Angola : Enter My Universe/No Meu Mundo
This project in Angola draws attention to difficulties people with disabilities face in the country, with a special focus on accessibility to cultural life. In that spirit, the first fully inclusive and accessible festival Enter My Universe will start on 12 October and will run until 29 October. The festival will be a premiere to have artist with disabilities on stage, addressing potential decision makers, and will include an exhibition, two round tables, screenings, a circus project, as well as the first ever European-Angolan co-production of a hip hop opera by artists with and without disabilities. The project is done in collaboration with a local theatre and includes the adaptation of the venue to make it more accessible

Kenya: Kibera Fashion Week
After several months of preparation including a screening of their own film, panel talks and a kids workshop, the Kibera Fashion Week, a community-driven initiative, will take place this month from 9 to 14 October to showcase the vibrant fashion scene in Kibera and leave a lasting impact on the city's fashion landscape. With the mission to celebrate local creativity, become a platform to redefine fashion, share new methods for sustainability and challenge unethical and exploitative consumption, the week will include runaway shows, an exhibition, panel talks on sustainable fashion, the Local heroes showcase, and much more.

Palestine: Tadafuq / تدفق: Contemporary Art Programme in Palestine
This contemporary art and alternative learning programme supports a new generation of artists from Gaza, West Bank and Jerusalem to flourish and consider how art can contribute to overcome physical borders, and in the end create a community of artists and experts in the field. During the last months, the fifteen selected artists have been through an intense programme of online masterclasses delivered by Palestinian and European experts, phyisical meetings as well as a mentorship programme with the aim to develop a project together. An opening exhibition in Casa Árabe in Madrid in September already created new opportunities for the project and the artists. This month, the artists will follow more masterclasses and will have the opportunity to present their work in three exhibitions in Palestine, in Gaza, Jerusalem and West Bank, from 18 to 25 October.

It's fantastic knowing that you can receive funding to start a specific activity, and while doing that many connexions and tracks can be created, it creates potential for widening opportunities.

Rawan Sharaf, co-curator of the project Tadafuq / تدفق: Contemporary Art Programme in Palestine.

Morocco, Algeria, Egypt: Shaeirat
The Shaeirat project aims to build a regional as well as international network that will organise public bilingual poetry performances of Arab women poets perform their own works with the first edition of Arabic International Perfofmed Poetry festivals in Morocco, Egypt and Algeria. In Egypt, the travelling Shaeirat project will kickstart its first editions of Arabic international performed poetry festivals at the end of October and throughout November - to be followed in Algeria and Morocco over the following months until end of December. The Sheirat project will also be part of the Arab Art Focus in Cairo in November. In addition to adapting and translating already existing performances, the project team is also in the creation process of two new performances that will be presented in Cairo and in Morocco. Besides the performances, the poets will be leading concept development and creative production (poetry, performance, and of public poetry festivals) reaching out into MENA and Europe, which has has no precedent in the region.

Looking ahead to November

In Colombia, the First Edition of the International Community Festival is preparing for its high point. This community film festival and cultural event wants to be a key moment for Colombia's peace process and create a place where historically marginalized communities in Colombia teach an international audience what it means to build peace through art. It will take place in Tierra Grata from 11 to 13 November and is thought as a story that will happen in three acts in three days, which will include an intense and varied programme of film screenings, workshops, panels, all around their core values of peace building.