Al Jazeera’s Artsworld series looks at how different cultures around the world use art to bring social change in their communities.

This week’s programme, which you can watch here, showed examples from four very different cultures:

The Freedom Theatre in Palestine gives young Palestinians a way to express themselves as well as an alternative to hanging out on the streets. (Unfortunately their website didn’t seem to be working when I wrote this)

The China Disabled Peoples’ Performing Arts Troupe gives opportunities to perform to disabled people who often face discrimination when going about their daily lives.

Circo Picolino in Brazil provides a circus school which sometimes turns into a career for young people who may not have other alternatives.

Bongo Flava is an emerging fusion sound from Tanzania, inspired by hip hop, rap and R&B.

Each project reflects the culture of the country in a distinctive way. What they all have in common is their goal of using art to bring purpose and joy to individual lives and hopefully contribute to a wider social progression as well.

Photo: Pipa by Scott Allen Stevens

There’s loads to discover at Soundroots , which is dedicated to music of the world. SA Stevens, aka dj earball, writes about a huge range of world music from Bollywood soundtracks to Japanese percussion to Balkan brass and Brazilian samba. As with La Onda Tropical latin music blog MP3s are available for a limited time, to listen to the music they are talking about.

Affiliated with ‘Spin the Globe’ world music radio show, it’s an interesting and varied blog, from a writer who clearly knows his music and is also passionate about different cultures of the world.

After Pangea Day which brought the world together through films from around the world, the International Day for Sharing Life Stories aims to bring people together through stories. In a mixture of live performances and digitally recorded stories, people from all over the world will talk about their lives.

As well as the official event, the organisers are inviting people to host local community get-togethers to share their stories. The website also has details of other events inspired by the life story day, including a Canadian project to share family traditions.

Photo from British Colombia Literacy Forum’s share a family tradition project

The International Day for Sharing Life Stories is coordinated by the Museu da Pessoa and will take place on May 16th, 2008.

Our purpose here at PocketCultures is to try to bridge differences between people of different nationalities by showing new aspects of different countries and world cultures. It’s an area which in our opinion is not getting enough attention at present, which is why we were delighted to find out about Pangea Day - an innovative event by leading film makers aiming to change the way we think about other countries.

The main screening itself will be held on May 10, at locations all around the world, and also broadcast live on the internet and television. But you can already catch some trailers on YouTube. Among those submitted so far are ‘Japan sings for Turkey’, a traditional Japanese rendition of the Turkish national anthem, ‘France sings for USA’ - elegantly-shot black and white scenes of Paris set to the background of Parisians singing the Star Spangled Banner.

Documentary maker Jehane Noujaim, the inspiration behind the event, explains the reasoning behind the idea of using films to show stories in this article. Learning someone’s story, and coming to see them as a person, rather than a ‘foreigner’ is key to breaking down prejudices.

Update: the films have now been uploaded to the Pangea Day website. Watch them here.