Based on materials from the Mohammed Amin Foundation Nairobi and Potsdam Film Archives Berlin, Anguezomo proposes critical observations on relations between somatic body, recovery and archival research as tools to create systems/networks of empowerment notably on Black womens’ narratives. With this work comes challenges of accessibility to archive spaces that claim to be accessible to all; those who are entitled to tell the stories and edit which ones can remain. Looking into those archives, the session examines stories and the conflict of archival practice as tools to remember, erase and edit. In numerous archive materials we meet our own protagonists missing in those stories, that of Rasha the Black Dove and Emine Zehra Zinzer. Our protagonists counter-response through ghostly fabulations and testimony whose images surfaced in UFA Film Studios, Bauhaus and Die Brücke Painters’ movement.

How do those edits come at the intersections of Black womens’ anti-apartheid struggle and liberation? The impact of the erasure of these stories must be seen as a possibility to re-invent colonial fictions as ways of rest, self-care and self-preservation.

Through collective exercises on somatic practice, the workshop invites collective performing rituals by retracing these archival erasures as forms for possible fabulations and para-fictions, revolt and interactions through creative somatic care. Looking at ways in which memory can be performed, the impact of the sonic on transformational justice, the significance of Black feminist empowerment in storytelling, and the transformational functions of archival practice in education and mental health. The session gives a deeper insight into Mba Bikoro’s personal practice and meditations with exercises in performing the gaps and ancestral healing.

Access Information

The workshop is a three-hour empowerment experience with 2 breaks of 15min each. It is exclusively for people who position themselves as BIPoC (an abbreviation for Black, Indigenous and People of Color) and prioritizing FLINTA* (Female, Lesbian, Intersex, Trans and Agender*). The workshop will be held in English spoken language. Questions and clarifications can also be asked in French. There will be visual material in form of a projection of videos (in English) and pictures, also including sound. The visual material will be about Black woman empowerment and will not include verbal descriptions of images or be translated into DGS/ISL. Otherwise, the workshop is open to people of different physical abilities and/or disabilities. The event will take place in Studio 4 of the Uferstudios, where the SichtBar2018 library will also be located throughout the Feminist School. It is a step-free and wheelchair accessible studio. The accessible toilet is located in the same foyer and can be reached via the interior in about 7m. For detailed directions click ↪ here. There will be regular ventilation during all breaks and the hygiene measures in force at the time will be observed, it will be respected if people want to wear masks but isn’t mandatory. There will be mats, blankets, chairs and beanbags available.  If you have any questions about accessibility, please contact Juan Harcha by email at: harcha@tanzfabrik-berlin.de or by phone at: 030-200 592 70.

Information about us and our awareness guidelines can be found ↪  here.