Jumoke Adeyanju
Making Music to feel at Home - Negotiations in Diaspora and crossing (language) borders. Panel // Spoken Word // Hip Hop
Address Werkstatt der Kulturen
Wissmannstraße 32
What does (at) "home" mean? Is it spacial, temporal, or about language(s)? How does diaspora relate to migration, to being a "stranger," to the feeling of "belonging"? Which are our narratives, and how do they relate to our identities and understandings of self? How do the war in Syria and other conflicts relate to this? How do they affect the individual? Does gender play a role in the idea of "home"? What is the relationship between a so-called "migrant community" in Berlin and those who are forced to seek refuge now? Which tensions and which possibilities for solidarity emerge? What is the role of music, spoken word, and Hip Hop in all of this? In the panel we want to discuss how music, especially Hip Hop, can be a way to address socio-political and cultural topics. Can Hip Hop offer social analysis of the world we live in? The hierarchies between various systems of knowledge will be called into question. The panel will be followed by Spoken Word performances by Moona Moon, Barbra Breeze Anderson, Jumoke Adeyanju and a concert by Chyno! These are the wonderful panelists and artists, calling various places and languages their "base":
Chyno (Nasser Shorbaji) is an independent Syrian-Filipino Rapper and producer based in Beirut. In July 2015 he released his solo album "Making Music to Feel at Home". The tracks talks about growing up with complex identities and multiple backgrounds. During the two year process of producing the album and the war raging on in Syria, Chyno found identity in "not fitting in" a feeling that many Syrians share with him, turning the search for individuality into a feeling and way of belonging. The album also tackles issues of dealing with feeling of guilt many carry for leaving and trying to make a better life, somewhere "else", in more peaceful countries, where life is more peaceful. Chyno has rapped mostly in Arabic with his band Fareeq El Atrash, while is solo project is mainly in English.
Moona Moon (Mona El Omari) is a spoken word artist, writer, performer and political activist. She hails from Kufr Assad/Ruhrpott and is currently based in Berlin. She is pursuing a PhD in Sociology focussing on arabic Hip Hop and Spoken Word Poetry. Moona Moon performs in English mainly. Listen here to her powerful poems.
Jumoke Adeyanju was raised by Yorùbá parents in Aachen, Germany. She is actively engaged in the Hip Hop scene as a dancer and cultural advocate in Zanzibar and beyond. Based in Berlin, she organizes and hosts her event POETRY MEETS Hip Hop. She writes and performs her poems in German, English, Kiswahili and Yorùbá at various occasions.
Barbra Breeze Anderson is a performance poet, designer and project coordinator from Zimbabwe. She entered the spoken word scene in 2009 and since then has performed at various events and festivals in Zimbabwe and southern Africa. Her poems are descriptive and lyrical narratives of discovery: free verses that explore spiritual 'thought passages'. As a storyteller she defines recurring themes in her poetry as those of self-discovery and awakening; all forming part of a journey that explores the subtleness of existence.
The event is supported by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Berlin and Reflect e.V.