A Kiezstory by Roja Ghoreishi, Vanessa Macedo & Encounters media workshop. Berlin 2019 “My favorite season” is centered on gender issues. In order to challenge patriarchy, two people from different parts of the world share their experiences with each other. Kiezstories by ©Medienwerkstatt Encounters Berlin is a mosaic of its history, people,

Bogotrax is festival for electronic music and electronic art. Originally launched in 2003 as a small gathering of local and international creatives in Bogota, it has been held in February every year since then. Framed by a political demand for more social justice, the festival organises presentations, conferences, performances, workshops,

A live online storytelling workshop series with Pinar Özütemiz Storytelling is serious fun.  There are plenty of good stories in your library, and you could just enjoy reading them with or to your children. But don’t you want to do something more? In this workshop, you can explore how to

A guide for newcomers to Germany – particularly from Iran. By Azam Aghalouy Aghmiyouni When arriving in Germany, there are some small details that newcomers notice in everyday life, but which often remain unexplained. Being aware of these little things can make it easier to settle in. A project in

By Sarah Fichtner Illustration Ashbee Wong I was 10 years old when the wall came down. The wall that divided my hometown, creating the artificial “island” of West Berlin. I remember climbing on top of it on the 10th of November 1989 together with my parents, my best friend Susi

Story by Judith Albrecht (Germany) Video & Illustration by Mina Aghalouy (Iran) & Farshid Tavakoli (Iran)

In November 2016 I spent one short week in Berlin. I went to visit friends and explore Berlin’s realities. Building my traveling and city experiences in mostly southern European destination, the low sky and fairly empty spaces of Berlin stroke me. I wanted to grasp Berlin’s character. During my stay,

Run, Ahmed, run! You’re late for your German course. Six goddamn minutes until the next train? What will I tell this new teacher? I need to convince her I am the best student. She could now make an impression that I am just another lazy ‘migrant’. How do you say

  Illustrated by Faezeh Shakoori Dizaji

This collaborative article was written in spring 2016 and can thus be seen as a ‘record of encounters’ after the arrival of a large number of refugees in Berlin. What encounters do you recall? And how have they shaped ‘your’ Berlin? Sarah Fichtner in collaboration with Hussam Tumma Al-Saadi, Rawaa

A Kiezstory by Roja Ghoreishi, Vanessa Macedo & Encounters media workshop. Berlin 2019 “My favorite season” is centered on gender issues. In order to challenge patriarchy, two people from different parts of the world share their experiences with each other. Kiezstories by ©Medienwerkstatt Encounters Berlin is a mosaic of its history, people,

Bogotrax is festival for electronic music and electronic art. Originally launched in 2003 as a small gathering of local and international creatives in Bogota, it has been held in February every year since then. Framed by a political demand for more social justice, the festival organises presentations, conferences, performances, workshops,

A Kiezstory by Charlotte Bütterich, Brooj Alammari, Sophie Erman & Encounters media workshop. Berlin 2019 The short film “Moving Sound” is an experimental exploration of how sound is influencing our perception of the environment and the moving body. Kiezstories by ©Medienwerkstatt Encounters Berlin is a mosaic of its history, people,

A Kiezstory by Noemi Brachvogel & Encounters media workshop. Berlin 2019 On her way home, the filmmaker discovers a blue stripe in her neighborhood in Friedrichshain. She follows it and searches for its origin. It is a memorial to the former women’s prison on Barnimstrasse. “Der blaue Streifen” is a

A Kiezstory by Lou Rodrian & Encounters media workshop. Berlin 2019 Lou lives in Friedenau, has her favorite places and everyday life in her“Kiez”/neighborhood. On her way to school, she walks past a group of homeless men every day. One day she decides to speak to the group and get

The web series “Kiez stories”   The web series “Kiez stories” intends to show the polyphony of Berlin. Possibly you know someone you are fascinated by or whose destiny touched you. Or there might be a place in town that you would like to present. Maybe you feel like telling

What it means to flee from persecution, hunger, death and suffering is hard for many to imagine. That is why it is so important to tell and get told about it. The short film “mensch.human.” tries to approach these experiences between suffering, being and hoping in conversations. As one of

  Text: Sarah Fichtner & Canan Mona Pour-Norouz   “As we move, we move others; in observing others move – we are moved.” (Judith Lynne Hanna, anthropologist and author of “Dancing to Learn”)   Mona impressed me. There was something in the dance video and in the words that she

Safe Cities “The film “Safe Cities” deals with three people, who were unknown to each other and who came to Berlin because of different reasons, from different places and through different ways. The film shows one Turkish, one Mexican, one Syrian person engaging in a conversation that ponders on different

Sabrina Mainz This project was developed in the Encounters media workshop: “Women tell stories through photography” by Luiza Folegatti and Ina Schebler, 2019.

Astrid Zepezauer This project was developed in the Encounters media workshop: “Women tell stories through photography” by Luiza Folegatti and Ina Schebler, 2019.

by Ana Nenadovic Trampling they push through your doors, Violently they dismantle you piece by piece, Until you are left stripped, bare. Shamefully they avert their gaze, Contemplating your nakedness only from the corner of their eyes, Forgetting you slowly. But you, you do not forget, you try to, yet

“Tehran is a woman. One of those women who wasn´t lucky in marriage. Her husband didn´t have good manners. He didn´t pay alimony. He beat her up, made her age fast. She has many children, one malevolent, one aggressive and rebel. Tehran had many properties, but the fraudsters stole them

“Berlin is more a part of the world than a city” (Jean Paul (1763-1825), German poet, writer and educator) The German Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung/bpb) writes: “over 12 million German refugees, as well as 10 to 12 million ‘displaced persons‘, former forced labourers and foreign

Mehdi Bahmed Refugee integration, terror attacks and the rise of right-wing populism in Europe are subjects that delineate the fields of concern of this photo series. Here, I am especially concerned with the schism of the “Western” and the “Arab world”. This theme is closely connected to my own biography.

By Ina Schebler Everyone has a story. Everyone has a voice to tell it. And everyone has ears to hear or eyes to read it. Now it only needs people to listen to these voices, to see these faces and to change first their perspective and later the world. The

Voices on the Move Everyone has a story. Everyone has a voice to tell it. And everyone has ears to hear or eyes to read it. Now it only needs people to listen to these voices, to see these faces and to change first their perspective and later the world.

By Ina Schebler Everyone has a story. Everyone has a voice to tell it. And everyone has ears to hear or eyes to read it. Now it only needs people to listen to these voices, to see these faces and to change first their perspective and later the world.

By Ina Schebler Everyone has a story. Everyone has a voice to tell it. And everyone has ears to hear or eyes to read it. Now it only needs people to listen to these voices, to see these faces and to change first their perspective and later the world.

Joint public statement about the situation at the EU external borders by the Working Groups Migration and Public Anthropology of the German Anthropological Association (GAA) While the COVID-19 pandemic draws public and media attention to the emergence of yet another crisis, the critical situation of migrants confined to Greek refugee

By Amelie Bauer, Paul Gredig, Maysun Hijazi, Kesho-Tabitha Imadonmwinyi, Marie-Helen Jakob, Izabela Matulewicz, Jennifer Rosenberg, Arowotosuna Olaitan Smith, Elisabeth Winterer and Jodi Cheuk Tung Wong Norms of physical appearance are connected to processes of exclusion and recognition, especially within a city shaped as strongly by migration as Berlin. In this

By Amelie Bauer, Paul Gredig, Maysun Hijazi, Kesho-Tabitha Imadonmwinyi, Marie-Helen Jakob, Izabela Matulewicz, Jennifer Rosenberg, Arowotosuna Olaitan Smith, Elisabeth Winterer and Jodi Cheuk Tung Wong In this second part of our blog post series, we present several locations for beauty consumption which we visited as part of the seminar “Anthropology

By Amelie Bauer, Paul Gredig, Maysun Hijazi, Kesho-Tabitha Imadonmwinyi, Marie-Helen Jakob, Izabela Matulewicz, Jennifer Rosenberg, Arowotosuna Olaitan Smith, Elisabeth Winterer and Jodi Cheuk Tung Wong Preface: In the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, on 22 March the German Federal Chancellor and the Prime Minister closed all service providers in the

Try out some of the favorite recipes of those behind the article “Let’s talk about food” that you find in the current issue of our print magazine Encounter. Order your copy here: contact-english@encounter-blog.com Karen Spiced dark chocolate cream (vegan) This indulgent dark chocolate dessert with a hint of cardamom will make

Did you know that in Syria, ground blackseed with honey is used as a tonic for children? That Italians drink a tea made of bay leaves with lemon and honey against stomach aches?