Tag Archives: creative activism
Interview: the Klezmer Gentiles
International artists in Berlin occupy a semi-privileged position, able to ask critical questions of society without being publicly rebuked. An example of such an artist is Soliman Lawrence. Soli has been photographing the memorialization of Jewish culture in Poland for years, following the tracks of a new form of engagement with the past, as enacted by a more recent generation of Poles. In contrast to Poland, Germany now has its fair share of Jews. What might this mean for memory and its rituals?…[Read more!]
Review: Seeing Berlin Through The Homeless
They wait for the subway doors to close before they address the car with a rehearsed speech. “Excuse the interruption, I am one of Berlin’s annoying homeless people”… it usually begins, as they peddle newspapers and scan the crowd for an outstretched hand holding change or food. The majority of us keep our hands tucked away or firmly gripping our phones. Some of us fall into convenient bouts of exhaustion, promptly leaning back and closing our eyes. In this moment, we are restricted to a shared space…[Read more!]
Reviewing the Rave: “We are the We”
We’re so used to talking all the time that words tend to lose their effect. Especially when the talking is predominantly happening in one direction, as it so often does in immigration discourse. The Migrantas organization is unleashing an alternate voice within immigrant women in Germany that is arguably just as powerful: their artistic creativity…[Read more!]
Rave: Neukölln’s Intercultural Day-to-Day
A Berlin restaurant with an American name run by a Tunisian who prepares Italian fare in Halal style? Anywhere else this collision of cultures on a plate would be considered poor marketing. In Neukölln it’s more or less the norm. [Read more!]
Happy Weekend: A Roma (Re)Image
Your perception of the Roma is inaccurate. I apologize for the bluntness, but you and I both know it’s true. And I know you and I both know it’s true because it’s true for me, and I’ve studied this stuff. Not only have I studied this stuff (e.g. migration, integration, intercultural relations), but I consider myself a beacon of political correctness, yet I’ve still dressed up as a gypsy for Halloween more times than I care to admit. Why? [Read more!]
Rave: “I am not a Terrorist”
In Berlin, the dimensions of migration and diversity may sometimes be over-simplified, but groups like Migrantas are changing that, and doing so creatively. The best part: the voice and agency of the “immigrants”, so often talked-about and so seldom talking-back, take center stage…[Read more!]
Collidoscope 