MONTHLY EVENT
Poetic Hafla
“The Poetic Hafla” came to life after I came back to Berlin from the Basel International Literature Festival in 2016 with the poets Max Czollek (Germany), Adi Keissar (Israel). Together with the painter Barack Moyal we created a multi lingual reading at the house of the famous Palestinian-Israeli actor Yousuf Sweid on the 5th of February, 2016. Then we were invited to create more readings on different bigger and smaller platforms around Berlin. Up to 200 people listened to the different readings and performances without translations. We didn’t want to translate it to German or to Hebrew or to English or to Arabic. We wanted the audience to feel the full scale of our foreignness. In that way the audience could learn about the multi cultures in Berlin, and be exposed to the variety of its colors. There was no common language or syntax, yet there was something like a common understanding.
Until 2022 we created in Poetic Hafla 26 events. Also we participated in festivals: Max Czollek’s festival “Radikale Jüdische Kulturtage” in the Maxim Gorki Theater, The “Berliner Bibliotheks Festival”, the Lettrétage - the literary house in Kreuzberg, Neue Nachbarn bar, the gallery - Circle-1 - Platform for Art & Culture, Cafe De Bagh, Klub DerRepublik, Yafo Restaurant, Media Kantine and more. Now we are part of the Lettretage house of performances.
In one of the successful events we did a Women´s Night. The energy was fire in the air. 13 different women artists gave multi-artistic performances in the Lettrétage - the literary house in Kreuzberg.
Pictures from the second Poetic Hafla by Boaz Arad photography. 18.3.2016.