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Hier ein Brief von Fuasi Abdul-Khaliq an die Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa bzw. Herrn Dr. Lederer und Herrn Rieder bezüglich der Schließung der WdK und der aktuellen Situation. Vielen Dank, Fuasi Abdul-Khaliq für Deinen Einsatz.
### nehmt Euch kurz die Zeit zum Lesen ### fragt selbst nach ### holen wir uns die WdK zurück!!! Denn sie fehlt uns, mehr denn je!
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Dear Tobias Rieder and Klaus Lederer,
This letter is an open letter in response to the letter that you wrote to me in August 2019. To the question I asked you, “Why are you closing down the WDK”, you wrote me back, “I don’ t know where your information come from, but I can assure you: The WdK will NOT be closed!.
Well, I have to say now that I cannot trust your so-called assurances. What you told me turned out not to become a reality because not only has the WdK in fact been closed down, this new facility that has taken it’s place is now called OYOUN, not Werkstatt Der Kulturen, as you had previously claimed would not change. You also wrote, “there might be a change in the artistic direction, but this venue will continue to offer a broad range of transcultural arts and culture involving many different communities from all over the city”.
Well, again there has been no examples of this happening at all since it was taken over on January 1, 2020. In fact it looks like this group, which was put in place by Klaus Lederer to replace the then current WdK leadership, is experiencing a melt-down by the most recent development of three of the founding members having walked away from their commitment to the community and left the institution in limbo over conflicts in their mission statement that they proposed to the Senat.
To the Berlin community, it looks like the focus on artistic and cultural diversity, transcultural exchange and inclusion that the WDK had provided for Berlin for the last three decades has been lost on the current leaders of this institution, so-called Oyoun, and their petty differences.
As a member of the WDK community from its beginnings in 1993 until now, I fail to see anything positive coming from this hostile take-over.
I think you and Mr. Lederer do not understand that Black people and People of Color are not overly represented in Berlin. On the contrary, we need the Senatsverwaltung für Kultur to open more trans-cultural spaces, not less like you have done by instigating the closure of the WDK.
The different migrant and diaspora communities (especially the communities from the global south) in Berlin and their artistic representatives and ambassadors need more visibility in Berlin.
The WDK, as it was under the leadership of Ms. Ebéné, was the only place in the city in which Berlin based musicians and other artists from all over the world could present international traditional and contemporary art forms to their diverse audiences.
The goal at the WDK was promoting peace and diversity, respect for human rights and human dignity, eradicating discrimination, promoting freedom of expression, fostering gender equality, all which I fail to see coming from this new leadership.
This Oyoun does not seem to have this concept of our inclusion in their program and does not aim to satisfy the needs of all the minority communities as the WDK had for the last three decades. This very clearly announces to all of us that the Senat and Klaus Lederer in particular no longer wants to support the communities of color living in Berlin but seems to be satisfied with the fact that there is no broader representation of minorities and no cultural and artistic diversity in Berlin which your political party (Linke) claims to be about.
As a jazz artist I understand that jazz has a quality to unite people across barriers which the WDK was providing for Berlin. As the department responsible for culture in Berlin, you should have noticed that in today’s Berlin jazz scene there are many different instruments integrated in the
genre: the Oud, Sitar, European classical Harp, Tabla, Shakuhachi, Kanun and other traditional and classical instruments from other lands that have become part of the repertoire played by Berlin musicians from all over the world.
This development of the jazz scene is mainly due to the influence of innovative concert series such as the “Homage Session”, "Arab Song Jam“, „Black History Month“, „Jazz, Jam & Food“, „International Jazz Day“, „Black Music Renaissance“, „Naked Jazz“, „World Wide Music“… and
countless lectures, master classes and films of and for the diverse cultural communities from around the world which frequented the WdK because of the focus on representation and inclusion that was being practice at this institution.
On that note: It is worth mentioning that in 2018/2019 over 120 different musicians were part of the very first jazz ensemble of a Berlin cultural institution, the WDK-world-jazz-ensemble, “Little Big Band”. Over the past three decades, no other institution in this city has ever managed to pay musicians for rehearsals while providing them with a rehearsal space and a professional
management for their “Proben”. But then, unlike opera and other forms of classical European music, jazz, especially what we have come to know as ”World Jazz“, does not have a single subsidized house or stage in Berlin.
Considering the latest international political developments this is terribly unfortunate and wrong because dangerous political times calls for clear artistic responses. Or, as Ms. Ebéné always put it: “Nazis don’t swing” (“Nazis können kein‘ Jazz!). The fact that neither the senator for culture, Klaus Lederer, nor any of his staff, ever saw the need
to support the city’s only trans-cultural institution that made it it’s "Leitmotif" to celebrate cultural differences by a simple act like attending one of its world jazz concerts or any other presentation of non-European music is deeply disappointing and disturbing.
I have always been of the opinion that jazz, being the most open art form that there is, could comment on a lot of today’s ills in the most elegant of fashions: Jazz has always provided a platform for freedom of expression and empowerment which was what was being practiced at the
WdK for the last decade but now has been silenced by the Senat and those who do not understand what this institution meant to the Berlin community. Jazz has helped to break down barriers, creating opportunities for understanding and tolerance. It has the power to reduce
tension between individuals, communities and groups. Jazz not just encourages artists to innovate, improvise, but also include the old and new together. Not just encouraging, but
stimulating in nature too, it can promote cultural dialogue and empowers people from weakersocieties. Jazz has the ability to build a more just and inclusive society. Isn’t this what the Senat really wants?
It seems that the hurried and rush decision to fix a working institution that was not broke in the first place should be revisited and opened up for discussion to have the Werkstatt Der Kulturen re-established and be well funded from the Senat as they were so inclined to do for the new
owners.
It is time that Klaus Lederer and his party “do the right thing” and give us, the community, back
the WdK and everything it stood for.
Fuasi Abdul-Khaliq
Curator, Saxophonist, Composer