On Monuments and Memorials

In this shared workshop, choreographer Faustin Linyekula and Düsseldorf activist group Together We Push will examine how the questions posed in his performance Statue of Loss may be transferred to the city of Düsseldorf. They will use their own wealth of experience, their artistic and biographic tools, in the process. Together We Push co-initiated a political debate about racism in Germany and Düsseldorf in 2020. To do this, they employed artistic means such as dance, poetry, and visual arts. Aiming to empower the Afro-German cultural scene in Düsseldorf, they make heard their voices as well as the voices of Düsseldorf youths through artistic and discursive exchange formats in the city’s cultural institutions.

Faustin Linyekula lives and works in Kisangani, in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Together with Opiyo Okach, he founded the Gàara Company, Kenia’s first contemporary dance group, in Nairobi in 1997. In 2001, and back in the Congo, he created a space for dance and visual theatre in Kinshasa, offering training programs as well as support for research and productions, in the form of the Studios Kabako. He deals with the effects of decades-long wars, terror, fear and the economic collapse of himself, his family and friends. Faustin Linyekula regularly teaches in Africa, Europe, and the United States.

Together We Push

Albert Werner studies Anglistics and American Studies at Heinrich Heine University. Therein, his research and interest focusses strongly on Afro-American literature and history as well as on anti-racist literature. As part of the Together We Push collective, he co-created events and authored texts.

Cate Lartey is a multimedia artist from Düsseldorf. With her background in design, she utilises it in a socially dedicated practice. She is interested in visual culture, Cultural Studies, Black Theory, post-colonialist and de-colonialist theories, and textile history. She conducts research on those topics in film, photography, and science.

Flockey Ocscor is an internationally in-demand dancer and choreographer who has won numerous awards, and who was the runner-up champion in the locking division at the Juste Debout World Finals twice. As a multi-faceted artist, he now produces short films and videos. On the invitation of the Rwandan Goethe Institute, Flockey created a performance comprising music, dance and storytelling together with West African artists* as part of the DigiTales across borders projects.

Kofie Boachie is a dancer and the promoter for the European Buck Session event. He leads the B2B “Back to Basics” youth company at tanzhaus nrw together with Rayboom and collaborated with Aki Taksse, Da Capo, Louis Sclavis and Mendora/Yui Kawaguchi and others. He offers dance classes in hip hop, krumping, and Afro styles globally, and set up Together We Push with several different other artists*.

Lisa Tracy Michalik is a cultural media scholar and co-founder of the “defrag - zine für feministisch_utopische Gedankenexperimente” (“defrag - zine for feminist_utopian thought experiments”). As a freelance author, she contributes to the taz and Missy Magazines as well as to other publications, works as a host and moderator, reading her texts on literary stages or, most recently, at the Schwarzes Haus of the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus. A short while ago, she authored the exhibition texts for Intimacy. New Queer Art from Berlin and Beyond at the Schwules Museum (Gay Museum) Berlin.