Saturday I participated in the 5 Year Mädchenmannschaft birthday celebration at Werkstatt der Kulturen in Berlin. It was the first time I took the stage with my texts without the band. You can see a ‘setlist’ of the texts I read at my poetry page. The other two spoken word performers during my session Anne Prinsregentenheim and Jayrome C. Robinet were amazing and it was a great honor to share the stage with them.
It was great meeting so many people at the party and I for the most part had a good time, but not everything was great: A panel on activism and internet, the penultimate part of the program, turned into a discussion of different criticisms of the Slutwalk Berlin. When confronted with the (absolutely correct!) criticism especially re: the reproduction of racist sentiments and the lack of inclusion of PoC, the representatives of the Slutwalk organisation team – both on the podium and in the audience – reacted in a manner that only confirmed the criticism.
@accalmie wrote a better text about the incident and the problems of Slutwalk in general than I ever could, so I highly recommend you all go read it now: You Walk Alone. I can also recommend these “Four Brief Critiques of Slutwalk’s Whiteness, Privilege and Unexamined Power Dynamics.” (h/t to zweisatz on fb for that.)
CLARITY AND CHAOS 