What does community mean to you?

Community for me is an action, not just a noun. It requires intention and participation. It’s a space outside of mainstream society where you co-organise, solve problems, and work things out together in order to create spaces and experiences for the greater good. A lot of my work focuses on the gay and queer community, which is a big passion of mine – because community is where we come to learn about ourselves, where we feel safe to be ourselves, where we belong. But it takes work and participation. It comes with challenges, conflict, and responsibility. The strength of a community depends on the tools it develops to deal with conflict, and to grow and support each other. It’s a complex, life-enriching, rewarding part of my life that I choose to prioritise.

How do you find your community?

I always say: trust your gut. Trust your intuition. When I follow my instincts and pay attention to what I’m drawn to, I find myself meeting people, having experiences, going to places I really love. I don’t feel like I go looking for community – I feel like community finds me. It’s a feeling. I feel a connection to certain people and certain places. I feel I have something to offer, but also that they have something to offer my life. It’s all about instinct and intuition.

How do you celebrate yourself and your community?

I love to organise things and bring people together. That’s my way of celebrating my relationship to community, creating spaces where people feel a sense of belonging. It comes very naturally to me. I also think it’s important that people understand their own gifts and what they have the capacity to contribute. Some people have the time, energy, and experience to build and create things. For others, that’s not their role – and they support community simply by showing up and participating more softly. What’s really important is that everyone is welcome, without any expectation that you need to prove yourself to belong. It depends on your intentions, your capacity, and your personality – finding your place in the ecosystem of community.

What do you think makes this project unique?

Honestly, what makes this project unique is the sheer courage and bravery it took to start it in the first place. I was around back then and I saw what was happening behind the scenes – the amount of work, commitment, and risk involved. It felt like such a huge undertaking. There are very few people with the vision and courage to take a risk on something like this, let alone make it such a success over ten years. After all this time, seeing how it’s grown from where it started, I’m in complete awe – not just of the founders, but of all the people who hold this project up. It’s so rare for a major city like Berlin to have a space like this, because it’s such a complicated thing to sustain. Somehow they’ve done it, and that’s what makes it so special – the courage, the vision, the identity, the focus, and the ability to keep reaching more people.

Can you share a moment at we are village – or Stretch – that felt meaningful or stayed with you?

The very first Stretch festival. I was halfway through the one-year training and still living in London, already considering making big changes in my life. What I experienced at that first Stretch made up my mind to move to Berlin and start a yoga community for gay men. My life has never been the same since. I owe my career and everything I’m doing now to what I experienced through Stretch and Village. It’s had a profound impact on the direction and shape of my life, and I’m truly grateful.