What became of the people who came to Germany in 2015 fleeing war? Many teenagers arrived alone back then and wrote at The Poetry Project about hope, mortal fear, strangeness, and longing. How do they see their old and their new home today?
On November 10, 2025, an unforgettable gala evening took place at the historic Max Liebermann House right by the Brandenburg Gate, featuring the poets of The Poetry Project and the renowned actor and singer Hanna Schygulla, supported by the Sparkassen Foundation. Ten years after 2015, the poets shared serious, self-ironic, forward- and backward-looking, moving, and critical texts about their transformation in the search for home.
Accompanied by pianist Felix Raffel, Hanna Schygulla sang songs about foreignness and longing, and then spoke with host Shelly Kupferberg about her own experience of flight, about parallels with today’s newcomers from war zones, and closed by sharing a few life lessons with us.
In the audience were more than 100 representatives from Berlin’s journalism, funding, and cultural sectors. We were overjoyed by the support for our project, which makes our continued work for social dialogue possible.
You can now donate here to support the work of The Poetry Project.
Our heartfelt thanks go to the Sparkassen Foundation, which made this evening possible.
