The Turkish Federation Berlin-Brandenburg (TBB) held a seminar at the wannseeFORUM in December 2017 as part of their Voluntary Social Year project.
Previously, the young people had already conducted various seminars of the TBB at the Kaubstraße youth education center, some of whose workshop leaders also participated in the seminar at the wannseeFORUM.
The volunteers attended various artistic workshops throughout the week and concluded the seminar on Friday with a final presentation.
The main theme of the week was "Privileges and Power Differences." As early as Monday, during the introduction and the first sessions in the five workshops, it became clear that some of the participants already had ideas about power differences in society. They initially broke down this broad topic into various sub-areas such as origin, gender, health, citizenship, and wealth. Exchange and understanding were facilitated through methods such as the "Soundgame," the "Position Barometer," and the "Power Flower.".
The workshops “Creative Writing”, “Physical Theatre”, “Photography”, “Theatre of the Oppressed” and “Rap” involved intensive and personal work on the topics, resulting in an excellent presentation on Friday.
The group "Theatre of the Oppressed" worked on a flash mob throughout the week and performed it at various central locations in Berlin. The presentation included a recording of the flash mob and the reactions of passersby.
The group "Physical Theatre" performed a play depicting application situations for studies or jobs. In several scenes, privileges such as wealth, gender, a well-known family, and a German-sounding name were compared.
The "Creative Writing" group read aloud the texts they had created during the week. They had intensively explored the meaning of language as well as very personal privileges and experiences of power dynamics. Because the texts were very personal, emotional, and revealing, they were always read by someone other than the author.
The photo exhibition by the photography group also showed the various aspects of privilege – without words, only with black and white photographs. Mostly, faces were shown, people who had different privileges – and thus different opportunities to live, learn, and work.
Finally, the rap group performed, first with a live performance and then again with their music video. The group had a lot to say on the topic and expressed their viewpoints in the beat, lyrics, and also in the video.
All participants and visitors were impressed by the intensity with which the participants addressed the topic of "privileges and power differences" and the seriousness with which they designed their presentations.
We hope the participants gained valuable insights for their own lives and their work as FSJ volunteers and look forward to the next seminars in 2018, which will be organized jointly with the TBB.