Workshop für Schwarze Menschen mit Isaiah Lopaz

Workshop for Black People of Colour with Isaiah Lopaz

The European Literature Festival Cologne- Kalk (eLk) begins with the film-screening of "Das leere Grab". The German- Tanzanian Director duo Agnes Lisa Wegner and Cece Mlay talks of the traces and traumas in their film, that the former German colonial rule has left behind in Tanzanian families and communities to this day – and of the strength and self-empowerment of the survivors, who stubbornly fight for complete disclosure.
(The film will be shown in the original language with German subtitles)
Click on this link for the tickets (5,00 € festival price):
https://www.kinoheld.de/kino/koeln/lichtspiele-koeln-kalk/vorstellung/3048640037?mode=widget&layout=shows&showName=&startDate=&endDate=&rb=1&sessid=3r6v580t3ehpap2406c8vbos5d#panel-seats

The second festival day will start with a reading by Grzegorz Kwiatkowski, who will present his collection ardently. In this volume of poetry, he collects the unrelenting voices of victims, perpetrators, collaborators and advocates, all of whom witnessed pogroms, brutality and murder in Nazi-occupied Poland in very different ways. Adrian Kasnitz and Jonas Linnebank will be moderating.
Afterwards, the author Kwiatkowski becomes the singer Kwiatkowski. Together with Wojtek Juchniewicz and Tomek Pawluczuk, he forms the band Trupa Trupa. Their latest single, Uniforms, made it onto Rolling Stone's "Songs You Need to Know" list.
(The evening will be held in Polish, English and German).

The eLk- Weekend begins with the opening of the festival site and readings by Pelumi Adejumo, Gianna Olinda Cadonau, Faruk Šehić, Livia Ștefan, Ubah Cristina Ali Farah and Ana Pepelnik. All authors will be presenting their works in their respective mother tongues and in German translations. It will be moderated by Adrian Kasnitz.
(The evening will be held in Dutch, Romansh, French, Bosnian, Romanian, Italian, Slovenian, English and German).

The long reading Saturday begins with musical opening. Then the invites authors will be presenting their texts in 45-minute slots. After the readings, we will be celebrating the anniversary of the rap group Microphone Mafia, who will be closing the event. The festival conclusion will be taking place at the Pflanzstelle at 10 p.m.

An open workshop with VAMOS on their award-winning project Der Garten der Erinnerungen will take place on Ottmar-Pohl-Platz between 14:00 and 18:00. Furthermore, Stift Touché also invites you to draw. Stift Touché is a group of wild artists who meet once or several times a week to draw together. We draw together on a sheet of paper or use the PRV – Paper-Rotation-Technique. All ages are welcome to join in.

t.b.a.

Ștefan presents her debut book re.volver (parasitenpresse 2024), which has just been published in German. The book's translator, Manuela Klenke, writes: "re.volver is a book about the way back into trauma and out again, a very complex piece that can be deceptive at first glance if you don't give it the time it needs." We want to take this time.

Esther Harmat will be moderating. Lisa Böttcher will be reading the German texts.

(The event will be held in Romanian, English and German).

The Somali-Italian poet, novelist, playwright and librettist Ubah Cristina Ali Farah will read poems from the anthology Kontinentaldrift - Das Schwarze Europa (Wunderhorn 2021, edited by Fiston Mwanza Mujila) and present her novel, published in German for the first time, Der Kommandant des Flusses (Orlando 2024), a gripping coming-of-age story and a previously unknown look behind the scenes of a multicultural Rome.

Dafne Graziano will be moderating. The German texts will be read by Jonas Linnebank.

(The event will be held in Italian, English and German).

Pepelnik's book nicht fisch (parasitenpresse 2023) was on this year's poetry recommendation list of the German Academy for Language and Poetry. Jan Drees explains on Deutschlandfunk radio "nicht fisch [draws] its images from its own emotional world, this I don't want to write ,about Theseus Helena Elektra / Sisyphus because I wasn't / there or don't / know enough'. Autofiction and depression, pop and myth collide in this eventful piece"

Maria Babusch will be moderating. The German texts will be read by Adrian Kasnitz, who was part of the team of translators for the volume.

(The event will be held in Slovenian, English and German).

Gianna Olina Cadonau writes her poems in Romansh and German at the same time. She will not only be presenting the work of her ongoing self-translation, but also her novel Feuerlilie (Lenos 2023), which will also be read aloud in English translation. In her debut novel, Gianna Olinda Cadonau uses powerful images to tell of encounters between traumatized people. A novel that manages without explanations and at the same time makes the unspeakable visible.

The event will be moderated by Alexander Estis. The translations will be read by Esther Harmat.

(The event will be held in Romansh, English, French and German).

Pelumi Adejumo is an interdisciplinary writer, musician and performer. The Nigerian-Dutch artist describes himself as a runaway pastor-child. Adejumo's work is strongly influenced by West African spirituality and mythology, Christian and Yoruba influences as well as queer and feminist theory. We look forward to Adejumo's work, which explores the limits and possibilities of multilingualism in grammar.

It will be moderated by Isaiah Lopaz. The German texts will be read by Jennifer De Negri.

(The event will be held in Dutch, English and German).

Faruk Šehić's new volume of poetry Meine Flüsse (parasitenpresse 2024) will be published just in time for the eLk. In four cycles, Šehić writes about the rivers that have accompanied and shaped his life (Una, Loire, Spree, Drina), and finally beyond (Jenseits des Flusses). The text deals with issues of post-war reality and the culture of remembrance in a broader context, with the tragedy of the Bosnian war in the context of larger conflicts and the tragedies of the two world wars. The book searches for a catharsis, as far as this is possible in a post-war society like Bosnia, as well as for universal themes such as intimacy, love and freedom.

Rebekka Zeinzinger, who also translated the book, will moderate the event. The German texts will be read by Stan Lafeur.

(The event will be held in Bosnian, English and German).

Melchi Vepouyoum is a musician from Cameroon who has lived in Bonn for several years. He writes and sings in his mother tongue Bamoun and his youth language Camfranglais, a mixture of English, French and local Cameroonian languages. And every now and then also in French and English.

After so much input, program and culture, we invite you to come together for a campfire and drinks at the Pflanzstelle Kalk (Neuerburgerstraße).

We conclude the eLk with an open, communal breakfast, a literary-musical matinée, dancing and even more literature from the eLk'ian environment.

To mark the beginning of the end, Partners in Crime, Integrationshaus e.V., KUNTS e.V. and parasitenpresse invite you to a group breakfast on Ottmar-Pohl-Platz. There will be coffee, tea and a varied breakfast. Be there or be square.

Alexander Estis, proven eLk alumnus, prolific writer of short forms and sought-after columnist, will be reading Schmonzes from his Ezzes. He will be supported by Alexander Paperny on the Balalaika.

(Alexander Estis reads in German and Russian.)

The people behind and around the eLk write, read and perform themselves. We also want to show the audience our own artistic work of the German voices, presenters and the other people who are there for you and the eLk.

Esther Harmat and Jonas Linnebank will moderate.

towards each other
Through dance we are presenting the results of our research on the themes of encounter, liberation and play. The invitation to participate in the European Literaturefestival Cologne-Kalk was an opportunity to reflect on the crossing of boundaries between the arts of literature and dance and to give an expression to the freedom of body and movement, an act which can be understood as a reference to literature.In the production shown here, individualists meet. Initially they ignore each other, then casually they notice each other and come together. Increasingly, they act more uniformly and transform words into into images and movement.The intergenerational dance theater of the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences in Krefeld and Mönchengladbach was founded in 2022 as part of a research project by Prof. Dr. Felicitas Lowinski.
The project investigated the special features of intergenerational aesthetic educational processes using the example of dance theater.

Productions
“Mitten.in”, 2022 in Krefeld, Fabrik Heeder
“Entropy”, 2024 in Mönchengladbach, Carl Brandts Haus central library

The people behind and around the eLk write, read and perform themselves. We also want to show the audience our own artistic work of the German voices, presenters and the other people who are there for you and the eLk.

Esther Harmat and Jonas Linnebank will be moderating.

Finally, we have to say Ciao, Tschüss and Hasta la próxima and bid you farewell until eLk 07 - 2025.