Panel: What we owe each other

On solidarities and mutual aid

Monday, November 27th, 6pm

WEG Spreefeld, Wilhelmine-Gemberg-Weg 14, 10179 Berlin

The event will be held in English spoken language with translation in German sign language and German spoken language.

“Nothing will work unless you do.” 

—Maya Angelou
Information German Sign Language

Capitalism needs labor to survive. Between exploitative wage labor, the lack of labour rights and protections, stigmatisation and the accumulation of wealth for a few: labour affects more than making money. Whether labour is stigmatised, unprotected, or exploitative, the labour we do (or labour we are not allowed to do) dictates what entitlements, skills, and means we have to exist in society. And if our labour is precarious or in crisis, so are we.

Collective practices, such as Mutual Aid, demonstrate alternative understandings of labor, solidarities, and mutual interconnectedness. They translate the notion of a solidarities into daily and self-engaging practices. Counter-practices are created that confront the oppressive system and its their consequences.

But how do we understand our lives and each other beyond labour, even though capitalism forces us to understand ourselves through our labour and its context? What understanding of ourselves and our lived reality do we need to approach from? How do solidarity practices and labor resistance need to take place to avoid reproduction? How do our lived realities influence this? To what extent do labour-related identity markers facilitate or impede these practices? And how do we deal with the consequences?


In the framework of this year’s topic labour of our project #CommunitiesSolidarischDenken (Thinking of communities in solidarity) we invite you to join us on November 27th, 6pm at WEG Spreefeld Berlin, Wilhelmine-Gemberg-Weg 14, 10179 Berlin
In this conversation we want to discuss and analyse together how collective solidarities interact with each other to navigate the current reality while realising a new one.



Our speakers:


Asmara Habtezion is an activist, musician and community organizer from Hamburg, founder of the MSO “Asmaraʼs World” with the desire to actively fight discrimination within authorities and to accompany people in their arrival process, to support communities in order to obtain the right to stay and experiences of racism in Germany.

Jihad Yagoubi is a PhD candidate at the Freie Universität Berlin, finalising their doctoral thesis on the topic of “Gender, ethnic and racial identities, and land justice in Morocco”. Jihad’s quest for decolonial praxis blurs the lines between their academic research and community organizing. As an Amazigh Black researcher born and raised in Morocco, Jihad’s academic and activist interests revolve around Black Feminist Thought and Black Internationalism, Feminist Political Ecology, or global conversations around Transformative Justice from the perspectives of marginalized communities. Besides their doctoral thesis, they work towards creating and consolidating Safer Spaces for Queer and racialised (BIPoC) communities





Newroz Çelik is a Kurdish non-binary trans masculine activist who has been involved in different queer and/or trans of color communities in the past 20 years and has some thoughts on certain things. They talk, write, act, dance and laugh a lot. 

Thủy-Tiên Nguyễn is queer, trans non-binary and việt-diasporic, works as a performer, dance theatre maker, choreographer, author, political educator and community organizer. They deal with topics of anti-racism, gender, classism, queerness, diaspora pain, joy & dreams, collective healing and empowerment, and combine these in writing, bodywork, art and the co-creation of community spaces. They also explore what an approach to more sustainable community work can look like in practice and what this has to do with transformative justice and relationship work. Thủy-Tiên is part of the art and empowerment collective Spicy Ginkgo Collective (@spicyginkgo.collective) and part of the consulting collective DisCheck (@discheck_).

Information about registration:

Register via written, video or audio at contact@xartsplitta.net. 

Due to the theme, queer people who identify as Black, Indigenous or People of Color will be given priority in registration.


Please do answer the following questions when you register:

  • How do you situate/position yourself?
  • In what ways have you engaged with the topic so far?
  • Do you have needs or require assistance to participate (e.g. childcare or language assistance, etc.)?

Please come to the event tested and stay home if you are symptomatic.


The event takes place within the framework of the LADS funded project #CommunitiesSolidarischDenken.

Workshop: Gemeinsame Ökonomie (GemÖk) – Einführung und Austausch

Freitag, den 13.10.2023, 17 Uhr

bei xart splitta e.V., Hasenheide 73, 10967 Berlin

This event will take place in German spoken language.

Das Konzept der Gemeinsamen Ökonomie, kurz GemÖk, kommt aus dem Kontext des Kommunenlebens, wird aber immer häufiger auch in Gemeinschaften praktiziert, die keine Kommunen sind. Hierbei geht es darum, Einkommen und/oder Vermögen mit einer Gruppe von Menschen zu teilen. Neben dem Ziel, finanzielle Ressourcen solidarisch umzuverteilen und sie dorthin zu bewegen, wo sie grade gebraucht werden, basiert GemÖk auch darauf, Tauschlogik und internalisierte, kapitalistische Gedankenmuster zu erkennen und zu dekonstruieren. GemÖk ist Teil einer solidarischen, politischen Praxis, die Raum dafür schafft, unsere Beziehung zu Geld kollektiv und individuell zu hinterfragen.

Da Theorie und Praxis zur GemÖk bisher größtenteils in weißen Räumen stattfinden, möchten wir einen Safer Space für BIPoCs und jüdische Menschen schaffen, in welchem wir uns gemeinsam diesem Thema annähern können.

Nach einer kurzen Einführung in das Thema begeben wir uns in einen gemeinsamen Austausch. Hierbei können nicht nur Erfahrungsberichte geteilt werden, sondern auch Fragen und Gefühle -vor allem Ängste- die mit dem Thema verbunden sind. Zum Schluss gibt es Reflektionsfragen und einen kleinen Starter Pack Guide, für alle, die sich vorstellen können, selbst eine GemÖk zu starten.


Nafas (-/they) ist ein*e neurodivergente*r, queere*r, agender Illustrator*in und Autor*in of Colour, geboren in Tehran und based in Berlin. Mit Bildern und Worten und Wut und Liebe arbeitet Nafas zu unterschiedlichsten Themen rund um kollektive Befreiung, Repräsentation und Empowerment. Schwerpunkte sind (Mental Health) Awareness, Trauma- und Trauerarbeit, Beziehungsanarchie, Community Care und nachhaltiger Aktivismus. Nafas träumt von einer Welt, in der es sich jeder Mensch erlauben kann, soft zu sein.


Information zur Anmeldung

Anmeldung unter contact@xartsplitta.net bis zum 15. November 2023 per Schrift, Video oder Audio. 

Diese Veranstaltung ist ein Safer Space für Menschen, die von Rassifizierung betroffen sind und richtet sich daher ausdrücklich an Menschen, die sich als Schwarz, Indigen, People of Color und/oder Jüdisch identifizieren.

Bitte beantworte uns doch bei Anmeldung folgende Fragen:

  • Wie verortest/positionierst du dich?
  • Auf welche Weise hast du dich bisher mit dem Thema beschäftigt?
  • Hast du Bedürfnisse oder brauchst du zur Teilnahme Unterstützung?

Bitte kommt getestet zum Workshop und bleibt zu Hause, wenn ihr Symptome zeigt.


Die Veranstaltung findet im Rahmen des von der LADS geförderten Projektes #CommunitiesSolidarischDenken statt. 

Winter break – till 2023!

Dear Communities, friends, supporters and everybody interested,

Another year is coming to an end and we are now taking a winter break until 9 January 2023. With some security measures, we were able to hold events in presence again this year. We would like to thank you all for joining us, as we enjoyed every minute of engaging, sharing, exploring and exchanging!
Our year was again highlighted with the final events of our two projects #CommunitiesSolidarischDenken and The Living Archives.

The Living Archives, the online platform for documenting, archiving and passing on knowledge from and for BIPoC communities, was realised in 2022 as part of “dive in. Programme for Digital Interactions” of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation) with funding by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) through the NEUSTART KULTUR programme. 

Many exciting changes took place here, especially in our more interactive area, The Learning Diaspora Space. We were also able to form many great collaborations and were allowed to document your thoughts and projects in the archive. Visit us here on the homepage and explore in your own ways. Have fun!

On November 16 and 17, 2022, the symposium “Politics of Memories and Archives- the spaces in between” took place in cooperation with Nachbarschaftshaus Urbanstraße. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your participation and look forward to continuing to exchange on issues of decolonial, intersectional archiving, resistant knowledge projects and critical knowledge (re)production in the coming years.

We also continued with #CommunitiesSolidarischDenken (#ThinkingCommunitiesInSolidarity) and are happy to now present you with a few insights thereof.

Teil des Projekts #CommunitiesSolidarischDenken sind weiterhin unsere Fokusgruppen-Gespräche. 2022 näherten wir uns in diesen Gesprächen den Begriffen People of Color (PoC) bzw. Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPoC). Daraus entstanden die Veranstaltung “People of Color – Ein Gespräch über die Geschichte von Solidaritäten”, die Abschlussveranstaltung “Zusammen als People of Color?!” sowie die gleichnamige Broschüre mit 13 verschiedenen Beiträgen aus unseren BIPoC Communities. 

Part of the #CommunitiesSolidarischDenken project continues to be our focus group discussions. In 2022, we approached the terms People of Color (PoC) and Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPoC) in these conversations. This resulted in the event “People of Color – A conversation about the history of solidarities”, the final event “Together as People of Color?!” and the brochure of the same name with 13 different contributions from our BIPoC communities. 

With all our heart we would like to thank you all! The authors, editors and illustrators. The panelists, speakers, workshop facilitators, helping hands, interpreters and communication assistants. Our focus group participants and cooperation partners and all of you who have engaged in discussions and exchanges with us and with whom we have experienced, lived and filled these so important spaces together.

We are also pleased to present the third part of The Legion of Community Superpowers. Illustrated by Xinan Pandan, our Dragos go on the road and share their wisdom and advice with us! Thanks to Xinan Pandan for the wonderful collaboration!

We have been able to create many great and empowering spaces and workshops
Starting with a reading of the 2021 published book “The Invention of the Muslim Other” with one of its authors Mehmet Arbag.
Throughout the year we met repeatedly in the Black Hair- and Skincare Hangouts, with highlights and special guests Dr. Ruta Almedom and Layana Flachs.
Not to forget the disaporic film club Between Self and Home, curated by Nahed Awwad and Necati Sönmez from the POC Art Collective and in cooperation with OYA Bar.
Or the Self-Regulations Toolkit Workshop with Dee, which everyone left with their own Crisis Self-Care Boxes.

We are looking forward to continuing our projects and starting new ones in the coming year, but above all we are looking forward to exchanging ideas and perspectives with you.

But we especially look forward to your applications for the project coordination in the project #CommunitiesSolidarischDenkenThe deadline for applications is Sunday January 8, 2023 and the project will start on February 1, 2023.

With a good portion of community love, we would like to say goodbye to you for the moment and for this year. Thank you for your support and your feedback that you continue to share with us so consistently.

We wish you relaxing days off and time to rest and breathe deeply. We look forward to a new year with you and wish you all strength and all the best for the turn of the year and the beginning of 2023.


With best wishes, your xart splitta team

Juli, Golsan, Auro, Anni and Latifa

Lesung: “Die Erfindung des muslimischen Anderen”

This event will take place in German spoken language.

Montag, 21. März 2022, 18 – 20 Uhr

Mit Anna Sabel und Mehmet Arbag

Der vorliegende Essayband erklärt nicht, wie ›Muslim*innen wirklich sind‹, sondern wirft den Blick zurück auf jene, die diese Bilder produzieren und weitertragen.
Mal ernst, mal augenzwinkernd, mal (selbst)ironisch demaskieren die Beiträge den antimuslimischen Rassismus und entlarven die Konstruktion des bedrohlichen Anderen als identitätsstiftend und herrschaftsstabilisierend.

Näheres zum Buch findet ihr hier.

Die Veranstaltung findet in deutscher Lautsprache und online statt.

Anmeldungen bitte bis zum 16.03.2022 an contact@xartsplitta.net


Mehmet Arbag ist Politikwissenschaftler und politischer Bildungsarbeiter. Er ist Podcaster des Formates »Widerstand&Widerrede« und Mitarbeiter im Modellprojekt »(Un)Sichtbarkeiten in der Migrationsgesellschaft« beim Verband binationaler Familien und Partnerschaften Leipzig.

Anna Sabel ist Medienwissenschaftlerin und politische Bildungsarbeiterin. Sie ist Regisseurin von »Spendier mir einen Çay und ich erzähl dir alles«, Kuratorin der Ausstellung »Re:Orient«, Leiterin des Projekts »(Un)Sichtbarkeiten in der Migrationsgesellschaft« (Verband binationaler Familien und Partnerschaften Leipzig) und ebenfalls für den Verband Leiterin im Kompetenznetzwerk Islam- Muslimfeindlichkeit.


This event takes place within the LADS funded project #CommunitiesSolidarischDenken.

Winterbreak – till 2022!

Dear Communities, friends, supporters and everybody interested
 
Another year is coming to an end and we would like to say goodbye and disappear into our winter break until January 10th, 2022. Also this year, the Covid-19 pandemic has kept us busy and impacted our work.

At the same time, there were also staff changes in xart splittas Team. Sadly, our project manager Iris Rajanayagam has left us after 6 great years together. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Iris for her many years of formative commitment, in which she filled xart splitta with life and created this space for which we are so grateful today. We wish her all the best for her new position.


Picture "The Living Archives - the learning diaspora space: The online platform for documenting, archiving and sharing knowledge from and for BIPoC communities. Writings "Launch 2.0", "I Know What I Know!", "What happened last year", "Panel & Performances", "Digital via Zoom and Instagram", 17.12.2021, from 4pm, please register via contact@xartsplitta.net, all in red, beige colour scheme.

The Living Archives is an online platform for documenting, archiving and passing on knowledge from and for BIPoC communities.

On November 19th, 2021 we celebrated our first anniversary and on December 17th, 2021 we presented the further developments of the platform with our second launch!

With all warmth, we would like to thank the participants of our two expert workshops for your feedback, time, perspectives and expertise: Iman Attia, Ginnie Bekoe, Fatima El-Tayeb, Hannah Ishmael, Isidora Randjelović, Ismahan Wayah, Jihad Yagoubi, and Iris Rajanayagam in her role as co-founder.

Special thanks here to Nicola Lauré al-Samarai, who has been part of the process since its inception in the frame of the event Passing it on and has actively supported us over the last two years. We are looking forward to filling the project with life in the coming year. Much of the content is already available, some of it in Safer Spaces.

The Living Archives has till now been funded by the Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, bpb). Many thanks for their support and here especially to Peggy Piesche, for her guidance and impluse. 

Our main project this year was #CommunitiesSolidarischDenken (thinking communities in solidarity) and we are happy to present you some of our highlights.

Here our final event In.Solidarity has gone into the second round!

In.Solidarity – Retrospectives, Insights and Outlooks on Community Cooperation (In.Solidarity – Rückblicke, Einblicke und Ausblicke auf Community-Zusammenarbeit) took place last year in cooperation with the neuen deutschen organisationen (ndo).
This year we were able to cooperate with ComE In of the Migrationsrat Berlin (MRB) and jointly create In.Solidarity II – In Covid, Crisis & Care. Many thanks to the Migrationsrat for this successful cooperation!

After a one-year break due to Corona, we were able to continue our event series Dissolving Territories| cultural geographies of a new eelam with a third season this year.

The third season of “DISSOLVING TERRITORIES” was dedicated to the aspect of solidarity between different oppressed and stateless people: therefore we brought together Eelam-Tamil and Kurdish perspectives and explicitly discussed intersections in relation to experiences in (German) exile.
You can find the documentation here.

A DGS (“German Sign Language”) I and a DGS II course with Diana Spieß and the Lebendige Gebärden team also took place. Provided we receive funding, we hope to be able to offer this course again in 2022.

We are also delighted to present the second part of The Legion of Community Superpowers. Illustrated by Elliot Blue, our Dragos set out to share their wisdom and advice with us! Thanks to Elliot Blue for the wonderful collaboration!

Buntes Foto von Büchern, die im Lesekreis besprochen werden, von Stiften, Bilder und anderen Materialen
© Rena Onat and Saida-Mahalia Saad

Another highlight this year was the Queer of Colour Critique reading and discussion group, facilitated by Rena Onat and Saida-Mahalia Saad. The joint closing session was especially great, where we were able to welcome Dr. Chandra Frank and Gayatri Gopinath as well as Kathy-Ann Tan as moderator!
Many thanks to the facilitators, moderator, our guests and also to the participants!

We are looking forward to continuing our projects and starting new ones in the coming year, but above all to the dialogue with you, your ideas and your perspectives.
With this, we would like to say goodbye with a warm thank you. Thank you for your support, your feedback, the small and big ones that you have shared with us again this year. We wish you relaxing days off and time to rest and breathe deeply. We look forward to a new year with you and wish you all much strength and all the best for the turn of the year and for 2022.

With best wishes, your xart splitta team
Juli, Therese, Olga and Savira


cover picture: © “Sleepy Head” by son_gismo is licensed under CC BY 2.0