Announcement Bochum

ANNOUNCEMENT

From fairy tales to storytelling about flight, exodus and expulsion – Save the date!

Specially Unknown partner from Bochum (Germany), the LWL Museum – The Hannover Colliery, is organizing a storytelling cultural event in the weekend of April 6-7. It will entail:

• Presentation of the Associations of migrants involved in the Specially Unknown project, and their new joint platform and collaboration through music from the Congolese, Turkish, Syrian and Guinean communities on Saturday 6 April (11:00 – 15:00) in the city center, at the Dr.-Ruer-Platz
• Music, talk and poems, by various artists on Sunday 7 April (11:00 – 14:00), in the LWL Industrial Museum – Hannover Colliery

The basic theme of this weekend, inspired by questions which arose from the stories of people coming from four different countries Turkey, Guinea, Congo and Syria, is: what do these people have in common among themselves and how can their culture and their experiences be connected with local people?

During the interviews with the refugees the fieldworkers and interviewees both discovered that storytelling and fairy tales are the connecting points: they are both very important and meaningful, not only in the refugees’ own cultures and family lives, but also in Germany, where collecting and telling fairy tales had a great importance during the forming of the nation and state. After a period of silence in the 60s and 70s, fairy tales appeared again in the popular culture in Germany. However, there is a crack, a hole in storytelling in the families in Germany, that has to do with history and personal involvement during World War II. Nowadays refugee families also experience a crack, because of their recent war experiences.

That’s why the storytelling is the focus of this cultural weekend. The main line is: from fairy tales to storytelling about flight, exodus and expulsion as a connecting point between all people. Please note that storytelling here doesn’t mean only presenting fragments of the interviews, but is taken in a broader sense: telling stories and fairy tales for listeners of all ages and origins, by refugees and other people trained to do it in an artistic/creative way.

Another important thing about this event is that it will be a “live” testimony of another spin-off of the Specially Unknown project: a joint platform of the refugee communities in Bochum. Specially Unknown brought them together, and at this event they are going to celebrate their collaboration on stage!