Translated with DeepL.
Original language: Deutsch
Azadeh Karami, born in Iran in 1984, earned a bachelor's degree in architecture in Tehran. She was interested in reading and writing poems and stories from a young age. In recent years, she has written twelve short stories and more than twenty-five long and short poems. She worked on her first novel at the Heinrich Böll House. She says of herself that writing enables her to come to terms with herself and get closer to herself. The miracle of the word fascinates her as something initially incomprehensible that every writer or poet creates in their own way and thus creates different worlds.
In view of the difficult social events in Iran in 2022, Azadeh is an activist for women's rights in her country and raises her voice from exile in Germany.
Esmaeil Pirhadi, born in Iran, studied traditional Iranian music and graduated with a Bachelor's degree from the University of Guilan. Even as a student, he began teaching other students how to play the setar - a stringed instrument that is mainly played in Persian classical music. Esmaeil Pirhadi used the art of playing the setar to express his protest against Iranian politics in his own songs; his parodies have made him famous throughout the country. Public events and concerts by Esmaeil Pirhadi were soon banned by the Iranian authorities, but Pirhadi continued to work as a musician in internationally renowned films.
Pirhadi has combined his professional career as an artist and music teacher with social commitment for many years. This includes the musical support of young people from humble backgrounds or children with special needs. He has received international awards for his artistic skills and commitment.
José Luis Rocha Gómezborn in Managua/Nicaragua in 1967, initially joined a Jesuit order and worked for many years as a pastor on the Atlantic coast of Honduras. He later resigned from the priesthood, returned to Nicaragua and decided to do social science research at the UCA. One of his most important areas of work was migration research. He interpreted Central American migration to the United States as "civil disobedience" in a comprehensive study with an unusual approach. This work was accepted for a doctorate in sociology by the Philipps University in Marburg in 2016 and was published as a book with the Spanish title "La Desobediencia de las Masas" (San Salvador 2017). His study on the politicization of Nicaraguan youth in the run-up to the protest movement of 2018 ("Autoconvocados y Conectados") was received internationally and became a much-discussed standard work. He was a research fellow at the Universidad Centroamericana de El Salvador and at the Brooks Institute for Global Poverty at the University of Manchester and has received research grants from the Ford Foundation, the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Indiana University as well as several academic honors. José Luis Rocha published in various scientific and political journals.
José Luis Rocha died in exile in a hospital in Guatemala City at the end of December 2023.
Mohamad Abi Samra, born in 1953, is a Lebanese journalist and novelist. He studied at Lebanese University and worked as a cultural journalist for leading Arab publications such as Al-Safir, Al-Nahar and Al-Hayat. He has published several novels, and his novel Women Without Trace (2019) was nominated for the Arab Booker Prize.
During his stay, he wrote articles for the London-based Arabic culture magazine Majalla, among others.
Omar Gabryel Sfeir, born in France, grew up and lives in Beirut, Lebanon. Omar began experimenting with film and photography from an early age, until the conception and completion of his two short films: "Salwa - Empreintes d'un album photo" and the documentary "Album". His diverse artistic expertise in the fields of photography and art draws on a wealth of experience. Inspired by concepts of identity and committed to freedom of expression, Omar is particularly passionate about enabling self-expression and participation in an art based on inclusion, self-expression and joy. His cinematic art focuses on the representation of human intimacy, the complexity of human relationships, gender and sexuality.
Serhii Vilka, born in 1987 in Ukraine, is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, conductor and co-founder of the Sed Contra Ensemble. He graduated as a flautist and composer from the Tchaikovsky Academy of Music in Kiev. As a performer, Serhii Vilka has played more than one hundred world and world premieres of many Ukrainian and foreign composers and participated in various international workshops and festivals. His solo piano piece "Meditation on the Name of John CAGE" was selected as a compulsory piece for pianists at the Tchaikovsky Academy of Music.
Serhii Vilka has attended master classes and workshops with Pierre-Yves Artaud, Johannes Schoellhom, Jerzy Komowicz, Chaya Czemowin, Zygmunt Kranze, Toshio Hosokawa, Juste Janulyte and Eden Ladin, among others, and his music is performed internationally. He lived in the Heinrich Böll House with his wife Hanna Tytarenko and their dog Boh.