Leyla Bektaș, „Wie meine Familie das Sprechen lernte“

"Keep what you've seen to yourself and don't talk about things you haven't seen," says an Alevi proverb. When 29-year-old Alev realizes that her family, members of the oppressed Alevi religious minority in Turkey, has long lived by this proverb, she wants to break the silence - and begins to ask questions. Why did her father migrate to Cologne as a left-wing activist student in the 1970s? What destroyed her uncle Cem's successful textile company in Istanbul? Alev, who lives in Cologne and has so far spent every summer with the Turkish part of her family, asks and collects the original sounds of her relatives, while at the same time the political situation in Turkey comes to a head after the failed coup attempt in 2016.

How my family learned to speak is sad and beautiful proof that the impossible can be described: The feelings and hurts of a family. Leyla Bektaș delves into the voids, the questions, the pain and the riddles. Her language is clear and, piece by piece, takes the necessary space for a story that needs to be told.

Registration is required at https://www.einschlingen.de/event/die-sprache-finden/.

The event is being held in collaboration with the Einschlingen educational center, mondo buchhandlung and the Historisches Museum Bielefeld.