Colourful cushions had already been laid on the steps of the Beton-Theater in the theatre courtyard of the Freie Universität to welcome the readers on to the stage there. The rows of seats were empty, however, as the events on the programme had been transferred at short notice to the park so that guests at the anniversary of the Institute for Philosophy and Humanities could bask in the last rays of sunshine between bouquets of flowers and balloons.
Alongside other exciting presentations such as that by Erika Fischer-Lichte, one of the world’s leading theoreticians of theatre studies, our poets Robina Karimi, Rojin Namer, Ali Alzaeem and Matin Hosseini were able to read their texts. Their subjects were memories of summers past, of member of their families and friends, love, loneliness and genuine secrets.
Denis Abrahams, co-founder of the Lettrétage house of literature and an established member of the ensemble of readers at the internationales literaturfestival berlin, read out the translations. We would like to thank him for his sensitive interpretation of the texts, and Carolin Hehn for inviting us.