Lettrétage

As part of the Barrio | Bairro Berlin literature festival, which takes place from October 10 to 17, there will be five events in the Lettrétage. The festival aims to make the Latin American literary scene in Berlin more visible and improve networking between its players. The events will focus on Berlin as a central location for Latin American writing outside Latin America and will be held in German & Spanish or German & Portuguese with simultaneous translation. Videos and sound interventions by various artists will also be shown during the talks and readings.

For the second interview in our series we have spoken with author J. A. Menéndez-Conde about his view on the Latin American literary scene in Berlin, his desicion to write short stories and the developement of his writing.

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Back from the summer break, we are still in the holiday mood. In September, we become travellers and explorers. While we deal with this topic more directly in our German events, we take a more metaphorical and musical journey in the english ones.

On Friday the 13th of September at 8.00 pm, we will linger in the world of creative possibilities. In Convergence IV, the Kross Collective presents a multi-sensory performance and explores the connections between sound, text and visuals. There will be four shorter and two longer performances. Christian Forte, Ginés Olivares, Felipe Sáez Riquelme, Elina-M. Pantsyr, Ana Gagulidze, Mire, Julia Witas and Days Like Television will present their works. Tom Bresemann will be the moderator.

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The Dead Ladies Show happens every two months or so and celebrates ladies who were fabulous while they were alive, in English and in German.

Each time, the two co-hosts, Katy Derbyshire and Florian Duijsens, invite two special guests to share their love of particular ladies of yore in the form of lively presentations showcasing these people’s lives, works, and achievements. Covering all walks of life – from ancient mathematicians to silent-movie stars to record-breaking athletes – the Dead Ladies Show is all about women or non-binary people who achieved great things against all odds. The live footage from the shows is used as material for the monthly feminist history podcast, so deceased-dames fans can also listen in or catch up from wherever they may be.

Previously hosted in our immediate neighbourhood at ACUD, the Dead Ladies Shows now take place at Lettrétage. To mark the occasion, we spoke to one of the hosts, Katy Derbyshire, about the format of her shows, the selection of people featured and what has changed recently.

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This July sees the launch of Paul Brody’s LOVE&DEMOCRACY, a sound installation in four parts that will accompany Lettrétage until the end of the year.

Paul Brody has lived in Seattle, Boston, California and Berlin, to name just a few. As a sound artist, composer and trumpeter, he works regularly on projects at the Théâtre de Vidy in Lausanne, the Münchner Kammerspiele, the Berliner Schaubühne, the MC93 Paris, the New York Harlem Opera and the Wiener Burgtheater, among others – and now also at Lettrétage.

“The theme of Love&Democracy stems from the necessity of our times. They are a silent duo. Without a love of place and our neighbors, we cannot truly have a democracy, and without treating each other fairly – democratically – there can be no real love”, Paul Brody explains about his project.

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April at Lettrétage is all about numbers. In Redfern Jon Barret’s novel PROUD PINK SKY, which will be presented on April 1, Berlin has grown to 24 million inhabitants. It’s the first gay nation of the world, divided into neighborhoods for each sexual orientation. Cissie loves Berlin’s towering high rises and chaotic multiculturalism, yet she’s never left her heterosexual district — not until she discovers a walled-off slum of perpetual twilight, home to the city’s forbidden trans residents.

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What our English-language events have in common this month is love: a strange love that lasts beyond the grave, a love-hate relationship with a city, and the first love of a girl who becomes a woman. When love and the grave are mentioned in the same breath, the gothic novel is not far away. Heather Parry’s ORPHEUS BUIDLS A GIRL draws on this genre to unfold a tale of deranged obsession. Joseph Roth did not like Berlin. At the same time, it can be said that the years he spent in the German capital were one of the most successful periods of his career. WHAT WE SEE: JOSEPH ROTH AND OUR BERLIN features a discussion of Roth, his life and his feuilletons, as well as readings of texts inspired by him. THE FIRST WOMAN by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi tells a cross-generational story about growing up, first love, being and becoming a woman, and the search for one’s own roots. A story between traditional and modern feminisms against the backdrop of Idi Amin’s violent regime in Uganda in the 1970s.

Unfortunately, UNVEILING IRAN: VOICES FROM AFAR on 21 March has to be cancelled. We will inform you as soon as possible about a possible alternative date.

February at Lettrétage lets our English-speaking audience forget the cold and bitterness of the Berlin winter: You cannot only enjoy a Mediterranean flare and lots of magic but also an atmosphere of amazing vibrations, good times, inherent hope and love manifestations. But before anyone becomes overstimulated, the program brings you down to earth with an evening dedicated to the meaning of ‘humble’. Sounds like over the top? See for yourself by attending either 8¾# Poetic Hafla, Babylon – The Event of Many Tongues and Cultures – A Valentine’s Special Edition or Humble.