American Corner Bitola

Latest Highlights

Ambassador and Mrs. Reeker, APAO John Surface, and Bitola Mayor Talevski take picture with Cultural Envoy Merrilee Cunningham, AC Bitola staff and the children of the Creative Writing Workshop in Bitola. (LP)

The Tradition Continues – 2009 Summer Creative Writing Workshop: The Art of Words

With Professor Merrilee Cunningham
July 20th – 24th, 2009

The Tradition Continues! Inspired by the excellent feedback from last year, the U.S. Embassy in partnership with Writers in the Schools of Houston, Texas, this summer again organized the Creative Writing Workshop for children and teenagers and hosted Professor Merrilee Cunningham at the American Corner Bitola. Cunningham, an accomplished poet, university professor, and experienced creative writing teacher from Houston, Texas, was delighted to see some of her former students and to teach many new “young authors” in Bitola. During this free-of-charge five-day writing camp, 30 children, aged 7 to 14, engaged in writing stories, poetry, essays, and plays, as well as directing and acting their own plays. On the forth day of the workshop, the United States Ambassador to Macedonia Mr. Philip Reeker and Mrs. Solveig Reeker came, with the Mayor of Bitola, to give certificates to the children. Beside their great memories from this summer camp, the children went home with a stage performance of their plays, many awards and certificates and anthology CDs with pictures and all writings completed during the workshop.

◊ To view the A1 TV local coverage (WMV file, size 8 MB) of this event held at the AC Skopje, please click here.
◊ To see more photos from the event held at the AC Bitola, please view a video slide show on the Embassy channel on . | More videos on the Embassy  channel.
◊ [About the cultural envoy: Merrilee Cunningham BIO/WITS Writer].

- To read more about the workshop go to : http://witsblog.org/

 

Laura Kaspari Hohmann, U.S. speaker from the U.S. Embassy from Rome talks about graphic novels.

American Graphic Novels

By Laura Kaspari Hohmann
May 6, 2009

Talking about graphic novels at the American Corner Bitola was a pure delight for comics connoisseurs as well as for the ones who for the first time learnt about the history of American graphic novels. More than 20 American Corner members came on Wednesday, May, 6. Most of them, especially the ones that are actively involved in creating comics, said this presentation meant a great deal for them and it addressed very important aspects of this genre. Our very special guest speaker from the US Embassy from Rome was Laura Kaspari Hohmann. Her presentation and her discussion with the guests afterwards lead to some new ideas and initiatives for future projects and for raising the awareness for this literature genre here in Macedonia.

Mr. Rowlands’ father discusses the American Football. (LP)

American Football

By Ryan Rowlands

May, 4th, 2009

On Monday, May 4, at the American Corner Bitola, Ryan Rowlands, Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy Skopje, held a presentation on American Football. Mr. Rowlands’ father and son were also guests at the corner, and they all discussed the sport and its tradition. The Corner was packed with high school students, primary school students, and corner members. The audience got a chance to finally bust the myth about this sport that we only know about from the movies. Mr. Rowlands explained how big this game is in the United States, how it is played, and what it means to generations of American football fans.

 

Kids sing songs about the Earth Day. (LP)

Earth Day 2009

April 22, 2009

In Macedonian, English and Albanian languages, with poems, essays, songs and photographs, American Corner Bitola celebrated Earth Day 2009 with over 100 people at the Small Hall at the Center of Culture! In collaboration with the NGO Biosphera, a program with the international theme “Green Generations” took place where children from two daycares sang songs about the Earth and environment, 3rd grade Albanian students from the Elementary school “Goce Delcev” also presented themselves singing in Albanian, a presentation on Earth Day in English was given by the students of the First Private High School in Bitola, and the winning poems of the month long competition were recited. The competition had three categories: Macedonian language poems, English language poems and best digital photography and had participants from 3rd grade to 4th year high school students. Award packages were given to all the students who participated. Earlier in the day a group of the participants were guests of the City Council and presented the Mayor of Bitola with a specialized Earth Day 2009 T-shirt and delivered the message of the importance of environmental issues to be addressed in Bitola. This event was covered by local TV stations as well as local radio and newspapers.

 

In honor of Women’s History Month, Melissa Hauke discusses the characteristics of past successful women.

“Empowered Women: Past, Present and Future”
In honor of Women’s History Month

March 26, 2009

Women’s History Month was recognized at American Corner Bitola with the presentation ”Empowered Women: Past, Present and Future” held by Melissa Hauke, Jennifer Sandstorm, Erin Esson, Peace Corps volunteers from throughout Macedonia. Successful women from the past, what challenges women today have to overcome and what characteristics are needed to be successful in the future were the main issues discussed. The audience, mainly high school students, engaged in an active discussion on how women in Macedonia are perceived and what we can do to overcome traditional stereotypes.

 

Workshop “Basic English” for the Farmers Association from Bitola and Prilep

Basic English

February 18th through March 11th, 2008

American Corner Bitola organized an English Workshop “Basic English” for the Farmers Association from Bitola and Prilep. Thirteen people participated in this one month language workshop and learned how to introduce themselves, to tell the time, days of the week, months, professions, directions, new vocabulary for family, clothes, and feelings. They were highly motivated to continue learning English, and all of them became members and checked out books and magazines.