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

The Living Archives: Launch 2.0 “I Know What I Know!”

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.

Friday December 17th, 4pm

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 event will take place online.

The Living Archives is an online platform that aims to document, archive and pass on content and knowledge created in BIPoC communities. Furthermore, the site is to be used as a learning portal for these communities to share and add to this knowledge.
The online platform was launched for the first time on November 19th, 2020. Now we are one year down the line – and a lot has happened.

The aim is to collect (lost and/or deleted) content and knowledge that is/was generated within BIPoC contexts and make it accessible to these communities.
xart splitta understands The Living Archives as a “Resistant Knowledge Project” (Patricia Hill Collins). In this context archiving, documenting and sharing knowledge is understood as a decolonial act. The concept of the archive is redefined here with regard to its colonial, racist context of origin and used as a means of “counter-narrative”.

It’ s happening: The second launch of The Living Archives! Celebrate with us the further development of the digital community platform!

On December 17th we are looking forward to the performances of Mandhla and Ginnie Bekoe. As well as a panel conversation about “I Know What I Know!”, embodied knowledge and critical knowledge (re)production with the performer Mandhla and Ginnie Bekoe and Saboura Naqshband und Nicola Lauré al-Samarai!

Programm

16.00h – 17.00h Welcome, launch 2.0, presentation of the homepage and review with Juliana Kolberg (xart splitta) and as returning guest Iris Rajanayagam. 

17.00h- 17.30h Performance by Mandhla

17.30h – 19.00h Panel discussion incl. Q&A with Mandhla, Ginnie Bekoe, Saboura Naqshband and Nicola Lauré al-Samarai. Moderated by: Juliana Kolberg

19.00h – 19.30h Performance spoken word by Ginnie Bekoe

The event will take place in German and English spoken language with interpretation DE-ENG and DGS (german sign language).

Pls. register via contact@xartsplitta.net.


The Living Archives is funded by the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung/bpb.

Speakers

Mandhla. is a 24 year old trans-feminine gender non-comforming body born and raised in Zimbabwe, Africa. As a current resident between Berlin and Cologne, she brings a blend of experimental R&B and Soul music intertwined with visual projections and performative dancing. Her music speaks of the daily trials that Trans*, enby and femme* immigrant bodies experience daily with love, identity, sex and acceptance.
A strong lover of fashion, the art of voguing and music, she promises to bring to you an experience that takes you to a world of beauty and divine epiphanies through fierce queer representation and black femme* power. 
As a political and social activist, she is a part of the BIPoC collective, DEMASK, which strives in creating safer spaces for QT (Queer, Trans) BIPoC in Cologne and surrounding areas. mandhla. (wordpress.com) 

Ginnie Bekoe ist ein*e Schwarze Aktivist*in und macht Vorträge, Workshops und Poetry vorranging zu den Verschwurbelungen von Schwarzsein, beHinderung, Fatness & Queerness. Dabei schöpft Ginnie aus der eigenen Identität und eigenen Erfahrungen, wie auch weitergegebenem Wissen (sogar aus Büchern!). Darüberhinaus beschäftigt sich Ginnie extensiv mit Babyelephanten und Eiscreme.

Saboura Naqshband studierte Arabistik, Politikwissenschaft und Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie in London, Kairo und Berlin. In Berlin und bundesweit ist sie als Antidiskriminierungs- und Empowerment-Trainerin tätig, v.a. für  Vereine von und für LSBTI*Q-Geflüchtete und Migrant*innen. Sie arbeitet v.a. zu den Themen (anti-muslimischer) Rassismus, Muslimischer Feminismus und Religion, Gender und Sexualität und übersetzte Lana Sirris 2017 erschienenes Buch „Einführung in islamische Feminismen“ ins Deutsche.

Nicola Lauré al-Samarai Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaftlerin (historian, cultural theorist). Zu ihren Interessenschwerpunkten gehören BPoC-Geschichte in Deutschland sowie diasporische Bewegungs-, Erinnerungs- und Kulturpolitiken im weitesten Sinne. Sie arbeitet als Autorin und Lektorin sowie als Kuratorin und Vermittlerin im Bereich historisch-politische Bildung und war an verschiedenen Buch- und Ausstellungsprojekten beteiligt, darunter Labor 89: Intersektionale Bewegungsgeschichte*n aus West und Ost und Decolonize ’68! – Bewegungsgeschichtliche Erfahrungen von Schwarzen Frauen und Frauen of Color.

In.Solidarity II – In Covid, Crisis & Care: Healing Circle

for BIPoC with Griselda Enciso // 11am-2pm

This workshop will take place online and German and English spoken language is possible – Let’s help each other out!

Repeated writing in yellow, pink, blue on a purple background: "In.Solidarity II - In Covid, Crisis & Care". Images from top right to bottom left: Virus strand, with stylised person in a circle, xart splitta logo, hands bringing hearts together in a circle, speech bubble with heart, logo Migrationsrat Berlin and logo ComE In - Community, Empowerment, Intersectional.

Workshop on healing old wounds and returning to primal trust: The Pandemic as an Opportunity for Self-Discovery

Coming together as a group, meditating together, exercises for healing old wounds, common spaces for reflection: What are my fears? What are my tools for dealing with them? These fears will be recycled together and released as energy for self-determination in love, gratitude and humility. We will also refer here to our role in our communities and create a common calm, healing and grateful place.


Photo of Griselda, in front of a white background, smiling at the camera in the portrait cut-out.

My name is Griselda Enciso and I am Afroperuvian.
After a long search through different cultures and courses of study, I finally faced my calling as a healer / curandera (medicine woman) in my voluntary exile in Berlin. This “yes” is synonymous with an unconditional acceptance of the gifts of my ancestors. I work with great joy inspired by my spiritual guardians using homeopathy, techniques from systemic constellations and Afroperuvian dances.