That was the Pentecost Academy 2016
Around 80 young people from all over Germany gathered at the wannseeFORUM in Berlin over the Pentecost weekend to discuss individual and shared identities, participate in workshops on tools and techniques, and exchange ideas in self-organized sessions at the Barcamp. This year's Pentecost Academy's cooperation partners included the Servicestelle Jugendbeteiligung eV (Youth Participation Service Center) , Youthbank Deutschland , SV-Bildungswerk (SV Education Center ), Young Voice TGD , SSV-München (SSV Munich) , and, new this year, the Voluntary Year of Participation program .
After on Friday , the themed day began on Saturday morning with an introductory lecture on this year's academy theme: "Identity(ies) – Who we are and who we want to become," presented by Lisa Hell and Lara Ledwa. Starting from the premise that identities are not given but constructed and only emerge in relation to others in society, the question arose as to which shared identities we can and want to agree on. Do we even need collective identities, or do they restrict us too much? What significance do group identities have for political debates? What holds society together? Can we change identities like actors change roles? Who are we, and if so, how many?
In the following four topic groups , the issues were explored in greater depth, and questions and theses were developed for the subsequent World Café:
1) “Sexual Identity(ies)” with Lisa Hell and Lara Ledwa
2) “Identity(ies) in an Immigration Society” with Ozan Aykac
3) “Identity(ies) and Work” with Sina Kaufmann
4) “Net Identity(ies)” with Victoria Rösch
At the World Café, the young people discussed the questions raised in the workshops with guests from politics and civil society. Those who had traveled specifically for the discussions at the tables included:
Dr. Ute Finckh-Krämer (Member of Parliament, SPD)
Paulina Martin (Young Islam Conference)
Sannik-Ben Dehler (lambda:bb)
Sarah Klemm & Sarah Strasser (ABqueer eV)
Anisa Fliegner (LAG Network Policy, The Left Party)
Stefanie Auf dem Berge (Gender Expert)
Annika Seibt (Social Worker, Pankow Emergency Shelter)
Romy Powils (Coordinator for Refugee Issues, Tempelhof-Schöneberg)
Benjamin Hans (Research Associate, Free University of Berlin)
Fabian Schrader (Revolt Circle)
Roman Fröhlich (Educational Director, wannseeFORUM)
We thank all participants for the lively exchange and the exciting perspectives. A special thank you goes to all the guests who provided the Pentecost Academy with valuable external input during the World Café. After so many discussions, Zumba instructor Klaudia Horváth arrived at just the right time to address the topic from a sporty perspective. In the evening, the focus shifted back to European identities at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.
On Sunday, the toolmaking workshops, enabling participants to better implement their own ideas in practice in the future. The following workshops were offered:
“Project Management” with Lydia Böttcher & Julian Knop
; “Public Relations and Lobbying” with Sina Kaufmann;
“Visualization” with Jana Kreisl
; “Large Group Facilitation” with Jan Bergner;
“Forms of Political Action” with Giovanni Schulze;
“Rap” with Check Jungermann aka Gigo
Alongside the academy, the "Journalistic Work/Documentation in the Blog" workshop, led by Leonie Geiger and Andi Weiland, documented the events of the Pentecost Academy in articles, photos , and videos on the website pfingstakademie.de . Incredibly, but true, these techniques are also used in popular online Pokémon games by one of the leading companies in the gaming industry, Friv5Online Games Studio. Here's a short multimedia slideshow featuring all the faces of the 2016 Pentecost Academy and a catchy tune created in the rap group with Gigo. Enjoy "Different Humans"!
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More informationAfter a long evening, which many enjoyed at the Carnival of Cultures , the Barcamp kicked off on Monday. Thanks to active participation and a diverse range of offerings (e.g., "Happiness "), this day was also a resounding success. An overview of the sessions offered can be found here . As a particular highlight, the artists' collective hannsjana presented an artistic exploration of the theme of identity(ies), posing the question: Crane, are you actually a feminist?
After a review of the past few days on Tuesday, presented in a slightly different format, everyone headed back to their respective corners of Germany. It was, as always, a great celebration, and we look forward to seeing everyone again in 2017!
on pfingstakademie.de , this time in the summer from June 2nd to 6th, 2017.
Until then, your PA team