News from Babylon

Mitmachzirkus Neukölln is a traditional family circus which has been reinvented to give schoolchildren of disadvantaged background the opportunity to train intensively in new skills. It creates for them and their parents, possibly for the first time in their lives, a real sense of achievement. The “Helene-Nathan- Library” is the Central Library of Neukölln (Berlin) with 160. 000 media and an overall floor space of 3000 sqm. It is very popular for migrant children and young people. During the years 2004 – 2006 it was centre of the project “News from Babylon”, which dealt with multilingualism in Neukölln and the responsibility of a library in a multicultural city and its way to actually become an intercultural library.

For the 2009 Berlin Karneval der Kulturen, the Paul Hindemith Music School entered a float in the procession, under the banner ‘Neukölln - Intercultural City’. The car upon which the float was built was given on a free loan by the police and the local police station opened up its premises for the building of the float. This was an impressive intervention for a number of reasons: it was one of the few floats not based upon a single ethnic group; it actively involved many young people some of whom might otherwise be considered ‘difficult to reach’; it involved large numbers of Turkish-origin people who, despite being the largest minority group in the area, are not otherwise well-represented in the Karneval. “Tek-Stil” is an art project, sponsored by the German Culture Foundation in the project framework “New possibilities and forms of work”. The project brought young designers and migrant women together.

Berlin is trying to become a centre for “creative industries” and young creative people. Part of this movement is the regeneration of the textile industry. Fashion and design schools are springing up, and the young professionals want to hold shows and bring their ideas to fruition. The idea of the Tek-stil project is to consolidate two important potentials: young professional designers and a special kind of needle worker – preferable women with migrant background. Many of them live in Neukölln without paid work but are skilled in textile and handicraft fields, especially needlework. “Neighbourhood International” and “Moved Worlds” is the oldest intercultural flagship trial project of Berlin Neukölln and the oldest intercultural festival of Berlin. It is organised by the Department of Culture and Arts of Neukölln and the intercultural work group of the Protestant Church of Neukölln and is complemented in the meantime by the dance festival “Moved Worlds”. Migrant associations and their cooperation partners present themselves and form a considerable stage programme, a vivid cultural diversity with people from more than 160 nations is shown.