There is Nothing Wrong with People IV: Joy

There is Nothing Wrong with People, but you cannot self-love your way out of systemic oppression (TiNWwP) is a cultural program of four chapters that looks at the intersection of mental health and social justice. While mainstream psychology too often individualizes and depoliticizes our mental health, TiNWwP explores the ways in which the personal is political, and the political is personal. It investigates the impact of patterns of oppression on our well-being through workshops, performances, and conversations. At the heart of each edition lie personal stories and healing practices of people who experience the consequences of systemic oppression, to counter the increasing invisibility of marginalized voices.  

The four editions of TiNWwP aim to connect bodies, minds and souls and to collectivize the experience of our emotions; our anger, fear, grief and joy. This summer edition will be all about JOY. How do we find joy in dreadful times? What is, on the other hand, toxic positivity? How can we collectively cultivate joy? And how do we use it to ignite a fire of change, creativity, and hope? 

You are invited throughout this program to participate actively in collective change and new codes of conduct, within and around yourselves. And the cherry on the cake: every single edition ends with a party where we dance while cultivating energy for joyful militancy!  

• This program is curated by Johanna Couvée and Bouchra Lamsyeh, and is a collaboration with CITYLAB Pianofabriek and many other inspiring partners! Bouchra Lamsyeh is co-responsible for the artistic programming of Bâtard Festival, next to being a cultural doula, multidisciplinary artist, actor, DJ, activist, and juridic advisor. Johanna Couvée is a cultural manager, consultant, and artist coach working for Citylab. She is trained as a somatic psychologist and researches ways to build bridges between therapeutic embodied practices, collective action, and social justice. As a creative incubator for art and artivism, Citylab supports Brussels-based talents when developing and imagining their perspective on urban futures. In this creative process, self-formed artists define themselves, what art is, and develop an artistic voice to tell their own (vision on) herstories, hxstories, or histories. In July 2021, Kaaitheater and Citylab worked together for the first time with the Inside Out festival, which functioned as an artistic mirror of life at the centers of BXL.   

"We are all parts of ecosystems and when those ecosystems are sick, we need collectively to think about how to heal that rather than only focus on ourselves." – BRUZZ 

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