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6:00 PM-9:00 PM
Filling in the Blanks: Temye Tesfu
Reading Group|Free participation after registration
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ACUD Studio, Berlin
- Language English, German (language will be announced before each session)
- Price free entrance
- Part of series: Filling in the Blanks
In this reading group we will gather once a month to discuss crucial texts that underlie the thing we call the current discourse. We will try a close reading of some of the fundamental texts of (post-)colonial, abolitionist, Queer and Feminist studies. Are we sure we mean the same thing when we use the same words, or does it help to come together and share our different readings and interpretations, filling in the blanks, the gaps in our understanding.
Each session will be accompanied by an artist, activist or researcher who will present a text, a poem, or a chapter in a book, set their own focus and give impulses to the discussion.Together, we shape tangible terms from our shared reading and discussion experiences—a New Glossary for the journey ahead.
In the fourth session, we are joined by Wwriter and spoken word poet Temye Tesfu.
The texts will be part of a reader that will be accessible to everyone who signs up to the reading group - reading the text is not necessary for taking part in the group, though it is encouraged to do it, so we have a mutual basis on which we can discuss.
Free Registration
Please register via email at: im-exil@goethe.de with the subject line: "Registration Reading Group"
Registration deadline: the respective week before each Reading Group session.
Spots are allocated on a first come, first served basis.
Curated and moderated by: Ameena Quansah and Tanasgol Sabbagh
With contributions from: Bafta Sarbo, Josephine Apraku, Meret Weber, Temye Tesfu, and Abdalrahman Alqalaq and more.
Please note: Photos may be taken during the event for documentation purposes. If you do not wish to appear in any images, please let the organizers know in advance.
Authors
The reading group is curated and moderated by Ameena Quansah and Tanasgol Sabbagh.
Temye Tesfu writes poetry and other texts for both stage and page. He leads creative writing workshops and develops, curates, and hosts various literary performance formats — including the spoken word festival Tage für Literarisches Sprechen, which took place in 2024 in collaboration with the Academy of Spoken Word in Stuttgart. On behalf of the Goethe-Institut, he has worked and performed in cities including Prague, Ramallah, Tashkent, and Turin. In 2017, he founded parallelgesellschaft — a post-German artists’ collective and namesake reading-stage show that blends literature, concert, stand-up, and political commentary. His literary work has been published in various anthologies and online platforms. His journalistic writing has appeared in outlets such as taz, analyse & kritik, and neues deutschland.
In 2021, he was awarded the Berlin Senate's Literature Work Grant.
Tanasgol Sabbagh writes. She presents her literary works through performances, audio pieces, video installations, and musical collaborations. She is a co-founder of the artist collective parallelgesellschaft as well as the event series of the same name, which explores political art beyond the dominant German cultural discourse. Together with poet Josefine Berkholz, she founded and edits the auditory literary magazine Stoff aus Luft, which is published as a podcast—a format that foregrounds spoken and sound-based literature. Tanasgol lives in Berlin.
Ameena Quansah moves between skin and paper, and critical thought. She studies African Studies, tattoos at a FLINTA* studio, runs two book clubs in Berlin, and writes publicly—about books, identity, and everything in between—on @ubahnleserin and Substack. As the founder of the BIPOC Book Space, she creates spaces for gathering, resilience, and dialogue. Raised in Ghana, she moves between continents in the worlds of art and literature.
