Description
Radical Empathy – Tools for Togetherness
Between Here and There with The Darvish
This month guest: The Darvish — performance artist & dancer | Between Here and There: Do Bodies Carry Homes?
What happens to our sense of belonging when we move between countries, languages, cultures and communities? And how do we meet each other when our experiences of home, migration and displacement especially with different contexts are radically different? How do migrant communities internalize and reproduce forms of policing within themselves?
This workshop approaches migration not only as a geographical or political experience, but as something that can be carried through the body. Through conversation, movement and playful exercises, we will explore belonging, cultural differences, assumptions and the ways our bodies learn to adapt, protect themselves, communicate and find connection in unfamiliar environments.
Drawing from The Darvish’s artistic practice and lived experience of migration, the workshop creates space for different perspectives without expecting participants to share personal or traumatic experiences. Instead, we will work with movement, listening and collective reflection as tools for encountering one another with curiosity and care.
About Radical Empathy
Radical Empathy – Tools for Togetherness builds on Radical Empathy – Queer Storytelling for Connection (2025) and further develops the format: from collective storytelling to collective practice. The workshop series strengthens queer solidarity in all its diversity and asks: How can we stay connected, especially when things get tough?
Hosted by Neo Seefried, the series combines collective storytelling with somatic, communicative, and creative tools to remain capable of acting in queer contexts when faced with conflicts, emotions, and differences—without avoiding or escalating them, but rather with greater clarity, care, and relational competence.
Each session has its own thematic focus (including grief & death, relationships, migration, HIV/AIDS, club culture & substances, trans/inter/non-binary) and is complemented by a guest who explores the respective topic in depth. At the center is the Resonance Circle: a space for shared stories, mindful listening, and resonance—empathy as a practice that we train together and carry into our daily lives.
neo seefried (*1995) is a freelance cultural mediator, curator, artist and author with a focus on queer realities, club culture and social participation. Living and working in Berlin, neo combines educational formats such as workshops, podcasts and exhibitions with an activist, intersectional practice. Neo studied Art Education (University of Leipzig) and Curatorial Studies (ZHdK) and has worked for the Schwules Museum, Schloss Biesdorf, Kunstmuseum Basel, Universität der Künste Berlin, TU Berlin, HFBK Hamburg, Haus für Poesie Berlin, Tanzquartier Wien and independent art spaces such as Parat, Clubbüro, Baby Angel and Last Tango in Zurich.
The Darvish is a Berlin-based Syrian performance artist, dancer, choreographer and cultural worker exploring movement, gender, migration, belonging and the body as a carrier of memory. Since 2017, they have been a driving force in bringing the narratives of queer refugees into European political and artistic spaces. They curate Queens against Borders, a performance platform for queer, trans, refugee and migrant artists and communities. Their practice combines performance, storytelling and community building, alongside movement and belly dance workshops focused on empowerment and connection. Their work has been presented internationally, including at the Institut du monde arabe, Goethe-Institut and Pergamonmuseum.
With the support of the Senate Department for the Interior and Sport – Berlin State Commission against Violence, we have developed the program “Conflicts as a Starting Point – Resilience as a Community Experience.” The project opens respectful, dialogical spaces for queer people in Berlin. It makes differences visible, invites individuals to endure them, and creates opportunities to address them productively and creatively. The aim is to overcome social fragmentation within queer communities and to strengthen new forms of exchange, cohesion, and mutual participation.
General information
Participant: this workshop series is open to LGBTQIA+ people, with particular encouragement for those holding multiple marginalizations.
Language: Depending on the group’s needs, sessions will be held in German and/or English.
Cost: Free of charge, registration required.
