Social Centers

If I had the motivation to start a blog sooner, this would have been one of my first entries.  I got word of these types of places on my first Sunday in Madrid.  I met with a group to help a park to take photos.  We went out for bocadillas (little sandwiches) and cañas (draft beer) afterwards at a place where when you order these things together you pay 1euro for each... and there are literally 100 bocadillas to chose from.  Anyways one of the guys had lived here for 3 years or so and was serving as our ambassador for the day.  He is really involved with one Social Center, Casablanca and invited us to a concert there the following Saturday.  

    I told my friend Anna about it and we decided to go.  This was also the day someone had posted about meeting at  Templo Debod (the park with an imported ancient Egyptian temple) to practice aerial acrobatics.  After all of the upside down fun we headed to Casa Blanca.  The first thing I thought was wow, this is what the Werehouse (Winston Salem) was going for all of this time.  This building is an occupied space that a group of people run together.  Some people just participate in community events and some actually live there.  It's all very open, with corridors courtyards and endless amounts of cool rooms.  There was a bar with cheap beers, a stage, and artwork everywhere.  Upstairs there was a free store and a photo lab.  It was so rad to see this kind of stuff happening in Madrid.  

The other social center I've frequented is called the Tabacalera.  This site is actually run a little differently.  Set in an abandoned tobacco factory ( winston-salem? ), the large building also contains an endless amount of rooms starting with a lobby with a bulletin board full of class schedules and activities planned.  All the work shops are free and include activities such as African drumming, salsa/swing dancing, figure drawing, and my favorite, circus art.  There is also a bar in the courtyard, a garden space, regularly held concerts and various food nights.  This space (I think) is actually considered a public space because the organizers have asked permission from the city.  During one of my visits here, there were police officers, only they were the guard type and apparently they were there in case fights broke out.  I was confused because they didn't seem to mind the smell of marijuana that was floating around and they weren't looking to arrest anyone.  Then I remembered that I wasn't in the United States... so maybe things are different. ouch

So basically, these places are amazing.  They provide an endless amount of cultural activities, 1 euro beers and all around good fun.  If I didn't work evenings, I'd probably be there almost everyday.