Protestgespräch »Unless Home is the Mouth of a Shark«

Listen to the audio recording of the protest talk »Unless Home is the Mouth of a Shark« here!

Kampnagel opens its season with a renewed commitment to the century of migration, recognizing human mobility as the 'normal condition' of our time. The opening panel, moderated by journalist Omid Rezaee, is both a live podcast recording with song interludes and an opportunity for audience members to join in the discussion as well as network afterwards. We look forward to a lively and controversial conversation.

What's it about?

A lot has changed since the 2015 statement «We can do it,« and the debate around migration has been scrambled and reshaped many times. Today, eight years later, we are witnesses to a tightening of asylum law by the EU, which stands in stark contrast to the «welcome culture« of 2015, and which is sneaking through the German public almost unnoticed. Amnesia instead of responsibility. Real and drastic experiences are marginalized and dismissed. While Ukrainian refugees enjoy EU-wide protection status, refugees from countries that rarely receive asylum (e.g. Turkey, Serbia, Tunisia) are to be held in detention-like conditions at the border with immediate effect.

Moderated by journalist Omid Rezaee (freelance writer for Die Welt, taz, Tagesspiegel, among others), Asmara (activist, community organizer, Asmaras World), Dr. Lucy Mayblin (sociologist with focus on migration, asylum and colonialism, awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize), Larry Macaulay (Founder/Editor in Chief- Refugee Radio Network) and Ilka Quirling (lawyer with focus on asylum law LGBTOIA+ refugees) will inform about and discuss current pressing issues: How are the reforms to be interpreted? What is supposed to change? Which historical continuities do they reveal? How can existing local struggles for the right to stay be connected after this «outsourcing« to the external borders? How can solidarity be shaped and lived in this situation?

Together we want to reflect and debate how we can remain capable of action and resistance. We want to remember, listen, relearn, inquire, and share old and new activist practice.

The conversation will be primarily in spoken English. Audience questions in German are possible.

*from the poem "Home" by Warsan Shire