Reimagining Democracy @Kiosk

What it's all about

The Theodor Wonja Michael Library, the first black library in NRW, invites you to 'Reimagining Democracy'.

Why you have to go

Based on the work of Zwoisy Mears-Clarke (choreographer and community organizer), artist and performer Virginnia Ogechi Krämer shows in the performative reading WACHE the importance of storytelling in creating the democratic future we dream of. Author and journalist Alice Hasters will read from her non-fiction book 'Identity Crisis', shedding light on the influence of identity and identity politics on democratic capitalist systems.

Pssst!

Both events will focus on the powerful impact of narratives on democracy. Come along!

WACHE is the prelude to a multi-layered narrative thread that wanders between times, spaces and perspectives. Characters and their lives come to the fore, while their stories unfold between margins, notions of modernity and unpredictable performative openings. Their existence depends on them being passed on and retold each time - changeable, alive, resistant.

In “Namenlose Wache”, a story by Zwoisy, a myth is created around the figure of Wache. In Wache's world, the entire society lives on a huge ship - built from the wood of old slave ships. In this swaying cosmos, kinship, community and the unknown become ever more deeply intertwined.

“Pink”, written by Ogechi, springs from Zwoisy's story - as a translation of a dream of a 3D installation in which toxic masses, a collection of the in-between and soft bushes are intertwined. This narrative describes movements of memory and displacement that intertwine in spiraling reflections on afro hair and Polly Pocket.