For the first week of June 2017, I (Talya) was invited to Hamburg with Theatre De Welt to take part in Access Points a side workshop series facilitated by geheimagentur. I was in the company of five fantastic humans who were also brought to Hamburg via International Theatre Institute and it was extraordinary.
Each of us participated in a different workshop with the intention of making the port of Hamburg accessible to the public.
My workshop Afrikan Terminal comprised a group of refugee African migrants, local and international artists and businessmen whose task was to create a new Afrika terminal (the giant warehouse used by the festival until a few years back was the original hall used as an import space from Africa - with its own accompanied colonial history).
Afrikan Terminal formed a company with a logo, mission statement and shares distributed and an action in August: to export two 30 feet containers of unused electrical goods from Hamburg to Gambia. The AT's longer vision is to become a space (both physical and virtual) for recent migrants from Africa to resource legal, educational and cultural skills. And for the wider public to shift their perception, acknowledge their colonial history and become a model within Europe. So. Inspiring.
