Follow the tree flowers, only the tree flowers - Finissage

In the organizer's words:

"Follow the tree flowers, only the tree flowers.
As they go, you go. You will be where you want to be when they are gone"
- Toni Morrison, Beloved (1987)

As part of the exhibition Forgive Us Our Trespasses / Vergib uns unsere Schuld, a long evening of talks, performances, poetry and music will provide answers to recurring questions about flight and the creation of places of refuge for queer bodies. These are continually repressed in various African geographies, for example through legislation and social control measures against LGBTQI+ communities in Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Cameroon and Senegal, among others. The active displacement of queer people from the social spheres to which they belong is increasingly becoming the norm. Despite this, they also manage to create spaces of resistance, everyday life and possible futures that serve as much-needed refuges of joy, love and ecstasy.

The title of the evening is borrowed from Toni Morrison's seminal novel Beloved . The protagonist's quest for freedom and liberation actively focuses on themes of resilience and hope, which she sees represented in the petals of trees. The event aims to bring queer people, community organizers and activists into focus, whose practices are characterized by an irrepressible vitality despite the oppression they have experienced.

As a means of imagining and realizing everyday political ways of life, acts of collective power gathering and alliance building are brought into focus; through the empathetic works of artists such as Va-Bene Elikem-Fiatsi, filmmakers Ayo Lawson, Uyaiedu Ikpe-Etim and Papa De, poets and storytellers hn. lyonga, Logan February, Kwame Boateng, Damien Kwadjo Kwasie and Jean Marie Moïse, DJ mokeyanju and the Berlin-based collective of community organizers Activist Choreographies of Care. The evening will begin with a keynote speech by Alice Nkom, a renowned lawyer and defender of LGBTQI+ rights on the African continent. This will be followed by contributions centered around the kind of radical joy that Morrison's tree blossoms represent.

As part of the Forgive Us Our Trespasses / Forgive Us Our Trespasses and Homes

Program

Sat., 7.12.2024 17:00
Tales of Love and Self-discovery
Screenings

Sat., 7.12.2024 18:00
An Ongoing Fight for LGBTQIA+ Rights in Cameroon-History, Challenges, and Perspectives
Keynote by Alice Nkom

Sat., 7.12.2024 18:30
Conversation on Trespassing, Fugitivity, and Joy-making
With DeLovie Kwagala Aka Papa De, Ayo Lawson & Uyaiedu Ikpe-Etim, Jean Marie Moïse, moderated by Mohamed Amjahid

Sat., 7.12.2024 20:30
Sermon on the Mount
Organized by Va-Bene Elikem-Fiatsi and Activist Choreographies of Care

Sat., 7.12.2024 23:00
mokeyanju
DJ set

Sun., 8.12.2024 17:00
Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi: Performance as Life
Screening followed by a discussion between Giulia Casalini and Va-Bene Elikasem Fiatsi