1 January–31 December 2021
Grant Holders
Those who are discriminated against are constantly confronted with projections onto their bodies by the dominant society. Developing agency and positive self-rapport is especially hard in a society based on discrimination. Emancipatory decolonial practices and movements aim to (re)connect mind and body. Music can be a means of gaining new energy. It has always been part of political movements and resistance, for example at demonstrations in the form of chanted slogans, live concerts, or musical accompaniment. This helps to embody political objectives and content, creating a sense of connection.
Melanie Erzuah uses choral singing as a way of rendering freedom and connectedness physically tangible. This is based on exercises that offer support, allowing people to gain confidence in their own bodies and perceptions, and to raise their voice. Melanie Erzuah’s work within this outreach scholarship will focus on experiences of opening and emancipation, allowing participants to develop a positive rapport with their own bodies and to connect with their own voice and its embodiment:
1) individuality and collectivity in political resistance
2) opening for individual and collective creative and transformative processes
Contemporary art is often criticised for being inaccessible. The context is frequently felt to be overly academic, and access to/understanding of contemporary art is often not described as an obstacle. To what extent can group voice and singing exercises be a physical preparation for the experience of art, a way of developing a position of one’s own in relation to works of art? How can they help to resolve resignation to not understanding and the accompanying inner blockages? In a series of workshops, Melanie Erzuah will train participants to perceive their physical responses and to establish a positive self-rapport in order to open themselves up to individual and collective creative and transformative processes.
Melanie Erzuah has experience in musical education and educational training, working from a Black queer perspective on emancipatory body practices, on questions of identity politics, and on how bodies are influenced by multiple discrimination. With enthusiasm for choral singing, Melanie Erzuah uses music to strengthen links to other people and to one’s own body as a path to healing. This year’s nGbK outreach scholarship will test concepts that aim to strengthen people’s access to their own creative energy and apply this energy to artistic, political and transformative processes, in turn allowing participants to strengthen each other as individuals and as a collective.
Events:
Saturday, 27 February 2021, 15:00-18:00 (de)
Online workshop 1 – Spross
Die Pandemie führt uns aktuell vor Augen, wie Informationen, politische Schutzmaßnahmen und Hilfsangebote nicht alle erreichen und wie in unserer Gesellschaft Ausschlüsse gefestigt werden. Auch zuvor war vielen klar: Diskriminierungen schaffen Notsituationen. Positive Veränderungen, die wir bisher erleben, sind vor allem der Arbeit von Aktivist_innen zu verdanken, die aber häufig auch selbst betroffen sind. Das gleichzeitige Erleben von Diskriminierung und ein Dagegen-organisieren wird dann zur Mehrfachbelastung. Wo in unserem Körper finden wir die Kraft zur politischen Transformation? Und wie können wir sie nutzen, um gemeinsame Visionen und Träume zu entwickeln und in die Wirklichkeit bringen?
Diese Fragen erkundet Melanie Erzuah zusammen mit den Teilnehmer_innen im Online-Workshop mittels Körper-, Atem- und Gesangsübungen, Visualisierungen und gemeinsamer Reflektion.
Es wird nicht voreinander gesungen und es braucht keine gesangliche Vorerfahrung. Die Übungen können im Sitzen und im Stehen, durchgeführt werden. Die Workshop-sprache ist deutsche Lautsprache.
Saturday, 3 April 2021, 15:00-18:00 (de)
Online workshop 2 - Setzling
Die Pandemie führt uns aktuell vor Augen, wie Informationen, politische Schutzmaßnahmen und Hilfsangebote nicht alle erreichen und wie in unserer Gesellschaft Ausschlüsse gefestigt werden. Auch zuvor war vielen klar: Diskriminierungen schaffen Notsituationen. Positive Veränderungen, die wir bisher erleben, sind vor allem der Arbeit von Aktivist_innen zu verdanken, die aber häufig auch selbst betroffen sind. Das gleichzeitige Erleben von Diskriminierung und ein Dagegen-organisieren wird dann zur Mehrfachbelastung. Wo in unserem Körper finden wir die Kraft zur politischen Transformation? Und wie können wir sie nutzen, um gemeinsame Visionen und Träume zu entwickeln und in die Wirklichkeit bringen?
Diese Fragen erkundet Melanie Erzuah zusammen mit den Teilnehmer_innen im Online-Workshop mittels Körper-, Atem- und Gesangsübungen, Visualisierungen und gemeinsamer Reflektion.
Es wird nicht voreinander gesungen und es braucht keine gesangliche Vorerfahrung. Die Übungen können im Sitzen und im Stehen, durchgeführt werden. Die Workshop-sprache ist deutsche Lautsprache.
Saturday, 5 June 2021, 15:00-18:00 (en)
Online workshop 3 - Seedling
The pandemic is currently showing us how information, protective measures and offers of assistance do not reach everyone, and how forms of exclusion are consolidated in our society. Even before this, many people knew that discrimination creates adversity. Any positive changes that have taken place to date must be credited above all to the work of activists, many of whom are also among those affected. In such cases, experiencing discrimination and organizing against it at the same time can become a double burden.
This third workshop in the programme will examine questions about where we can generate power for transformation in our bodies, and how we can use this energy to nourish ourselves individually and collectively.
Using body, breathing and singing exercises, visualizations and group reflection, participants will learn to open up and explore spaces in the body as a way of generating energy for political struggles. This time, the focus is on the hips and the pelvic floor. This part of the body plays a special role in singing, as it is here that the energy needed to produce and hold different types of note is generated.
Saturday, 2 October 2021, 16:00-19:00 (de)
Online workshop 4 - Knospe – Aus dem Herzen schaffen
»Denn wir wurden sozialisiert, unsere Ängste mehr zu respektieren als unsere Bedürfnisse nach Ausdruck und Selbstbestimmung. Und während wir schweigend auf den letzten Luxus der Furchtlosigkeit warten, wird uns das Gewicht dieses Schweigens ersticken.«
- Audre Lorde
Im vierten Workshop des Vermittlungsprogramms werden Fragen erforscht, wie kreative und transformative Prozesse aus dem Herzen heraus erschaffen und gestaltet werden können. Mittels Körper- und Atemübungen, sowie Gesang, Visualisierungen und gemeinsamer Reflexion werden Räume im Körper erfühlt und genutzt, um einen ›Flow‹ zu erleben und eigene Kraftquellen kennenzulernen. Der Fokus liegt dabei auf dem Herzraum und dem Zwerchfell. Diese Bereiche spielen beim Singen eine besondere Rolle, da hier Impulse und Töne gesteuert werden, die den individuellen Ausdruck beim Singen transportieren.
Saturday, 16 October 2021, 16:00-19:00 (en)
Online workshop 5 - Blossoming Roots
This fifth workshop will explore connecting to our roots and allowing them to blossom through the body into the crown and how to harness that energy for individual and collective transformation. Using body, breathing and singing exercises, visualizations and group reflection, participants will explore the metaphor of the body as a tree: the roots as the basis for strength, the trunk as the connector for moving nourishment and inspiration and the crown as branches of expression and connection to the sky that spring from kernels of power.
No one will be asked to sing in front of others and no previous experience of singing is required. The workshop will be conducted in spoken English. The exercises can be performed sitting or standing.
Friday, 10 December 2021, 10:00
Podcast Release »Kerne der Kraft« [Kernels of Energy]
»I find the erotic such a kernel within myself. When released from its intense and constrained pellet, it flows through and colors life with a kind of energy that heightens and sensitizes and strengthens all my experience.« Audre Lorde
This podcast is a meditation on the links between empowerment, spirituality, energy work, community care, and creativity. Looking back, it offers insights into the ideas that gave rise to what happened at the 2021 mediation scholarship. How can we use our bodies to generate a force for political and creative transformation? And how can we use this force to develop shared visions and dreams, and to transfer them to reality?
»I’d like to invite you to listen to this podcast not only with your ears, but with your whole body. Prepare your favorite drink, in your favorite glass or cup. Then sit down in your favorite spot, cover yourself with your favorite blanket, or place your favorite cushion where your body would like to be cushioned. Then take a deep breath, take a sip of your drink, and press play. Enjoy!«