In the chaos of current world events, poetry is often one of the last remaining anchors— a voice of consolation or simply a means of keeping focus. On the historic date of the expansion of the war in Ukraine, poets with different mother tongues read from their works—against despair, in solidarity, and for a togetherness that cannot be divided into national camps. They are united through their verse.

What role does the political situation in Eastern Europe play for the entire European region and what impact does it have on art and literature? Yevgenia Belorusets and Olga Shparaga, two key players in the Ukrainian and Belarusian cultural scene, discuss these questions together with the author Katharina Warda, who is investigating the history of minorities and right-wing violence in the GDR.

In the discussion series Theatre of Reconciliation, Max Czollek encounters people who are exploring questions of memory. How do societies remember? What does the much-lauded German Erinnerungskultur—culture of remembrance—have to do with the question of belonging? What does remembrance mean for the German, European, and international present?

For Bwa Kayiman, Asante develops and enacts the work with the contribution and collaboration of local womxn of colour, with whom they interlink a plurality of personal narratives and manifestos related to the legacies of slavery and colonialism. Together they form a chorus response to Ama Ata Aidoo’s 1992 poem ‘As Always a Painful Declaration of Independence’. The voices come together in a live performance, centring the role of womxn of colour in world history as a collective act of learning and healing.