Description
You Weren’t There!! Intergenerational Conflict on AIDS Memory
Radical Empathy with Neo Seefried und Pascale Espinosa
Guest this month: Pascale Espinosa — artist based in Berlin
Have you ever felt torn between claiming AIDS as part of your queer history — and knowing you weren’t there?
What happens when a generation inherits the anger, the images, and the solidarity of a crisis — but not the loss? When someone who survived it is in the same room, and the grief is not equally shared?
In this session, Pascale Espinosa invites us to explore intergenerational conflict around AIDS memory — looking at the gap between remembering and carrying, between solidarity and feeling spoken over. Together we’ll look at how these contradictions show up in our relationships and communities — and practice being more honest about them.
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) ist freischaffende Kulturvermittler*in, Kuratorin, Künstler und Autor mit Schwerpunkt auf queere Lebensrealitäten, Clubkultur und gesellschaftliche Teilhabe. In Berlin lebend und tätig, verbindet neo Bildungsformate wie Workshops, Podcasts und Ausstellungen mit einer aktivistischen, intersektionalen Praxis. Neo studierte Kunstpädagogik (Universität Leipzig) und Curatorial Studies (ZHdK) und arbeitete u.a. für das Schwule Museum, Schloss Biesdorf, Kunstmuseum Basel, Universität der Künste Berlin, TU Berlin, HFBK Hamburg, Haus für Poesie Berlin, Tanzquartier Wien sowie unabhängige Kunsträume wie Parat, Clubbüro, Baby Angel und Last Tango in Zürich.
Pascale Espinosa’s work investigates situations in and outside of public spaces, exploring the histories of places and the circumstances of possible encounters. In recent years, her work has focused on reflecting on historical violence in her home country and the violence of being a non-binary person. Through performances and actions in the streets, she creates memory exercises that make visible realities that are usually left untold — and carries them to other geographical contexts.
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 event with registration
