Workshop description

The Chaos reading is an associative, fragmentary, and playful learning method of fictioning approaches to different kinds of knowledge(s) in text. Throughout associating and crisscrossing snippets from selected texts, the participants form cross-references to reimagine relations and stretch boundaries of how we are taught to read and write, and to experiment with chaos as a method of learning, attempting to undo linear and fixed hierarchies of knowledge. The selection of books, and materials from the temporary library has a special emphasis on perspectives from Afro-Asian-Caribbean diasporic voices.

The temporary library assembles Afro-Asian-Caribbean diasporan writings dealing with questions of belonging, loss, grief, and healing. In cross-referencing these voices, we experiment with different imaginaries and connections to non-linear ways of learning, while simultaneously reflecting on the invisible mechanisms that lie behind the way we are taught to tell our stories.

The Chaos reading is an open format for studying together as a multidisciplinary practice that combines texts from diasporan poetry, fiction, and theory to explore potential new entryways for locating knowledge within ourselves and collectively. What could it mean to embrace more chaotic, non-linear methods of learning together? How does Western knowledge production attempt to control our imagination, and how do we learn?

The temporary library includes texts by Kazim Ali, Audre Lorde, Sarah Ahmed, Keorapetse Kgositsile, Serubiri Moses, Akwaeke Emezi, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Sobonfu Somé, Édouard Glissant, Saïda Menebhi, bell hooks, Nouria Belhoul and Trinh T. Minh-Ha.

The Chaos Reading focuses on fiction, theory, and poetry by anti-colonial, feminist, and queer voices. Throughout the texts, investigations of effects by the violence of racial capitalism will be present. The Chaos Reading is a creative writing and reading workshop that will be facilitated in English and German.

No prior knowledge in writing is required. All interested QTI*BIPoC are welcome to join the workshop.

The workshop will have a longer lunch break in between.

Graphic design by Nathalie Heider.

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Bio

​​Samira Ghoualmia (*1990, she/her) is a cultural coordinator, writer, educator, and artistic researcher based between Berlin and Tunis. In her practice, she moves through non-linear forms of knowledge transmission experimenting with cross-references, challenging hegemonic and colonial hierarchies of knowledge production. Her research traces in multisensory forms of diasporic storytelling and methodologies of learning.

Accessibility Information

The workshop will take place on the second floor. The room can be reached by stairs or elevator. The building is accessible for wheelchair users. The rooms on each floor are all level, and there are accessible all-gender restrooms. There are also tactile floor elements and guide strips. The stair railings and elevator buttons are labeled in Braille. There are no switches for opening the doors. The event will be held in spoken German and English.

Please take a Covid test beforehand and stay at home if you have cold symptoms. There will be an air purifier in the room.