Decolonize The Mind – Poetry Performance and Art Exhibition (Berlin)

Lets connect! :)

July 11th, two Berlin-based artists hosted an event in Café Karanfil around the topic in the title. The decolonization of the mind – or imagination. 

I heard about this event first from Tammy’s Instagram/Mae (artist social media  platform in Berlin ;)). We had talked about bit, but never actually met in person. She posted saying she’d be hosting an event for poets and artists. 

Instructions for poets were: to submit 1 poem (at least). Selected ones, would be presented to the artists for them to make a piece out of the poem which resonated the most to them. 

I thought I’d give it a shot and let the poem come to me, while wondering about what this topic meant to me… decolonizing the mind… the imagination…

I sat down (and walked, and sang, and danced, and felt, and jumped) with the ideas I was having. It took some time, but less than I expected, and writing them just felt so fluid and natural. The poems came, and I let my hand translate themselves.

I submitted 3 poems to SAWA Creatives (the collective), hoping they’d would use one of them. 

This is all in January/February.

She reached back to me to tell me two artists had found a lot of inspiration in my poems… which I immediately got curious and began to wonder who was it and what have they got in mind!?

Fast forward to the end of June, I was reached back by SAWA saying they’d be hosting the event in Berlin on two weeks. Would I be there? Of course I would! And so I went! And met so many talented and beautiful people in this space. Tammy! I got to meet Tammy and Lara (both, the organizers) here for the first time in person as well!

A couple of poets were there, all of them with a unique and magnificent voice and vision around the same topic. Artists brought the poems to life with incredible visual and immersive pieces.

It was a wonderful and unique experience to get to speak up on something I’ve written. PLUS! To my surprise, they actually used the 3 poems I had written (which I was not expecting, but was glad to know so), and the art made from these poems is simply so accurate (in my opinion :)) that I felt like shedding a tear from knowing both of them were inspired from something I wrote down one. How come something I’ve written has brought different people to visual something so wholesome? 🥹🥹 *cries in piscis*

Basically, realizing how much inspiration words bring, how they provide a perspective to be molded into each person’s understanding around them. What is it that they read between the lines? What is it that captures and motivated them to create such pieces?

+ Plus, if you know me, you know Berlin is a place I hold dearly in my heart. It’s a place in which every time I come back, it feels like a big hug and a reminder that among all of the chaos and crumbling around me, everything is going to be okay. A place in which, regardless of them all, I feel like a kid for a moment. A big city with many misunderstood kids inside of it. I can walk in the streets dancing, singing, doing funny faces in the u-bahn, make a handstand in the outside of a kebab, and I am an absolute normal being in the massive jungle of rebellion. And it’s okay :).

Its a place where things get dark and it can be though and intense, but it has so much beauty and inspiration within its cracks. Its actually, cracks you open more than once and more than you think you can handle (specially with Finanzamt and Anmeldung gesuchen 😅), but as an exchange, you get to experience many scenes which seem to be taken out of a weird dream (?) – which I’m honestly here for XD. And out of all the cracks, flowers grow. When you know the less, you’ve grown a whole garden of and from yourself.

Anyway, I won’t rant about my love for this place longer… I’ll only mention two more things:

1) I have this theory that many of the misunderstood people/kids in their home country or town, move to Berlin, and find themselves a lot of other misunderstood kids x)!! #community #senseofbelonging #dancing #expression #hihihihihahahah

2) It’s special that the first time I got to present a work of mine was in this city :). It will forever be this, and many other things to me.

I want to share with you my poems I presented and the artwork made by the  artists. Hopefully, you find something in them as well :).

Animation and Digital Art by: Marah Zada. Amman, Jordan based artist.  Instagram: @zmarahz

Drawings and illustrations by: Lea Ebeling. Berlin, Germany based artist. Instagram: @b.lackpencil

*Videos about the event in general (filmed with my digital camera… so don’t expect the best quality of your life, neither of audio, but that’s the whole point huh? the viiiiiibbbbeeesssss 😉 ), via my personal instagram @milebatiz 😉 ;).

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Title of the poem: puntururuntuntun

Tintintintintin tin tin tin

Says the voice.

Tiri tiri tiri pim pam pum

And my walls fall.

It’s the quest of the conquering which invades.

The fear of unfolding against the unknown.

Undressing myself from me.

What hides behind these shadows?

Who are you? creature like voice…

Who are you whispering to? Where do you come from?

You whisper so loud!

The dwell between trying to listen and avoiding its message is what few have jumped over.

There seems to be all types of flowers and color colonies on the other side.

How come I cannot go through?

It’s you!

Imaginary constraint. 

That keeps me from stepping to the side where ideas flow and thoughts run fast than the hands.

It’s the childhood home.

It’s the school professor.

It’s the devil in the street. 

It’s the angel in the bar.

The toe tipping 

Avoiding the dripping

Of paint falling.

Right in front of me.

Yet none of that is real.

I’ve made it up.

I’ve believed the resonating sounds

Bouncing off the walls 

I’ve made.

It’s all me.

I can’t see I can’t see I can’t see.

Darkness and voids empty of love is all there is.

I can only listen.

I listen to your crumbling voice.

Eating up my thoughts.

Krack krack krack kra-

Ache is gone

And I’ve become the murderer.

I’ve conquered the biggest traitor in my plot.

They shall come back when I’m disarmed.

Everyone inside me knows that.

The ideas tremble in fear for their return.

Meanwhile, they’ll stand steady until their expiration date.

The day they’ll know what annihilation is to them. 

They’ll ask for me to open my ears and fall into their claws again.

They’ll blind me up and ask me to repeat the words 

“I don’t know how”

Over and over

Until they eat me up alive inside.

My eyes will sink and my hands will dry.

I’ll believe my creation is not enough and I’m not able.

And it will be until the season is over that I realize it was never me,

But the claws.

Silence is coming shhhhhhhhhh…

One must not let them know where the leaves crack and potions boil.

Tipiri pipi ti pi ri titiripitipi 

MyBk

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BallPoint

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything.

My pen comes and goes.

Not really…

Its ball is the only thing that goes rolling. 

I always have it, but it takes me a while to get a hold of it from time to time.

I guess life comes my way and I forget that writing is something that does me good and frees me a lot.

Allowing myself to freely feel the way I do, with no restraints, spending, and enjoying my time with me… I have been in a time where I have gone into my own cave and investigated myself.

Carved my own shell and have taken refuge inside of it. 

Mon petit cocon.

Open the eyes and the heart.

Without leaving my guard down. 

It doesn’t bother me lately.

Sometimes it hurts, of course; but enjoying it, I enjoy it.

I miss it when I leave it for a while, and I long to return to it.

I guess I’m one of those people who needs to get away from things from time to time on my own.

Not because they’ve hurt me, more because I’m in need of my own wants.

I need my pen.

MyBk

*I invite you to make zoom into the pictures to have a closer look into the drawings!!

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Anonymous .02

How to conquer and get over the voice of the one I don’t know?

This voice inside of me, has resided all of my life within the infinite borders of my imagination.

She loves to mess things around. 

She?

I cannot know.

I hope the voice inside of me is the voice of my lover in another life.

So I made it… I managed for it to be within me for the rest of all of the other eternities.

Might be my higher self constantly reaching out.

Would it be so mean to me tho?

Might have been living with my biggest enemy all of my life and I call myself to own it. 

No one knows it but me.

It’s so intimate and personal to know that. 

I cannot describe it to other people. 

How could I?

The voice is so recognizable and familiar… from what seems to be kilometers inside.

Echoes are so loud.

MyBk

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Once again, big big thanks to SAWA Creatives and Cafe Karanfil for this experience! 🙂 Hopefully, more to come ☺️!

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All the best for you always <3

Love and light sent your way, from my heart to yours.

Let me know what came to your mind in the comments : )

Curious to learn from your perspective as well, my dear.

XOXO,

MyBk