Duke Engage
Parques Bibliotecas in
Medellin, Colombia
Social Equality Through Education
June – August / 2008

Coordinators:
Dr. Tamera Marko
Jota Samper

WHAT IS A PARQUE BIBLIOTECA?

This is not your average library. The 5 Parques Bibliotecas are state of the art spaces with internet rooms, reading lounges, theaters, and outdoor open plazas with 360° views of the Andes mountains encircling the city down below. They have been built in communities that had been isolated from educational resources. Now, they are where community learns, socializes and finds moments of quiet peace. They are a space open to everybody.

WHAT WILL STUDENTS DO?

#1 Culture and Arts Project

Play the clarinet? Love poetry? Skateboard? Want to teach English? Work on a radio station? Whiz at computer programming, blogging, design? Love classical American literature? Love math? Tell us your gift, your love, your dream and how you might collaborate with the Parques Bibliotecas to share your expertise and passion by giving community workshops teaching others how to do it.

#2 Historical Memory
Help communities traditionally not represented in official histories, record their own historical record in their own words in their own communities.


Other Highlights

Live in a Progressive Pilot Housing Project with lush gardens, walking distance to cafes, modern art museum, and to the Universidad Nacional Field trips every weekend in a city rich with art, music, dancing, & festivals.

Final Field Trip: Traveling workshop with Colombian university students to Cartagena & Important cities of the Caribbean Coast.

For more information contact:

Tamera Marko

tmarko@duke.edu