Session 1 — Queer-Feminist Urban Perspectives: Claiming Spaces
How do queer-feminist approaches redefine urban space? What are the spatial strategies of resistance, care, and community building in the face of heteronormative planning, gentrification, and patriarchal structures? Join us for an afternoon curated by Urbane Praxis e.V. featuring keynotes, panel discussions, and interactive workshops on these topics.
Programm overview
15:30 Entrance
16:00 Discussion
with Feminist Spaces Collective: Feminist Spaces Collective is an independent collective based in Berlin since 2023. It explores the intersections of environmental, spatial, social justice, and feminism in urban contexts. The collective challenges the status quo by amplifying voices of groups oppressed under patriarchy, colonialism, and capitalism, and works in an anti-sexist, anti-imperialist, and anti-capitalist way to unlearn oppressive modes of living and city-making. By inviting diverse communities to workshops, urban interventions and public events, they engage with gender-sensitive design, anti-racist and decolonial urban research, and feminist participatory methods.
Nancy Nutter: Nancy Nutter is a drag artist and producer living and working in Berlin for the last 8 years. She is the curator and coordinator of the performance stage at Whole Festival, the head of performance at Lunchbox Candy, and is co-producer of TREASON royal variety club and cabaret. Nancy has a pantheon of alter egos, many characters which represent various parts of her multifaceted being. She has been giving walking tours in Berlin since 2018 and recently and recently with the feminist city tour with Berlinsidestories. Nancy is currently writing a book about drag as a tool for political transformation, Drag, Disruption, and Dissent.
Methu Thavarasa: Speaker
Leonie Gerner: Moderator
17:00 Workshop „Mapping Safer Space / Cartographies of Comfort” with Feminist Spaces Collectives:
Safety is an important concept when looking at urban environments through queer-feminist perspectives. When we speak about safety, it is important to ask: who is being protected, and from whom? People’s perceptions of safety can be shaped by many factors, such as spatial features (design, maintenance, lighting), the presence and behaviour of others in the space, and aspects of identity including gender, age, race, class, and physical or mental ability. These elements can influence whether we feel at ease or uncomfortable in public areas.
This workshop will explore questions such as: What makes people feel safer in public spaces? Who or what contributes to that sense of safety? Can it be created, even temporarily?
Participants will create their own “safer space” drawings using the method of mental maps — personal maps of real or imagined spaces, based on memories, emotions, and past experiences. The session will include gentle bodily exploration, group discussion, and collective drawing.
No previous experience needed.
Language: English with possibility to provide whisper translations to German and Russian.
19:00 Drinks & music, open house, drinks and networking
Tickets: free of charge