Program Overview

#1 OPLATZ BOX  – The Refugee Movement Is The Movement Of The 21st Century

When The Jackal Leaves The Sun Chapter #1
at OPLATZ WIRD 10 – BAUSTELLE MIGRATION
Oranienplatz, 10999 Berlin Kreuzberg

5 – 9 October
daily from 12 am to 10 pm 

Angela Davis, Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Anike Joyce Sadiq & Judith Hamann with leo & Nino Bulling, Aziza Ahmad, Barby Asante, Clementine Ewokolo Burnley, Denise Garcia Bergt, Hanaa Hakiki, International Women* Space, IWS Radio, Jennifer Kamau, Jo’Art, Lica Stein, Memory Biwa, Muhammed Lamin Jadama, Napuli Langa, Nino Bulling, Oranienplatz Comic Workshop, Pippa Samaya, Pungwe Listening, Sarah Imani, Semra Ertan, Semra Ertan Initiative, Sista Mimi, String Archestra, Suza Husse, Vitjitua Ndjiharine, WeAreBornFree! Empowerment Radio

OPLATZBOX exhibition

with the International Women* Space archive, IWS RADIO, Oranienplatz Comic Workshop and contributions by Anike Joyce Sadiq & Judith Hamann & leo & Nino Bulling, Aziza Ahmad, Barby Asante, Clementine Ewokolo Burnley, Nino Bulling, Pungwe Listening, Semra Ertan, Semra Ertan Initiative, Vitjitua Ndjiharine
* OplatzBox

IWS CINEMA

* OplatzBox

Kämpfer*innen: Eine Dokumentationsreihe mit Jennifer Kamau & Napuli Langa, Dahye Kim & Haewon Chae, Killa Kupfer & Schokoofeh Montazeri, Sandra Bello, Carolina Belen Espinosa Barrera, Sharuta Alatrash, Natalie Bayer, Angelika Nguyen, Saraya Gomis, Natasha Kelly, Aurora Rodonò | EN/DE. 2021

How to resist: the refugee movement in Kreuzberg: Jennifer Kamau Tour
EN. 2020

A black poem of color: Stefanie Lahya-Aukongo
DE. 2021

Occupation of the tree at O-Platz: Napuli Langa
EN/DE. 2021

Break the politics of divide and rule: Sanchita Basu
DE/EN. 2021

Die enorme Resilienz des Refugee Movement: Peggy Piesche
DE/EN. 2021

Die Gerhart-Hauptmann-Schule: Erinnerungen an ein Symbol des Widerstands: Mit Lica Stein, Alnour Ahmad-Hassan, Adam Bahar, Jan, Kim
EN/DE, 2021

O-Platz Eviction
EN/DE, 2014

9 Days on the Roof
EN/DE, 2014

Public billboard exhibition in Kreuzberg

International Women* Space (Denise Garcia Bergt, Lica Stein, Pippa Samaya), Muhammed Lamin Jadama, Napuli Langa, Sista Mimi, Jennifer Kamau
* Oranienplatz | Görlitzer Straße geg. 38 | Wassertorstr. 65 | Gitschiner Straße 71 | Görlitzer Ufer/Görlitzer Brücke

PERFORMANCES, CONCERTS, RADIO TRANSMISSIONS

*the program of OPlatzBox is part OPLATZ WIRD 10 – BAUSTELLE MIGRATION, for the full festival see www.oplatz.net

Wednesday 5 October

20:00 h String Archestra : concert
* stage

Thursday 6 October 

16 :00 – 20:00 h Live documenting session : Vitjitua Ndjiharine
* OplatzBox

18:00 h Speech: Angela Davis
* stage

20:00 h Sound performance: “Playing the Structures II” by Anike Joyce Sadiq, Judith Hamann, leo, Nino Bulling (and other lovers)
* stage & OplatzBox

Friday 7 October 

14:00 h radio conversation: Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Jennifer Kamau, Hanaa Hakiki | 15.30 h Sonic intervention: “A Painful Declaration Of Independence” by Barby Asante
* WeAreBornFree! Empowerment Radio broadcast live from Oplatz on reboot.fm and on 88,4 MHZ in Berlin and 90,7 MHZ in Potsdam

Saturday 8 October 

13:00 – 14:00 h Sonic intervention: Pungwe Listening & Semra Ertan Initiative
* WeAreBornFree! Empowerment Radio broadcast live from Oplatz on reboot.fm and on 88,4 MHZ in Berlin and 90,7 MHZ in Potsdam

16:00 – 20:00 h Live documenting session: Vitjitua Ndjiharine
* OplatzBox

Sunday 9 October

13:00 – 17:00 h Workshop for Oplatz Kids: Faye Jo’Art – Elhadji Mamadou Faye
* OplatzBox

14:00 – 15:30 h Sonic intervention: “Planet Resilience” by Clementine Ewokolo Burnely | Radio conversation: Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Napuli Langa, Memory Biwa, Sarah Imani
* WeAreBornFree! Empowerment Radio broadcast live from Oplatz on reboot.fm and on 88,4 MHZ in Berlin and 90,7 MHZ in Potsdam

OPLATZBOX is a mobile archive dedicated to the feminist struggle in the Refugee Resistance Movement with a focus on testimonies and visions of women* and queers from Black, Indigenous, migrant and People of Colour communities. Showcasing films, podcasts, publications and ephemera gathered and produced by International Women* Space / IW*S across 10 years as well as art works, performances, radio programs, poetry, music and talks OPLATZBOX is a temporary education centre of migrant anticolonial knowledges open to all over a period 5 days.

A monument to the resistance and worldmaking of Black women* that shaped the fabric of the refugee movement and its enduring legacy, OPLATZBOX is part of the arts and culture festival “Oplatz wird 10 – Baustelle Migration“. Ten years after the beginning of the occupation of Oranienplatz square, the festival organized by IW*S celebrates the empowerment histories of the Refugee Resistance Movement in Berlin and makes proposals for a diverse, postcolonial, grassroots democratic, and postmigrant society.

International Women* Space was founded as a radical feminist wing of the Refugee Resistance Movement in Berlin, which emerged from the protest occupation of Oranienplatz square in Kreuzberg in 2012. From the beginning, the self-organized making of culture based on the lives, struggles, histories and visions of migrant women, dykes, intersex, non-binary and trans people has been an important focus in the work of IW*S.

“Women* who had become refugees in their own regions before attempting to reach Europe through the deadly routes available. Women* fleeing war, poverty, environmental disaster caused by corporation’s greed, women* feeling persecution for not conforming to the gender they were assigned at birth. … we needed to speak to each other to understand the paradox of seeking protection in one of the western countries, knowing the roles they play in destabilizing our regions, through wars and neo-colonialism. In a less insane world this would be the last place we would choose.”

(In Our Own Words. Refugee Women Tell Their Stories, ed. IW*S, 2015, p. 4)

IW*S propose that listening to one another and creating records of survival in the face of violence, erasure, death and deportation are the base for creating strategies for a common struggle, for working on transformation together. A grassroots archive of resilience, achievement and loss, OPLATZBOX amplifies this Black, migrant, queer feminist take on decolonization put into practice through feminist self-organising.

Addressing the violent repercussions of colonialism, the dangerous migration routes, the fortressed borders to Europe, the realities of deeply engrained structural racism in Germany, the testimonies and reflections document migration as a political movement. A feminist anti-racist, anticolonial movement that connects a multiplicity of BIPOC and migrant histories and struggles in and beyond Germany.

OPLATZBOX is the first manifestation of the transterritorial decolonial feminist network WHEN THE JACKAL LEAVES THE SUN: Decentering Restitution | Pedagogies of Repossession.

WHEN THE JACKAL LEAVES THE SUN: Decentering Restitution | Pedagogies of Repossession is funded by the TURN2 Fund of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation). Funded by the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media).

OPLATZ WIRD 10 – BAUSTELLE MIGRATION is funded by Berliner Projektfonds Urbane Praxis.