Belonging Without Othering: Stories, Conversations and Community in Berlin
This July, Berlin Hub by Civil Society Forum e.V., the Democracy & Belonging Forum, and the European Philanthropic Initiative on Migration invite you into an evening around belonging, bridging and community with scholar and social justice thought leader john a. powell, director of the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley.
Maybe the distance between people is sometimes smaller than we imagine.
Maybe connection becomes more possible when we risk a little more curiosity, openness, conversation or presence with one another.
This gathering begins there.
With questions about belonging:
how it is created,
how it is denied,
how it changes across places and communities,
and what kinds of relationships become possible when people from different worlds genuinely meet.
The meeting will bring together people who care about communities in many different ways:
Community organisers, activists, artists, entrepreneurs, educators, institution workers, facilitators, public servants, researchers, bridge-builders and people whose paths rarely cross, even while they are often working around similar tensions and hopes.
john a. powell will open the evening with reflections on belonging without othering, followed by stories and perspectives from people across Berlin communities.
From there, the space will gradually open into participant-led conversations, shared tables, food, drinks and embodied practices — creating room for people to think together, meet across different experiences and remain in dialogue a little longer than everyday life usually allows.
Some conversations may stay practical.
Some may become political, personal or uncomfortable.
Some may simply begin with meeting someone you would not usually meet.
We are interested in what becomes possible when people meet without needing immediate agreement, performance or easy resolution. When conversation itself becomes a way to stay with the moment together — with more attention, honesty and presence. When belonging is understood not as sameness, but as the willingness to remain in relationship — staying connected through difference, uncertainty and moments of rupture.
So Berlin, let’s make this gathering together this July.
Maybe the distance between people is sometimes smaller than it first appears. Bring your circles, questions and communities — and join us for an evening of conversation, curiosity and encounters that help people hold on to hope together.
Contribution: This event operates on a pay-what-you-can basis. We recommend a contribution of 15 EUR, but everyone is welcome regardless of their ability to pay. If you are able to contribute more, your support helps make participation accessible for others.
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Meet co-hosts of the event:
Scholar, civil rights advocate and Director of the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, john a. powell is one of the world's leading thinkers on belonging, democracy and social cohesion.
Julia Hoffmann is a host, community builder and founder of Mosaics & Circles. Drawing on years of experience in participatory leadership and collective learning, she creates spaces where deep listening and dialogue emerge.
mo
mo lives in berlin, speaks polish and works mostly in central and eastern europe (in english). their focus right now is in political education (workshops, skill-sharings) and facilitation. coming from grassroot/anarchist organizing around feminism, anti-fascism and queer they keep trying to put down patriarchy and capitalism, either collectively or individually. they support groups fighting against borders and for reproduction rights and animal rights, ongoingly.
besides political engagement and extended social life sometimes they take photos of naked queer bodies in interesting spaces. ocassionally they cook for groups.
they wrote a book about genderbending a while ago. about being a non-binary person or a gender questioning one they will talk about at the event.
mo has no social media or online presence as a conscious decision of practicing life in person and as nobody (and loves this paradox, as well as questioning, especially all binarisms).
Monika Jiang is a writer, speaker, and community builder with Chinese-German roots.
Her work develops Oneliness, a philosophical lens on loneliness, relationality, and the world we share. A way of being that holds the truth that we are always alone and always in relationship, simultaneously — with ourselves, with others, and with something greater than all of it.
She hosts Shared Table Dinners, local rituals around these questions, brings her work to organizations and communities globally, and is currently writing her first book.
arjunraj is a filmmaker, visual anthropologist, educator and doctoral researcher at the University of Hamburg. Their work explores storytelling, migration, embodiment and belonging, asking how we can remain in relationship across difference without erasing complexity.
Jack is a systems change facilitator working at the intersection of interpersonal and planetary transformation, with a background shaped by social-ecological movements and the recognition of our entanglement in collapsing systems. Jack is the Initiator and Co-Steward of the Generative Journalism Alliance, Beyond Patriarchy Collective and Kinstead Community.
Giorgi Rodionov is a multidisciplinary artist, curator and cultural organiser working between Berlin and Tbilisi. He is the founder of untitled tbilisi, an independent art space supporting queer art activists in South Caucasus, and the co-founder of In the Mountains, a queer and feminist art platform and festival based in Berlin.
Samira Iraki
Samira is a systemic coach, facilitator and community organiser with resource e.V. and the Palestinian Feminist Archive Berlin. Her work centres belonging as an embodied practice, creating spaces where people can show up fully and feel seen without leaving parts of themselves behind.
D. Raiselis (they/them) is an urban researcher and writer who studies third places, cultural space, nightlife and queer urbanism. With experience as a theatre director and civic educator, they conduct qualitative and participatory research and engagement projects for cities and organizations internationally. D’s practice draws on the notion of “real utopias”: dreaming ambitiously while working practically toward other possible worlds, with curiosity, rigor and care. dianaraiselis.com
Christa Cocciole is a transformation “Doula”, systemic therapist, facilitator and regenerative practitioner. Drawing on somatic, trauma-informed, and nature-based approaches, she creates spaces where people can reconnect with themselves and one another.
Denis Esakov is a father, migrant, poet, curator, artist, educator, publisher and a co-founder of the de_colonialangauge collective. He was born in Karakol, Kyrgyzstan and now lives in Berlin after several migrations. In 2022, he published Attentive Curiosity of notUnderstandingness and continues to develop the independent initiative oi publishing. His work focuses on power relations in knowledge production, decolonial spaces of action and the collective imagining of futures and utopias.