Queer and Trans Archives: Safeguarding Histories, Designing Futures’ is the launch event of the ‘Perverse Collections: Building Europe’s Queer and Trans Archives’ project, which runs from June 2023 to May 2025. ‘Perverse Collections’ involves researchers based in the Netherlands, Spain and the UK, and is funded by JPICH. The project is led by Glyn Davis (University of St Andrews), working alongside Principal Investigators Eliza Steinbock (University of Maastricht) and Juan Antonio Suárez (University of Murcia). The central question the project asks is: how can a critical understanding of the evolution of Europe’s LGBTQ+ archives be used by scholars, queer and trans community members, and cultural heritage workers to forge sustainable tactics for protecting LGBTQ+ history? ‘Perverse Collections’ aims to transform practices of collecting and protecting queer and trans materials in ways which will have widespread implications for the cultural heritage sector as a whole.
Join us on 20 June 2023 for a roundtable discussion that will begin to explore these questions – and others. Taking part in the conversation will be three leading archivists and scholars from across Europe and Scandinavia: Elahe Haschemi Yekani, Tone Hellesund, and Wigbertson Julian Isenia. They will come together to share their experiences of working with queer and trans archival collections, including creating LGBTQ+ archives and deciding where to house them. The speakers will also unpack the ways in which queer and trans materials have value as portals into broader political concerns, revealing stories of public and private practices, of migration and exile, of community debate and conflict. Ultimately, the discussion will aim to identify potential ways in which queer and trans archives, across Europe and beyond, can be sustained for posterity.
Location: Bishopsgate Bishopsgate London United Kingdom
Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2023 15:00 – 16:30 BST
More information here.
Thao Ho’s film that they co-directed celebrates its premiere as part of the program “Wir müssen reden“ / “We need to talk” as part of Deutschland-Fokus Labor der Gegenwart curated by Sarnt Utamachote. The screening is followed by a Q&A where Thao Ho talks about aesthetics of representation, the tensions of intergenerational storytelling, and collective filmmaking. More information here.
“We need to talk” is a phrase, an invitation to a moment of confrontation between two sides. But “we” could also mean a collective that wants to raise its voice. The short films in this program show the diversity of migration stories from the Asian continent to Germany. At the same time, they contradict the clear objective lines of narration that characterize colonial storytelling. Rather, the works are cinematic explorations of the intimacy of gendered storytelling (the tension between mother and father) and of an auto-ethnographic approach: of how the filmmakers position themselves “in” the story they tell.
Elahe Haschemi Yekani will give a lecture on “Enslavement in British Memorial Culture: Between Nostalgia and Toppled Monuments” as part of the Lecture Series “Jenseits der Geschlechtergrenzen“ (AG Queer Studies, Universität Hamburg)
ONLINE, May 31, 7.15 pm
More information and registration here.
Anne Potjans was one of four literary critics speaking on the subject of recent Black German literature at Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen. Curated by: Sharon Dodua Ottoo und Patricia Eckermann.
Thao Ho will participate in a panel on queer visibility and history on the internet and the relationship, as well as possible collaborations between (physical) queer Berlin archives and wikipedia.
More information here: link
Wikimedia Deutschland e. V.
Tempelhofer Ufer 23–24
10963 Berlin
Elahe Haschemi Yekani will give a lecture on “Aufklärung als Kunst: Der Dokumentarfilm „18 Minuten Zivilcourage“ und künstlerische Praktiken der Bezeugung rassistischer Gewalt” as part of this year’s Salon Sophie Charlotte 2023 of the Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
Saturday, May 13, 7 pm (free enry)
Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften
Akademiegebäude am Gendarmenmarkt
Markgrafenstraße 38, 10117 Berlin
More information here.
The Department of Art History as Cultural History of Prof. Dr. Bénédicte Savoy at Technische Universität Berlin will be closing off the first season of KuK-Tuesdays: Dislocation with an incredible panel: we are honored to welcome Jihan El-Tahri (digital), Prof. Dr. Elahe Haschemi Yekani and Bansoa Sigam to the session on the 7th of March 6 pm c.t. at Hybrid Lab, TU/UdK. Moderated by Jeanne-Ange Wagne, our last session will be examining “Dislocation and Womanhood”.
More information here.
Panel Discussion with Liz Rosenfeld, GodXXX Noirphiles and Evan Ifekoya, moderated by Elahe Haschemi Yekani + performances by House of Living Colors.
Location: Aquarium/Südblock, Skalitzer Str. 6, 10999 Berlin.
Time: 5 pm – 3 am
Part of the Utopia/Dystopia event series curated by Todd & Zoya for C/O Berlin as part of the exhibition Queerness in Photography.
The book, The Wall Between Us – (Be)Longing, Repair and Its Politics of Affects, features a chapter by Anja Sunhyun Michaelsen. The event for the launch is held at SAVVY Contemporary Berlin and begins at 12:30.
Anne Potjans was interviewed for this Washington Post article on the Berlin subway stop ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ and why some Black Germans want change. The Berliner Zeitung also reported on this piece in German.
