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Similar Bernard Friot, Étienne Chouard, Frédéric Lordon, Christiane Faure, Usul | ||
Franck Lepage is one of the founder of Workers' co-operative of Popular education 'Le Pavé' (self-disbanded in 2014). An activist of Popular education, he was until 2000, Managing director of programmes in Community Centers and research specialist with 'Institut national de la jeunesse et de l'éducation populaire'.
Contents
By telling the story of Christiane Faure (the first ever Director of Popular Education in France in 1944), he criticizes vividly the role of Culture and Arts in our society in a conference called Inculture(s) 1 – L'éducation populaire, monsieur, ils n'en ont pas voulu… · , (Inculture(s) 1 – Popular Education, Sir, they did not want any of it...), he played on stage in a « conférences gesticulées » (a new concept of gesticulate conference), that became more and more popular from 2006 to 2014. Many people were to follow then on different subjects.
In 2010, under the same format conference/one-man-show, Franck Lepage started Inculture(s) – 2, in which he deals with Teaching. Then Inculture(s) 5 with Gaël Tanguy, on Social protection, based on the theorytical work of Bernard Friot. With the developing network of Workers' co-operatives of Popular Education, especially 'La Grenaille', Le Pavé of Rennes, L'orage of Grenoble, Le vent debout of Toulouse and L'engrenage of Tours, he helps them in creating other gesticulate conferences. About a hundred conferences are then created by the end of 2014.
The self-disbandment of Le Pavé in December 2014, leads to co-found a new structure of Political popular education « L'Ardeur » (Blazing Heat) with a new group of radicalist gesticulating conference folks. Created in 2015 and focused on Trade Unionism, and see a whole lot of new conferences and also the creation of activist workshops.
Biography
Born in Paris on the 17th November 1954. He went to Sciences Po, failed to get in Year 2 but took up Oriental Languages and Law, and turned to Pedagogy.
Teacher for youngs with difficulties at School in Haute-Savoie in 1974, he discovers the social and cultural activities in community centers in 1975 and starts working within the Department of social and cultural activities, and science of education at Centre universitaire expérimental de Vincennes — a free, revolutionary and open University in Vincennes (Paris 8) — in 1977. The teaching is practical and freestyle in order to rethink the whole of Capitalism's Institutions.
He then stop teaching to take up Theatre in 1980, at l'université de Paris 8 (Vincennes in Saint-Denis). he found his own theatre company in 1985. Then he works for Fédération française des Maisons des jeunes et de la culture in 1987 and for the first time he hears about popular education, without anybody being able to explain to him the concept.
It is in that moment, by trying to take up the cultural and social problems of the Youth and the Community of Community Centres to the Culture and Arts Ministry, that he realises the violence of the symbolic division of culture and social affairs in France. He then, with help from others, put a theory in place and a definition of what is Popular Education. He writes a report years later in 1994 to the Education Ministry about the importance of this subject. Not much is done, that is why he went on to create his own Popular Education Network.
In 2007, foundation with five other members of la SCOP d'éducation populaire et transformation sociale Le Pavé.
In 2012, he defines himself as a political activist: "I am a political activist, not an artist. […] Artist, is a social status. But the system refuse to see me as an activist". "I'm a « French comedian ». Art and Culture destroy Politics.
He quits SCOP Le Pavé in April 2012 in order to fully train people of the networks, especially with La Grenaille.