Phew! The book tour was a whirlwind. Thanks to collaborators Sanchita Basu, Jen Petzen, Fee Grabow, Lisa Monz, Jaya Chakravarti, Tine, Nadija Samour, Zoya Honarmand and Farzada for carrying this collective show on the road from London to Barcelona to Berlin and around Germany.
For those who are feeling they missed out, feel free to check out our workshop (in English) at the Fusion Festival or our interviews on German free radio. Photos from the events are also on our Instagram, and you can buy shirts and original linocut prints of the “What really makes us safe?” image here. Books, of course, can be ordered from edition assemblage here.
Thanks also to all the new friends we made in the UK and around Germany, whose work is now highlighted in our links bar. We met fine folks organizing against the new Polizeiaufgabengesetze (police laws) in München und Münster and were inspired by the broad and sometimes prickly coalitions they have built to mobilize against this repressive legislation.
Thanks to q[lit]*clgn for their support and good humor as we came to Cologne, where the sexual violence of New Years 2015 and the racial profiling of New Years 2016 weighed on our hearts and we were reminded that this was an original impetus for the “What really makes us safe?” project.
At home in Berlin, we got to host Sisters Uncut members from the UK for a sing-along in the garden and Zoya und Farzadas Workshop on shame blew our collective minds.
We also got to share space in Frankfurt with Knastkritik_ffm, Copwatch Frankfurt, Kafä Kollektiv, & KNAS[] for a day of workshops on abolition and transformative justice. Thanks to Copwatch & Kafä for your workshop on racial profiling, knowing our rights, and how to intervene in our everyday lives. Particularly those of us not targeted by police violence because of race or class or otherwise, it’s time to take community accountability and get involved when we see shit going down.
There are a few further tour dates in Greifswald at QUBE on November 2 and in Bilbao on Nov. 30th at IPES, Institute for the Promotion of Social Studies. Then we’ll be in hibernation until next summer. See you then!
with love,
Melanie from the Kollektiv