.
It also proposes cultural events in all domains if they are excellent and principled.
"A space for popular culture"
"Ethical Fashion Days"
During Paris Fashion Week in February 2022 it presented designers from the African diaspora and emphasized sustainable production.
Other events have included dance, stand-up comedy, workshops for children, performances by residents, readings... for a slammer reading the poetry of Aimé Cesaire, please click.
# # #
Bankers' replies to loan requests:
(In 2008)
- "We'll lend money for a six-story office building, but for a music center, it would be mad!"
-- Podcast, So Sweet Planet
- "We can't assure your security against those drugged-out hoodlums."
-- The police, same source
# # #
Yet a decade later Saïd Assadi, a refugee from the Khomeiny regime and organizer of trans-cultural concerts founded "Le 360" in La Goutte d'Or.
He had no experience of administration or of talking to bankers, but finally persuaded a bank specialized in ethical investments. Other banks and the City, which contributes 15%, followed.
# # #
Pharaonic projects fail when the population rejects them, as happened to the 13th's Olympiades Towers. But Monsieur Assadi integrates the establishment into the neighborhood by a sidewalk terrace and a salon whose huge windows look out onto the street...
During the "Fete de la Musique," the night for music throughout the city
Neighbors watch the dancers in the background.
A bar and a restaurant whose excellent ethnic cuisine is made on the spot, at prices that are no higher than elsewhere.
Abou and a client.
Celeste and her child.
Meknet from Éthiopia and Raphael from Sénégal.
Free events like these...
A soirée by student engineers who install solar panels in a school of Burkina Faso.
Talk by Dominique Vidal, retired editor of the highly respected monthly Le Monde diplomatique and writer on the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
...take place in a lounge whose windows look out onto the street:
Attention to neighbors includes...
- Monsieur Assadi attending the couturiers' meeting described above, where he spoke of openness to residents' projects and of his wish to collaborate with the area's couturiers.
- Evoking the Sapeur movement during the Ethical Fashion Days: A local shop brought it to Paris and it appeared in the street...
The shop
In front of it, which unfortunately did not survive covid.
- Accessibility. One often sees Monsieur Assadi on the terrace, and meets with him easily.
Residents' respect:
- A poster in a popular restaurant a few steps away.
- An irrefutable sign of approval: no cigarette butts in the plant containers.
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# # #
Monsieur Assidi comes from a culture where illiterate taxi drivers recite 11th-century poetry, which is passed down orally.
He says of modern Western culture, "You see yourself in the mirror, and realize you're getting fat from standardized food. But that you're also getting stupid from standardized culture doesn't show."
Promoting not-packaged arts
is his contribution to France.
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