“We walk in the shadows in giants,” I tell my friend Laila, before realizing that this isn’t the phrase. It’s ‘stand on the shoulders of giants,’ isn’t it? I don’t think they noticed. Either way, the accidental adaptation is a fitting one for what we’ve just witnessed—a multi-media spoken word event in which the two
CategoryArt in Berlin
The Pierre Boulez Saal: Tracing a History
I walked into the Pierre Boulez Saal on a chilly Saturday night, I found my music class among the crowd and exclaimed to them, “Everything around here looks so new!” I’d just walked over from the U2 stop at Hausvogteiplatz and was surprised by the tall, modern buildings, smooth concrete, and shops that seemed to
Remembering in Place: Reflections on Berlin’s Memorials
I have often wondered if places hold traces of the past beyond the past’s material inscription. If the pain or joy of a family who has moved out of a house still resides there in some ineffable way. If tragedy stays somewhere in those walls. If memories float through the hallways. Or maybe, the presence
The Familiar Photo: Reflections on Friedlander’s ‘Pomona, New York’
A photographer ventures into the woods to capture the façade of a sweet little white house. The house belongs to a friend, and it’s his first visit and he’s immediately attracted to its postcard geometry, and how, in some strange way, the posture confirms something about his friend’s character. Turning back to the house, his
Dancing on Stages, Dancing with Friends
My friends have long made fun of me for how I dance. I have long lanky arms that swing when I move. I have a strange habit of shifting my elbows in robotic motions to the rhythm of a song. My legs stay firm while my upper body moves. I look like some odd machination.
Music in Berlin
35 eager (vaccinated, tested) concertgoers snuggled into the cozy interior of FRAMED Berlin, a cultural salon and gallery in the Friedrichshain district. Berlin’s long summer was coming to a close and couples nestled in corners, wine in hand, and closed their eyes to focus on the sparkled sounds of Spanish guitar and a soaring voice
Berlin 2021 Lockdown Diaries: A Podcast on Culture from the Couch
A project devised by Ramona Mosse and funded by OSUN’s Experimental Humanities Collaborative Network Works by Miksa Gáspár, María José Sarmiento Isaac, Naama Simon, Shreya Shukla, and Evelyn Weiss. What happens to Berlin culture during a year of lockdowns? In this community-facing initiative, Professor Ramona Mosse and a group of students went out to explore what the emerging digital
The Elements of Performance: Why are We So Tired of The On-screen World?
The place is Berlin, and the time, the week before spring break. Midterms are almost over! My last assignment to complete before break is the performance project my partner and I prepared for our Intro to Performance Studies course, taught by the awesome Prof. Dr. Nina Tecklenburg. As its title suggests, the first half of