“For a long time, I thought it hurt me that I didn’t fit in with the ideals. Then I understood that the norms of this violent society were not made for me. They are the ones that hurt me. But how much of the normative violence have I already internalized? And how much work do I have to do to resist it?” Josephine Papke
Maya struggles with the duality of her desires: she wants to be respected, appreciated and loved. But sometimes also coveted. For the person she is. But that feels impossible. Because in this racist society, the Black female body becomes a projection surface for hypersexualized patriarchal fantasies. What can be done if she doesn’t want to give in to it and yet is so influenced by it? Does she only resist when she embodies the opposite of all the ideals? And when is so-called self-empowerment just a pretext to win the competitive race for attention and recognition?
“I keep on running. Even if I don’t have a specific goal in mind. The goal used to be A Seat at the Table. A seat at the table. Day after day, I collected the broken pieces that people threw away by the roadside. The scraps of furniture that were left over: the wooden slats lying among thousands of shavings. They must have once been valuable antique wooden chairs standing at shiny silver tables. For so long I thought I could recreate them. Rebuild them. Today I wonder why I wasted so much energy on it for so long. These pieces are still with me now and maybe still will be, but now I’m trying to build a wall out of them. A wall that breaks boundaries. I want to go to the barricades. I want to resist the violence that I experience here every day.” Josephine Papke
Josephine Papke studied theater and film studies and works as an author, cultural journalist, editor, poet, dramaturge and performer. Her art often deals with the intersections of queerness, BIPoC identities and pop culture.
WITH Josephine Papke | TALK MODERATION Sarah Youssef | READING Sabrina Ceesay, Sophia Hankings-Evans DIRECTOR Shari Asha Crosson
Vom Begehren begehrt zu werden is a piece commissioned by africologneFESTIVAL for Josephine Papke on the theme of violence and resistance.
SUPPORTED BY the German Translators’ Fund as part of the Neustart Kultur program of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the Kunststiftung NRW.
