“Magic happens when we meet.” Visibility, solidarity and FLINTA* networks in Weißensee
On 28 October, KIEZ:MOBIL moved a little further through Weißensee, this time into the space of BENN Weißensee at Gustav-Adolf-Str. 125. In this cosy neighbourhood room, we meet over tea to talk about community.
Today, here are Mika and Lea from the BENN Weißensee team. BENN (Berlin Entwickelt Neue Nachbarschaften – Berlin Develops New Neighbourhoods) is a Berlin programme that strengthens encounters and exchange between old and new neighbours, especially in areas with collective accommodation for people with refugee experience. Joining them is María del Carmen Orbegoso, or shortly Marita, who leads the project “Migra Up – Fachvernetzung für die Migrationsgesellschaft” in Pankow and supports empowerment for migrant self-organisations.
We sit in a circle and give space to all the questions, doubts and wishes in the room. It quickly becomes clear how many issues resonate when we talk about community, visibility and inclusion. In this text, we pick up on two major themes that emerged particularly vividly in this exchange.
From invisibility to community: art and safer spaces
Mika: I’m interested in art as a way of creating a counter-public. I also came to social sciences through art. My background or positionality is: I am a white trans woman.
Making art helped me to become visible. It was never about becoming a “famous” artist. But without art I would not have known where to put myself. I realised how healing my artistic practice could be for me.
How can marginalised groups who are not visible make themselves visible? I believe art is a very powerful tool, because everyone has something to say, no matter which medium.
For example, language and music are two very powerful media. But there is also, well, my life is above all photography. Not self[ies], but “safe portraits” that show yourself in all your sensitivity.
Do we really have this public, this counter-public, visibility? How do I become visible? How can I actually help a community to also find the courage to want to be visible?
That is where this comes in: being trans also means being vulnerable. You also make yourself vulnerable when you want to show yourself as a person in a really confident way.
However, it looks: if, because of certain ascriptions, origin or gender, you don’t fit into the mainstream, you also first single yourself out. And being able to bear that is maybe one of the tasks I find important in my work.
That is also where all the different formats at BENN Weißensee come in, like peer-to-peer care at the “Kümmer Café” or in the Hologram group.
Claudia: But is it, for example, the case that when you have a group like that, or know that you have a group, it’s not so hard anymore? Is it easier to be visible as a group, in a group?
Mika: I think, especially in the queer community, it really is the case that this community is incredibly important, because it is such a safer place. [Here, “place” refers less to a physical space and more to a shared unity/sense of belonging.]
And that certainly also applies to people with a migration background. To have safe places, where I don’t have to explain myself as this or that person, because certain things are simply understood.
And I sometimes know: when I go into cisnormative spaces, people sometimes do not immediately see that I am trans. But as soon as I open my mouth, everyone thinks: “Oh God, what is that?” I can see it so clearly in their looks. And that simply doesn’t happen in community spaces.
Communities form because marginalised people feel safer there. The problem is making sure that the community doesn’t isolate itself as a community, but stays able to connect, stays open, does not fence itself off, and instead says together: we want to be there, we want to be part of society, not as marginalised people, as a subculture or something exotic, you know, because you’re so quickly exoticised, that happens everywhere…
That’s what it’s about. Not community for community’s sake, but in order to be strong, in order to enter society, to co-shape people and society.
Lea: And I think that is also a moment of showing by example and, of course, a moment in which we can encourage other people to be authentic themselves. It’s difficult, because this goes hand in hand with being authentic and with these vulnerabilities, and with the situation of marginalised groups as well as the structures in our society, with discrimination.
As soon as we take on a role, we naturally adapt – in how freely we move, how freely we speak. And that is, in some ways, understandable, because we want to be understood. But as soon as it leads to us no longer being authentic and perhaps only passing on what is demanded of us from the hierarchy above, then I find that extremely scary and dangerous. And I think that’s one problem in our society: how can we continue to stay communal, stay in community? If we manage to have people be authentic and to give themselves room to “make mistakes”, then we’ve already achieved a lot, because then there is suddenly space for feedback and exchange.
Instead of this fear of punishment, there is this sense of being together, of “we learn from one another”. And that this togetherness is really lived.
Strengthening community in Weißensee: trust and solidarity in times of cuts
Marita: At the moment, there are around 30 migrant organisations in Pankow, all of them with an impressive potential in terms of experience, topics, theoretical input and languages.
What stands out is that almost all of them are led by women – in contrast to many other Berlin districts where mixed groups or clearly male-dominated organisations prevail.
Moreover, almost all migrant organisations are strongly family-oriented, which is reflected in their activities and target groups.
Right now, the most important thing for me is to build trust. There are different aspects in which we quickly end up in competition, and that’s why it’s not always easy to develop genuine cooperation.
Hope also plays a big role in this – it is a central point for me.
I still believe in long-term processes, because I have experienced this myself in Pankow. I was part of the former women’s project “Frauennetz”. And in 2025 this network received a new name: Intersektionaler Feministischer Arbeitskreis Pankow (Intersectional Feminist Working Group Pankow). That was an intense process. One important contribution from us as migrants was to make it very clear that we wanted to see more migrant organisations – especially women’s associations – in this network.
That did not happen automatically. All the more significant, then, that more migrant organisations were given space in this very white, established network: space to talk about decolonisation, to learn together, to work on intersectionality and to discuss openly. It was possible because there was both willingness and curiosity.
Back to my connection with Weißensee: migraUp is a collective and locally rooted project. In my work, I try to stay in touch with each organisation. The possibility of working within networks helps me enormously not to lose sight of these relationships.
This year, we also created a community map – without any funding, but with great support from Lingua Pankow and ELAR (Endangered Languages Archive). ELAR is part of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, a very white, old and male-dominated institution. Nevertheless, there is an important change there: Ms Mandana Seyfeddinipur, who came from London to Berlin and now heads ELAR.
I can see, for example, that we have Trixiewiz, Baufachfrau e.V., Frauen-Zukunft and the Paula Panke space here in Weißensee. We also have other organisations in Heinersdorf, not that far from Weißensee, such as Source d’espoir e.V. or MigrArte Perú e.V.
Perhaps for this sustainable process, we also need the connections to these local, larger networks where this feminist voice has already existed for a long time – and they also need us.
I think the magic happens when we meet, when we get to know each other.
I’ve been here since 2011, and now I’ve built a really wonderful friendship, and together we are trying to analyse and evaluate our collaboration with this critical perspective.
And how do collaborations actually work? There are many bilateral projects and partnerships. Over time, you notice: where trust is built, space and courage for critique emerge as well. Many challenges – uncertainties, misunderstandings, conflicts – do not easily find their way into the big round. That’s exactly why I’m interested in how we can develop something positive out of difficult experiences.
I am convinced: if there is trust, you can talk about anything. Trust creates a different level of relationship – and forms the basis for a shared language and shared understanding.
Mika: I believe in both – in trying to share and then having trust, being caring and empathetic. I also believe that the cuts in the cultural sector are not about saving money at all, but about keeping the funding low. So many organisations throw themselves at a small pot of money, and some are left out, and that this actually creates competitive behaviour and fear among small organisations. So that precisely this does not happen: that we come together, that we are in solidarity with each other.
I think that cuts to funding are really a tool of division. It is nothing more than an attempt to divide us. And I believe that this is exactly where we need this trust to talk to one another, to be transparent, also about where our budgets come from, how we survive. And not keeping it to ourselves when we apply for something, but telling the other organisations. We apply as two, three, four, five organisations and we try to get funding for all of us.
Marita: So, at the moment, unfortunately, the most important topic is funding. Many are affected, not only in the cultural sector, but also many women’s projects.
There is no money. From a German system, I find that tragic. Without cooperation, we cannot survive.
Political visibility is also important for us, not only financial aspects. These are also very important aspects of solidarity for us. And of course funding is important too, but we are always in precarious situations.
Lea: I think everything Marita just said needs more visibility, too. This whole field is, for me – I like to call all of this social work, because neighbourhood work, working with people, whether in care or in education, is social work for me and needs more visibility. I have the feeling that when you talk about it in circles of friends, it’s always like: “Oh wow, that’s a wild story,” or “Wow, the contracts are really that bad,” and so on. And in that moment there is a kind of recognition.
But beyond that, it really needs to be pushed forward with much more clarity and confidence, at least at the political level, because I think it is the basis of everything – of how we live together. We live together, and that’s why this work has to be visible and appreciated.
And everything you just said should be loud everywhere, in my opinion.
Polina Medvedeva
The project is organised by C-SPACE Berlin gGmbH in cooperation with Polina Medvedeva (urban researcher and co-founder of the Feminist Spaces Collective), the series of talks is co-curated by Katya Romanova. It is funded by the “Demokratie leben!” program of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.
