Child

Honourable distinction: Georgii Shishkin for the illustration Artificial Genie

Honorable distinction: Preslava Tsvetanova for the series of illustrations Collective Transformation – The Power Is In Us

Audience Award: Gergana Petrova for the illustration Balcony With A View

 

 

Dear artists, we wish you to continue to courageously share messages about the power of civic activism in defense of our civic rights through your art!

The authors of the works selected in the top three places by the professional jury in each category received an additional incentive from the prize fund of the competition:

For First Place: 700 BGN.

For Second place: 550 BGN.

For Third place: 400 BGN.

The total prize fund was secured thanks to the generous support of all donors who became Advocates of the Green Cause in BCNL's donation campaign.

Together we managed to raise a total of 13 101 BGN for the cause. In addition to the prize fund, the funds contributed to the overall organization of the Festival.

The exhibition "Activism in Action: the Power to Save the Urban Nature" with the works awarded by the professional jury can be viewed until 5 September 2024 in front of the Summer stage "KINO & BAR CABANA" in the park space of the National Palace of Culture in Sofia. And afterwards online on the BCNL website.

With a powerful drum sound united in several circles, we created the most sonic rhythm of civic association with the drum circle led by drum masters DizzyGrooves and BunnyVerse. We ended the festival program with a capoeira demonstration as a symbol of the endless human quest for freedom. In the world of this martial art, combining music, acrobatics, fighting, culture and philosophy of life, we were immersed by instructors Iglika Radilova and Nestor Dinolov from the Siara School.

Безкрайно сме благодарни на всички наши страхотни дарители, партньори и съмишленици, с помощта на които продължаваме с още по-голям хъс да защитаваме гражданските свободи по креативен начин и да пазим средата чиста. Признателни сме за грижата и чисто човешката подкрепа на партньорите ни от Фондация „Америка за България“, Аксенчър България, Монбат, Столична община, Българското национално радио.  We are eternally grateful to all of our amazing donors, partners and collaborators, with whose help we continue to protect civic freedoms in creative ways and keep the environment clean. We are grateful for the care and purely human support of our partners from America for Bulgaria Foundation, Accenture Bulgaria, Monbat, Sofia Municipality, Bulgarian National Radio. 

Special thanks also to our friends from Rivers of the City and the Collective for the collaboration to multiply civic energy in the name of our common home – nature.

See you soon! And let's set the rights to the stage every day!

 

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The event is realized with the financial support of America for Bulgaria Foundation. The festival is supported by the Summer Program of Sofia Municipality and is part of the Sofia Municipality's Calendar of Cultural Events for 2024. Our partners in the realization of the initiative are Accenture Bulgaria, Monbat, Rivers of the City and The Collective. 

With the media partnership of the Bulgarian National Radio.