Knjaževac isn’t a big city but, compared to how much people, time and wishes we have, we are fairly good when it comes to cultural participation of young people. We have various annual cultural festivals, frequent book presentations and art exhibitions, we initiate cultural projects etc. Having said that, it can always be better. We are going forward and every day we are trying harder.
We spoke about cultural participation of young people in Knjaževac with Nikola Radmanović, student of the Gymnasium, Svetlana Petrović, pedagogist of the Technical School, Lana Antonijević, student of the Technical School and Milena Milošević, youth engagement worker of Local Democracy Centre LDA.
Nikola thinks that our cultural participation is not at such low level, it’s even better than in some bigger cities in Serbia, but that we should boost some more interest with the youngsters, and some older people we should be working with on this topic as well. He is personally engaged in volunteering, enjoys it, and besides all this he is an excellent student. He wants to tell to other young people to volunteer more!
Svetlana spoke with us about the situation related to youth cultural participation in her school, but also in the city in general. Among other extracurricular activities, her school had a school rock band, they are planning to organize music workshop for choral singing and a recitation group. Besides this, students in Technical school are very much engaged in the work of the students’ parliament and participate in various projects. In addition to the opportunities for cultural participation in the school, she believes that young people have some other opportunities for cultural participation as well, but she also thinks situation in this respect can always be better. She urges young people to follow themselves and their own interests and to show their capacities to the people around them.
Lana is one of the multi-talented young persons from our city. She does make-up, drawing, photography, folklore, sewing, she drives a quad, paddles a kayak, she volunteers and, besides all this, she is also an excellent student. She thinks that young people today are quite uninterested but, in spite of that, that we are doing quite well regarding the cultural participation of youngsters in the city. She advises other young people try their best and do as much as they can since that will do them well, firstly to present themselves in a positive light, but also to present well their city and country. She is the living proof that, if there is a good will, one can find the time to do so many things.
Finally, we spoke with Milena. Her views are that youngsters in Knjaževac are quite interested for cultural activities and that a lot of people are doing their best to get youngsters interested in such activities. ‘’It's not bad but it can always be better’’, Milena said. She believes that absence of the Youth office in our municipality is ‘’a minus’’. Such office would definitely ease the procedures for youngsters with initiatives towards local authorities. The message she had for young people was to do something fulfilling each day and ‘’Give it your all!’’.
Katarina Ljubić