News from Berlin. “Spoken Worlds Nairobi-Berlin” is a poetry festival, which takes place in Berlin from April 6th to April 12th, 2014. The subtitle of the festival is “Culture as a Bridge, Crossing Borders between Africa and Europe”.

The cultural and political Friedrich-Ebert Foundation and the Literaturwerkstatt of Berlin have organized the festival. During one week, many film premieres, performances and speeches will be held and people of various backgrounds and professions (rappers, slam poets, singers) will participate. All the artists have previously met in Kenya where they recorded a sixteen-track album, which has been put on sale during the occasion of the festival. The festival is aiming to promote cultural exchanges between Africa and Europe and cultural education in Africa. Indeed, many of the participants are committed to arts education in schools and prisons in Africa as well as in Germany. This is not the first time that a musical event is happening between Berlin and Nairobi. Three years ago the Goethe-Institut organized an “electro-meets-hip-hop-exchange, in cooperation with the two artists Andi and Hannes Teichmann.

The Kenyan rapper Henry Ohanga alias Octopizzo will be one of the festival participants. Octopizzo’s songs are a trip around his hometown Nairobi, and especially around Kibera, the slum where he grew up. He has led an initiative in Nairobi called “Young, Gifted and Black” to help children who want to learn how to rap, dance, paint or write. According to him the “Spoken Worlds Nairobi-Berlin” festival is a very good initiative to promote cooperation and cultural dialogue between Europe and Africa because “in art everyone can claim their own truth”. News from Berlin – Berlin Global.