No Borders Band’s mission is a cross-cultural and cross-religious cooperation and friendship. The band was created in May 2018 as an initiative of Andrzej Janczewski and Dominika Szyszko. The initiative was supported by 2 LO, a high school in Gorzów Wielkopolski. The school acts as one of the project’s managers, together with Bernhardinium School from Fürstenwalde and Bednarska Szkoła Realna from Warsaw. The members of No Borders Band are musical enthusiasts and social activists from Gorzów Wielkopolski, Berlin, Warsaw and Fürstenwalde. Most of them are high school students and activists of different ages. Among them you’ll find musicians from Syria and Afghanistan.
The roots of the project reach the year 2015, when 2LO high school from Gorzów invited six Syrian musicians for the first time. Within only 24 hours, the guests and the students were able to get to know and like each other, prepare a Syrian dinner, talk about superstitions they had concerning each others’ cultures, talk about history, culture, religion and… prepare a short concert for the school! Soon it became clear that it is possible to laugh, have fun, discuss and make music together, despite some big cultural differences. This first meeting was supported by Marina Hulia, an activist and advisor in the Polish Ministry of Education, and Milo Kanefaty was among the invited Syrians. He is now the main pillar of No Borders Bands’ oriental section.
Our goal is to prove the value of diversity with our actions. We want to popularize it by building personal relationships and by using media to show an alternative to racism and xenophobia. We want to re-define the Polish-German relationship – instead of suspicions sustained on both sides we want to exhibit the richness and diversity of both societies. This is why we have summoned young people from small towns and big cities, representing different backgrounds, religious beliefs and cultures.
No Borders Band has gathered a number of extraordinary people, among them Jacek “Budyń” Szymkiewicz from the music group Pogodno, jazz pianist Michał Wróblewski, Justyna Suchecka - a journalist from Gazeta Wyborcza, Błażej Król - a musician from Gorzów, as well as guests from abroad: rapper Jamal Kamano and activist Fatuma Musa Afrah. All of them have conducted workshops with the participants and have taken part in discussions about diversity and its powers. We have played music and singed with our guests – even with Fatuma and her assistant Irene. Although they pretended not to be able to sing, when they opened their mouths, we heard some wonderful African melodies.
The Project was qualified for the finale of a “Youth Prize of PNWM” contest, the motto of which is “Together in Europe. One Aim.” The contest aims at supporting and promoting exchange of ideas between young people from Poland and Germany and understanding diversity. We have gained trust and financial support from an association of polish communes of euroregion Viadrina Pro Europa. We have the patronage of the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights, Adam Bodnar. In August 2018 we played a concert during the Open Door days of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin. We are incredibly grateful for the support of all these institutions and we are looking into the future of our band with high hopes. Our plan is not to limit ourselves with the borders the grant for the project sets for us. We want the band to live, to give concerts and to carry our energy and friendship.
We have created a musical material that you need to hear! By means of a concert tour and media presence we want to infect you with our optimism and hope for peaceful coexistence of all cultures and nationalities. Our actions are aimed locally at meeting face to face with the students of the schools we visit. On the other hand we do our best to obtain global reach through social and traditional media in order to speedily expand our borderless band!
We are so incredibly lucky! People we invited to the project have shown to be truly remarkable. They are young, promising musicians and activists. Looking at the results of their meeting never stops to bring us joy and amazement. We’ve had some tough moments, some people had to leave the band but this only made us stronger and more certain about the meaning and purpose of our undertakings. Thank you! You are us! We are you!
Dominika Szyszko
Originator, organiser and coordinator of the project. Former student of 2LO high school in Gorzów Wielkopolski. Works with refugees in Berlin – helps them learn German and find their way in the new reality. Doesn’t easily give in and has a lot of positive energy.
Andrzej Janczewski
Originator, organiser and coordinator of the project. German language teacher in 2LO high school in Gorzów Wielkopolski. He also teaches the basics of photography and film in Art high school in Gorzów. Uneasy spirit, always wanting more. Loves to bring people together and watch beautiful things unfold.
Ina Sudaszewski
Principle of high school in a group of catholic schools Bernhardinum in Fürstenwalde. Coordinator and organiser of the German part of the project and No Borders Band’s concert tour.
Jacek “Budyń” Szymkiewicz
Musician, composer and multi-instrumentalist from the music group Pogodno. Musical director in No Borders Band. A driving force of unknown origin and great power.
Milo Kanefaty
Syrian living and working in Berlin. Music enthusiast, took part in the first edition of the project. His musical and spiritual input cannot be overestimated. Music he emanates touches us profoundly.
Maciej Sarna
Artist, psychologist and businessman, makes movies and designs brands. Originator of the name No Borders Band. Works in a company Moving Dog. Records all we do to enable people to see us in action, helps promoting the project.
Justyna Suchecka
Journalist of Gazeta Wyborcza and Wyborcza.pl. Former student of 2LO high school in Gorzów Wielkopolski. Writes mostly about young people and education. Helped us start our press group which takes care of the promotion of No Borders Band.
Jamal Kamano
Rapper living in Berlin. Runs hip-hop workshops for youngsters in Germany, Poland and France, aiming at refugee societies in particular. Conducted a rap workshop with us and left us with lots of warmth and mental support.
Fatuma Musa Afrah
Somali activist living in Berlin, fighting for human rights and women empowerment. Works as a motivational speaker. Her visit made a lasting impression on us. We got to know how it is to be an activist helping to fight for inclusion. Great inspiration!
Michał Wróblewski
Jazz pianist and composer. Awarded many international prizes as a jazz musician. Graduated Szymanowski Music Academy in Katowice. He got our act together and got us started. You don’t want to mess with Michał!
Błażej Król
Musician, composer, singer and songwriter. We love his music and are happy to have gotten to know it inside out through playing it together with the author.
Two countries, one aim! – we connect young Poles and Germans. We give financial help to support various meetings of youngsters: theater workshops, sport excursions, as well as ecological projects. We also initiate projects and support them with our knowledge. Since 1991, when we were founded by the governments of Poland and Germany, we have financially supported projects that involved over 2.7 million young participants.
Currently we unite 28 communes and 5 counties that form the Polish part of the euroregion Pro Europa Viadrina. The association supports Polish-German partnerships and cooperation that contributes to a balanced development of the borderland. Thanks to the net of partnerships among institutions forming the euroregion, we support social, economical and cultural causes.
Guards freedom, human and citizen rights, including the rule of equal treatment. Adam Bodnar currently holds the office. Andrzej Stefański, his deputy, visited us in Danków.