Start With Yourself VOl I

"Start With Yourself" was an online movement established in November 2010 by AGORA initiative, which gained lot's of interest among youth active in the field of arts and culture and civil society.

At the same time AGORA initiative was trying to enforce practicing the right of self-expression through arts in public spaces during the past year but it failed due to the political constraints of any collective gathering. AGORA means "an open space of gathering" and it has a significant meaning to Alexandrians as the ancient AGORA played a core role in the history of the country. Through conveying the concept of AGORA to the public, we have seized the atmosphere created by the revolution to reinforce arts practice in public spaces as well as using arts as a save mean of self-expression, vehicle of social change and tool of economic development. We have organized this festival in 6 days, it took place on 24 February in a public garden in Alexandria. Youth active in this field joined hand to voluntarily organize the festival. All Artists who appear on this video participated for free.

The festival was attended by approx 7000 attendees and the concept of "Start With Yourself" have been recognized widely in Alexandria. Currently we are raising funds to organize our Vol II. We intend to address certain issue in every edition we do, build ambassadors of social change among the community who would help us convey the message, and provide intense follow up activities between each festival and the other.