Conflict and Critical Care in Queer Community Organizing

Open conversation, English and DGS

with Rafi (TS Raver), Martin*a Vahemäe-Zierold (Lebendige Gebärden), Zoë Harris (Lecken), V (IQPB), Tzoa (Casa Kuà).

Wednesday June 8, 2022, 18:30 – 20:30, OYOUN – Kultur NeuDenken, Seminarraum 1, Lucy-Lameck-Str. 32, Berlin-Neukölln (U- Herrmannplatz). OYOUN is wheelchair accessible.

Awareness is a tool for facilitating and hosting queer community spaces. Awareness is about creating environments for mutual queer support. Awareness is an attitude of attention and respect. Awareness is also a practice. Awareness is the organised effort to care for self and others. In concrete terms, this can mean conflict de-escalation, first aid, peer to peer mental health support, soft interventions and information dissemination.

This evening is dedicated to talking about spaces where the practice and politics of awareness are deployed. We ask: What is the importance of awareness for community organising? How do spaces become welcoming? How do we create spaces that not only take care of conflicts, harm and aggression, but positively shape experiences of pleasure, connection and transgression? Who can carry out awareness practices and who is the awareness worker?

Facilitated by Mathias Klitgård (Mati, they/them) and Antke Engel (antke_antek, xie/they)

The event brings together queer community practitioners from different social and political segments. Our aim is to nurture intra-community connections and learn from each other in a time of transition.

The form of the event will be dialogical. It consists of a ‘talking’ circle and a ‘listening’ circle. We invite contributors and audience to move in and out between circles and participate in the debate.

The event will be fully analogue: No online screening. However, for archiving purposes, we will audio record the conversation.

After the event, there is a chance for informal gathering at café Abadän, which is located just downstairs in the same building.

There are no particular Covid-19 rules according to the current hygiene regulations of the Berlin Senate. We recommend, however, getting tested before the event.

Conceived as part of A_sociality

   Sign language translation (English – DGS) has been funded by Aktion Mensch. Thank you!