January
START UP: POSITIONING!
Positioning is unavoidable for a dialogue on equal footing regarding hierarchical structures - the terms “People of Color” and “White” represent a possibility for positioning by labeling the respective positions in order to speak about and investigate disparate conflicts. Definitions and the history of these terms are highlighted and their meaning debated for a reflected dealing with the collective fight against racism.
Kien Nghi Ha, editor and co-author of the anthology “re/visionen”, explains the creation and political meaning of the People of Color Approach. Jutta Franzen demonstrates Whiteness in everyday practices. Farida Heuck presents her art work, while Tobias Linnemann and Mitja-Sabine Lück offer a reflection on their own biography in relation to White privileges and behaviors.
Friday, January 23
17:00h: Introduction
AG Re/Positionierung (G)
18:00h: People of Color: Empowerment and self-reflexive Identity Politics
Kien Nghi Ha
Lecture (G)
20:00h: Doing Whiteness
Jutta Franzen
Lecture (G)
Saturday, January 24
18:00h: Global Immigration Office
Farida Heuck
Lecture (G)
10:00h –
17:00h: Workshop zur Auseinandersetzung mit eigenem Weißsein
Tobias Linnemann, Mitja-Sabine Lück
Workshop (G)
February
REMEMBERING/DE-MEMBERING
The representation of history, of memory, but also the oblivion, or as the case may be, active forgetting of historical occurrences can be a powerful instrument for the establishment and consolidation of dominant structures. Joshua Kwesi Aikins illustrates the everyday presence of German colonial history in Berlin's cityscape. Philip Metz connects his investigation into the construction and origin of stereotypes regarding Black People in Germany with insights into his own artwork. Yvette Mutumba presents research results regarding the working conditions of artists of African heritage within German cultural institutions. Through the medium of film, sound and live commentary, the group Remember Resistance retraces the path of an extended colonial history which has been banned from collective memory in Europe and Germany.
Friday, Februar 20
18:00h: The Everyday Presence of German Colonial History in Berlin’s Cityscape
Joshua Kwesi Aikins
Lecture (G)
20:00h: The Black in the Eye of the Beholder
Philip Metz
Lecture (G)
Saturday, Februar 21
17:00h: Afro-Spheres in the German Artscene
Yvette Mutumba
Lecture (G)
19:00h: Coloniale Ghosts / Kinshasa-Brüssel
Remember Resistance (Sonja Hohenbild, Brigitta Kuster, Julien Enoka Ayemba)
Film-, Photo- and Sound- und live-Commentary (G)
March
SUBJECT
Racist structures degrade People of Color to objects – the taking on of a subjectivity by rejecting an ascribed passive position describes a form of resistance and a simultaneous process of empowerment. The African American philosopher W.E. Dubois coined the term of “double consciousness” in order to speak about a form of self-perception which juggles an individuals point of view in relation to the perspective of a dominant exterior world. Rajkamal Kahlon discusses this phenomenon in her artistic/scholarly contribution. Suzan Onur Kömürcü speaks about the life and working experiences of artists of Color in Germany. Branwen Okpako marks the consequences of and dealings with an individual's subjective positions based on the history of Maggie Mufu and Juliane Strohschein shares the insights she gained, conducting Critical Whiteness workshops.
Friday, March 20
18:00h: Double Consciousness: Painting and Performing the Racial Grotesque
Rajkamal Kahlon
lecture/Performance (E)
20:00h: Cultural Diversity and the creative City: Living Conditions of artists of Color in Berlin’s cultural Industry
Onur Suzan Kömörcü
Lecture (G)
Saturday, March 21
17:00h: Maggie Burns
Branwen Okpako
Lecture/Performance (E)
19:00h: Positioning and Dealing with Whiteness
Juliane Strohschein
Lecture (G)
April
PERSPECTIVES
A circumstance has as many interpretive possibilities as it has observers. If we want to expand our perspective we must be inclined to challenge our ingrained points of view. In the film Taipei 101: a Travelogue of Symptoms, James T. Hong views Whiteness outside a predominantly White context, while Zara Zandieh presents her short film Close Distance, a narration from the points of view of three women who migrated to Berlin from Iran between 1960 and 1980. Manuela Bojadzijev presents the work of the group Ultra-Red, which explores through sound future perspectives of an anti-racist movement. Toan Nguyen speaks about the "Move on up- Empowerment Forum for People of Color" that took place in Berlin in October 2008.
Friday, April 24
18:00h: Taipei 101
James T. Hong
Movie (E)
20:00h: Close-Distance
Zara Zandieh
Movie (E)
Saturday, April 25
17:00h: Ultra-red: We Come From Your Future
Manuela Bojadzijev
Lecture (G)
19:00h: Move On Up- Socio-political Empowerment Perspektives on the Move
Toan Nguyen
Lecture (G)
May
VOICES
To make one's voice heard is an important step towards (re)claiming a subjective position. CHINAZA embarks on a search for old and new voices beyond a White dominated music industry in a workshop for Singers of Color. Amy Evans and Grada Kilomba explore the creation of texts in terms of its possibilities for self-empowerment and the expression of creative resistance. Paul Mecheril, one of the most renown academic voices currently theorizing the perspectives of People of Color in the German context, speaks about the “double lack” which brings forth marginalized subjectivities. Victoria B. Robinson discusses how she deals with her own position as a woman author of Color within the White mainstream as welll as the questions, difficulties and opportinities that arise from it. Renée Ridgway's 'Onkel Barack's Hütte' references the way the American presidential campaign is portrayed in the media through the eyes of expats Jean-Ulrick Désert and Ridgway. Diverse media of image and rhetoric is displayed through visual portraiture and spoken commentary reflecting the two-fold viewpoint of the American outside the national identity constructs. Jean-Ulrick Désert speaks about his artistic experiments and interventions which bring White privileges and dominance into the foreground.
Friday, May 22
10:00h –
17:00h: The Response/Responsibility of Performance Writers of Color
Amy Evans, Grada Kilomba
Workshop (E)
10:00 -
17:00h: The Exceptional Me: Workshop to discover a radical sound - for People of Color
CHINAZA
Workshop (E/G)
18:00h: The Double Lack that Brings Forth Marginalised Subjectivities which They Complete
Paul Mecheril
Lecture (G)
Saturday, May 23
10:00h –
14:00h: The Response/Responsibility of Performance Writers of Color
Amy Evans, Grada Kilomba
Workshop (E)
14:00-
10:00h: The Exceptional Me: Workshop to discover a radical sound - for People of Color CHINAZA
Workshop (E/G)
15:00h: Schwarze Autorin im Weissen Mainstream
Victoria B. Robinson
Lecture (G)
18:00h: Onkel Barack's Hütte
Renée Ridgway
Lecture (E)
19:00h: White-Lessons/ The Lagom Project and the works of Jn.Ulrick Désert
Jean-Ulrick Desert
Lecture (E)
June
RE/POSITIONING
Attention! Change of program: The anti-lecture Locations of the Mothership: The Black Female Subject as a Site of Resistance by Jamika Ajalon will take place on June 20th at 18h instead of 16h.
A repositioning follows the discussion and acknowledgment of one's own position whereby points of view are taken up consciously that mark an active opposition to racism instead of implicitly strengthening it. Syd Shelton and Carol Tulloch present the historical movement of Rock Against Racism which untied Black and White activists, artists, writers and designers in the fight against racism from 1976 to 1981. Gabriele Dietze expands the dialog regarding Critical Whiteness Theory through the concept of Critical Occidentalism. Jamika Ajalon deals with the importance of women as subjects of Resistance in her “anti-lecture”, while Lambert Mousseka and Stafanie Oberhoff present the the film "... und jetzt bin ich ein Künstler" documenting their work with street children and child soldiers in Kinshasa.
Friday, June 19
18:00h: Rock against Racism 1976 – 1981
Carol Tulloch/Syd Shelton
Lecture (E)
20:00h: Critical Whiteness Theory und Kritischer Okzidentalismus. Zwei Figuren hegemonialer Selbstreflexion
Gabriele Dietze
Vortrag (G)
Saturday, June 20
18:00h: Locations of the Mothership: The Black Female Subject as a Site of Resistance
Jamika Ajalon
Anti-Lecture (E)
20:00h: The Village on the Hill
Lambert Mousseka/Stefanie Oberhoff
International Puppet Theater (G/F)