17th edition of the Anti-Racist Mediterranean festival kicks off in Palermo

Last Updated: May 9, 2024

Palermo, al via la diciassettesima edizione di Mediterraneo Antirazzista

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Football, basketball, volleyball, cricket, athletics, dance, martial arts. Many free sports for everyone, in the form of non-competitive tournaments in different popular neighborhoods of Palermo to promote the values of social inclusion and the right to sport and play. The Mediterranean Anti-Racist returns for the seventeenth year, with this year’s theme of Escape Routes. Mediterranean Anti-Racist is a sports, artistic, and cultural event organized by over 20 local entities including associations, schools, parishes, and collectives. The goal of the event is to promote intercultural relationships among the different components of the metropolitan city, challenging the dichotomies of center/periphery and inclusion/exclusion.

The event kicks off from Piazza Magione, one of the symbolic places of the struggle for the conquest of popular sport in public spaces, from the open and public soccer field that in 2013 risked becoming a dog area but thanks to the commitment of associations, schools, and residents, remained a field for everyone. The tournament kicks off on May 10 and 11 with the Anti-Racism Football tournament and continues on May 19 in Catania. On May 24, the Balkan Football Club will be presented at booq; on May 28, the Speroniades will be held at the Foro Italico; on May 31 and June 1, there will be a grand opening party and tournament registration at Piazza Mediterraneo. The events continue throughout the months of May, June, and September in various locations around Palermo.

“From Palermo, our gaze is constantly directed towards the world,” say the organizers, “to the racist and sexist aggressions that occur daily, to the increasing femicides, to the economic disparities and religious and ethnic discriminations that become more marked, to the repressive measures that hit those who fight against wars, climate crisis, and social injustices. We have reached the seventeenth edition of the Mediterranean Anti-Racist and we want to prepare by discussing the possible and impossible connections between the right to save oneself and the right to have an escape route, a way to escape a condition in which we feel oppressed or in danger. Over the years, we have played in the outskirts and places outside the institutions to reaffirm the need for a different action on public space that deals with education, growth, and a real right to inhabit.”