Under the title "The Wall Must Go! On Old and New Borders," we dedicated ourselves to walls, borders, and barriers of all kinds. Whether physical or psychological, our goal was to overcome walls together, and we succeeded.
The first barriers were broken down through getting to know each other on the first evening. Introduction to the topic With regard to the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, it provided an initial impetus for discussion over the next 5 days.
The issue could be addressed the following day after a Keynote The topics will be explored in greater depth in four groups. The main focus areas of Topic groups were:
- „"Boundless Happiness? Germany 30 Years After the Fall of the Wall"“
- „Bridges and Borders – Where is Europe headed?“
- „Exclusion and participation – On the way to an inclusive society?”
- „"Between online participation and hate speech – opportunities and limits of the digital society"“
During the subsequent Fishbowl discussion, Moderated by Saide Leraillé, the event, themed "The Wall is Gone?!", featured a discussion with guests Cicek Bacik (spokesperson for Sons and Daughters of Guest Workers), Saraya Gomis (Anti-Discrimination Officer for the State of Berlin), Thembi Wolf (freelance journalist), and Daniel Kubiak (research associate at Humboldt University). The discussion explored personal experiences with walls and borders and the possibility of overcoming them. Participants took the opportunity to contribute their perspectives to the discussion from designated open spaces and shared questions they had previously raised in thematic groups. In the evening, the group went together to the Theater Strahl to see the play: "„#BerlinBerlin – of walls and people“, which impressively demonstrated the effects of the division of Germany by the wall and offered a fascinating look back at German-German history.
The participants of the Pentecost Academy carried the topics further into the Barcamp Day, where they could exchange ideas in self-designed sessions. In the evening, those who still had enough energy went to the Carnival of Cultures where the diversity of cultures was celebrated and boundaries were overcome through dance.
The program on the methods day offered practical tips for overcoming barriers. Participants were able to... Method groups to tackle their personal boundary reduction alone or in a group:
- „inclusive project management“,
- „Parkour: Physically overcoming walls“,
- „Theatre of the Oppressed“,
- „Accessible moderation“,
- „Photographic Memories: I'm creating a picture“
- „Graffiti: East-West Gallery“
Some results from the groups, as well as individual talents, were later revealed in the pA Open Stage. These included, for example, self-written texts from the Barcamp session "Writing Workshop" and a piece from the methods group "Theatre of the Oppressed," which dealt with barriers and different possibilities for participation. In the graffiti workshop, we finally got to work on our self-built wall, which mysteriously appeared in different places every morning. (You can see the result and who is responsible for the wall theft here:) http://www.pfingstakademie.de/blog/wordpress/2019/06/die-warheit-ueber-die-mauer/)
On the last day of the Pentecost Academy, the "Documentary in the Blog" group presented their results and impressions from the past few days to great applause; these can be found here. www.pfingstakademie.de. The 19th Pentecost Academy ended with a reflection session and a shared lunch, and all participants set off again to break down walls in their respective environments.
We thank all speakers, guests and participants for their participation and exciting contributions and look forward to the next Pentecost Academy 2020!.
Special thanks also go to the staff and actors of the STRAHL Theatre, who extended the play by an extra day for us, thus enabling us to experience an impressive theatre production.
All information about the Pentecost Academy 2019 can be found here: http://www.pfingstakademie.de/