Raquel Lima & Kiyémis - Poetry Lesung & Gespräch

In the organizer's words:

About the event:

Presented by Francesca Aiuti and the ERC Starting Grant Project "Afroeurope & Cyberspace" (University of Bremen)

About the artists:

Kiyémis is a writer, poet and Afro-feminist whose work explores joy as a political act and healing as a way of life. She was awarded the Régine Deforges Prize 2024 for her debut novel "Et, refleurir". She has also published the collection "À nos humanités révoltées", the anthology "Pour la joie" (Les Liens qui Libèrent) and the essay "Je suis votre pire cauchemar", which questions ideals of beauty and expectations of black women.
Kiyémis belongs to a generation of writers of African descent who combine body, memory and care through a voice that is both radical and radiant. In demand as a guest author at numerous cultural institutions in France and abroad - from the Palais de Tokyo to the Gaîté Lyrique, from the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels (Bozar) to Geneva - Kiyémis develops a transdisciplinary poetic work at the intersection of literature, black feminism and visual arts. She also leads writing workshops on the joyful transmission and reappropriation of language and on the creative power of female voices.

Raquel Lima is a poet, art educator, performer, essayist, curator and transdisciplinary artist. She holds a degree in Arts Studies and is currently pursuing a PhD in Postcolonial Studies. Her research focuses on orature, slavery and Afro-diasporic movements. She was co-organizer of the conference "Afroeuropeans: Black In/Visibilities Contested" (ISCTE, 2019) and co-editor of the book "Afroeuropeans: Identities, Racism, and Resistances" (Routledge, 2025). Raquel Lima has presented her academic work at various international conferences, including "Authoring Human Rights in West Africa and beyond: Expressions of slavery in Literature and the Arts" at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana (2023) and "Decolonial Remains: Scrutinizing African Studies in Africa and the Unfinished Business of Decolonization" at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria (2022). In 2022, she was invited to speak at the "Loophole of Retreat" event at the Venice Biennale, as keynote speaker at the opening session of the World Congress of Women in Mozambique and at the "Literature Talk: Poets from Black Europe" event at BOZAR in Belgium. In 2023, she was invited to the 35th São Paulo Biennial, curated the conference "Reformulating Authority and Authorship in the Arts" in Lisbon and was voted one of the 100 most influential black personalities in the Portuguese-speaking world by Bantumen magazine's annual Power List.

Information on accessibility:

Free admission

As part of the conference "Navigating Afro-Knowledges. Exploring Practices and Theories in Digital Diaspora Studies"

Duration
Approx. 120 minutes incl. break

Languages
Portuguese (reading Raquel Lima), French (reading Kiyémis) and English (discussion)

Premises
All public areas of the Schwankhalle are accessible at ground level and without steps.

Credits:

The event is part of the conference "Navigating Afro-Knowledges. Exploring Practices and Theories in Digital Diaspora Studies", organized in the framework of the ERC Starting Grant Project Afroeurope & Cyberspace (University of Bremen), conducted by Francesca Aiuti, Julia Borst, Ximena Cervantes Englerth, Merveilles Mouloungui and Nelson Sindze Wembe.

Price information:

Free admission Event in Portuguese, French and English