Better Practices for Safe(r) Spaces

Kaaitheater, in collaboration with Kunstenpunt, is proud to share with you the results of Olave Nduwanje’s research residence entitled Better Practices for Safe(r) Spaces. Over the past few months, Olave Nduwanje – lovingly supported by Rotterdam-based queer activist, organiser and spiritual advisor Non Sense – held in-depth conversations with organisers of safe(r) spaces in and outside of Brussels. These conversations led to a series of podcast episodes. Listen in on the ambitions, vulnerabilities, expertise and embodied experiences of these safe(r) space organisers: Jacopo Buccino and Sirah Foighel Brutmann (Engagement Arts), Xandra Koster and Sita Mohabir (Feminists Against Ableism), Jenebah Kamara (Jabari), Claire Gilder and Marnie Slater (Mothers & Daughters) and Aida Yancy (Equal City Brussels). 

#1

In this first episode, Olave talks to Sirah Foighel Brutmann and Jacopo Buccini of Engagement about safer spaces: spaces for people active in the arts who have experienced transgressive behaviour. How do we talk about this without additional emotional damage? What steps can organisations take to prevent transgressive behaviour and, when it does occur, to deal with it correctly and preferably in a healing way?
Engagement arose in the aftermath of Me Too, as a movement to make the voices of victims and witnesses of transgressive behaviour in the art world heard: by publishing cases anonymously on social media, by organising confidential discussions, and by taking a collective stand. Engagement has further developed and grown with support from Kunstenpunt and others, following the 2018 open call D.I.T. (Do It Together).
Sirah was involved from the beginning and Jacopo joined in after a while. Jacopo emphasises that he does not want to speak for Engagement but on his own behalf.
> read the transcription of the conversation

#2

In this second episode, Olave talks to Jenebah Kamara. In 2019, she started Jabari, with the goal of creating a safer space for queer teens of colour. Important lesson she learned along the way is that creating safer spaces takes time. Youth of colour often have different needs than their white peers, and that requires a different approach. Not only the target group she was trying to reach, but also Jenebah herself needed a safe workplace. Now she knows what that could look like.
> read the transcription of the conversation

#3

In the third episode, Olave talks to Aïda Yancy, activist and thinker who developed a toolbox for organisations supporting people who experienced sexual and gender-based violence. A safer space does not necessarily mean that it has to be comfortable. It does mean that you can come there with all parts of your identity and that you are accepted for who you are.
> read the transcription of the conversation

#4

In this fourth episode, Olave Nduwanje talks to Claire Gilder and Marnie Slater about safer spaces, using Mothers & Daughters as a case study. This is a bar that is open two months a year specifically for lesbian and trans people. The podcast talks about decisions and mistakes made during the transition from a pop-up bar to a safer space for queers and feminists.
> read the transcription of the conversation