29 January 2025, at 6 pm
Roma Station, Maribor, Slovenia, EU

In the framework of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2025, the EPEKA Association, under the auspices of the coordinator of the Maribor Synagogue, is organising a lecture by Roma expert Isaac Blake on the topic of Porrajmos, or the Holocaust of the Roma during the Second World War.

Isaac Blake’s lecture is aimed primarily at teachers, youth leaders and others interested in this topic.

The Roma Cultural and Arts Society of Wales has published lecture material on the Roma Holocaust or _Porrajmos_. The teaching materials are the result of over a year’s work by a dedicated team of academics, artists, designers and project managers, all of whom come from the Roma and Traveller communities in the UK. The Roma Holocaust, or _Porrajmos_ as it is described in the Romani language (after it was introduced as a term in the late 1990s by Dr. Ian Hancock, Professor of Roma Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin), was an episode in the genocidal treatment of non-Roma, and Roma – _Sinti, Roma, Woonwagenbewoners, Manush, Gens de Voyage, Yenische, Ashkalé, Egyptian, Ijito, Getano, Quinqui, Mercheros _and other Roma groups in Nazi Germany and fascist-occupied Europe between 1936 and 1945.

The teaching material is aimed at educators, teaching assistants and older pupils in schools in Wales, but we hope it will also be useful for Roma and Traveller voluntary and third sector organisations working with young Roma and Travellers in community settings, particularly those working with young people not in education, employment or training (NEET). The material extensively discusses topics relevant to this theme, including the short history of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, the development of racist ‘thinking’ about Roma, and the terrible illogic of eugenics that led to the holocaust of Sinti, Roma, Manus, Gitani and other Roma communities under the control of the Nazis or their allies in Europe (such as fascist Spain).

The resource also includes a special section on the least known and understood experiences in South-Eastern European countries such as Bulgaria, Romania and Yugoslavia, a topic that has been largely ignored, even though knowledge of the Roma Holocaust itself has become more widely known in the last thirty years than it once was.

Biography:

Isaac Blake was born in Bromsgrove and grew up in Gypsy and Traveller sites in England and Wales. He studied and trained in dance theatre at the LABAN Dance Centre (now Trinity LABAN Conservatoire of Music & Dance, London). He then studied at the Martha Graham School in New York, worked in Montreal, Canada and returned to Wales where he choreographed shows at the Wales Millennium Centre, Riverside Arts Centre (Newport) and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. He still teaches the popular Movement and Dance course at RWCM&D (from 2009 to 2023). He is a proud gay Romani man and is currently Chief Executive of the Romani Cultural & Arts Company in Cardiff, UK, an organisation funded by many major donors, government departments and UK charities (such as the National Lottery Community Fund, Arts Council of Wales, Welsh Government). As Chief Executive of Romani Cultural & Arts Company (RCAC), Isaac has developed arts and performance programmes with Gypsy and Traveller communities, engaging with young children and adults, and worked in schools, colleges and nurseries. The Gypsy Cultural & Arts Company promoted arts and culture as a means of empowerment and advocacy in Wales with Gypsies, Roma and Travellers. It has worked extensively with non-Roma communities to promote dialogue and social cohesion. Under his leadership and management of RCAC, the organisation has grown from a small voluntary group to a large third sector agency (NGO), a leader in the field of Gypsies and Travellers in Wales, and one of the main players in the field of Gypsy and Traveller advocacy, autonomy and self-determination in the UK.

Isaac has also been a curator of dance, leading a team of academics and researchers in collecting objects and artefacts for RomArchiva’s highly regarded dance section(https://romarchive.eu [1]). His leadership of the section ensured that the project was carried out with a variety of Roma voices from different countries.

He has played an important role in supporting LGBTQI, Roma and Traveller rights in the UK, Europe and elsewhere. Isaac has supported LGBTQI individuals, Roma and Travellers to attend international events, and has personally attended these events as an advocate and representative of his community, positively promoting recognition and respect for LGBTQI.

He has recently coordinated and produced the first international LGBTQI GRT oral history archive, and has published a related e-book to complement the online archive (see https://romaniarts.co.uk [2]). He is also a member of several committees and forums working to promote equality in the UK and Europe. The Barvalipe Academy, for example, is an agenda-setting and strategic body of the Institute, which plays an advisory and inspirational role in order to meet the objectives of ERIAC. The Barvalipe Academy is made up of 15 members – highly respected and publicly recognised individuals who are competent in the fields covered by ERIAC’s activities. Two thirds of the members of the Academy are required to openly declare their Roma ethnicity in order to respect diversity among Roma communities. Gender balance must be ensured.

https://eriac.org/barvalipe-academy/barvalipe-academy-members/

Read more at epeka@epeka.si and www.epeka.si.

 

The Association EPEKA, Soc. Ent., is supported by: