Our Lens

May 31, 2016 3

Women Only: The Frauenraum

I'm at Rathaus Wilmersdorf, a former city hall building turned refugee home in Berlin, where I teach a literacy class once a week. The home initially opened its doors to 178 refugees in September 2015, following Merkel's famous "Wir schaffen das" ("We can do it") declaration that sidestepped the Dublin Regulation and opened up Germany's borders to thousands of asylum seekers. [Read More!]

December 18, 2015 1

Lens: Four Hours at Lageso

This is Lageso (Das Landesamt für Gesundheit und Soziales), the State Office for Health and Social Affairs. This is Berlin's primary registration center for the initial reception of asylum seekers. This is Germany's most infamous symbol of the refugee crisis. Two days prior I had signed up to volunteer on a website called Volunteer Planner. After a cursory registration process, a click of a button was all it took to commit to a shift at a registration center, refugee home, or other institution in the city where help is needed (read: basically everywhere). [Read More!]

March 23, 2015 0

Lens: On Leaving Home(s)

Last month, Kelly wrote about the implications of "collecting ourselves" to make a move back home. While wrought with complications in its own right, returning to where one grew up, has family, or holds full political and legal rights is a move that Makes Sense. One chapter closes, and however painful or messy, the next begins... [Read More!]

February 13, 2015 0

Lens: Leaving Berlin, collecting ourselves

Leaving Berlin might mean losing some connection to the tangible trek between dreams, realizations, and moments of vulnerability that is our movement through years, our aging and maturation, in any sense. But it is only temporary. Indeed, collecting ourselves means leaving ourselves. But only for now... [Read More!]

September 29, 2014 1

Beyond Berlin: London and other transplants

This past week, I visited my good friend D who, like me, is an American transplant. D lives in East London, where the corner store owner greets you in an upbeat banter and the sign to a ‘Carolina Fried Chicken’ joint dances in the light from the neighboring gastropub. Multicultural, maybe. But London’s multiculturalism has a few faces and facades. And, in the end, it’s the people that matter more than the cultural installation: So, who is actually 'making' it here?... [Read More!]

April 30, 2014 0

Rave: the California Breakfast Slam Effect

Identity and belonging are closely intertwined with the foods we eat. The California Breakfast Slam, or CABslam, originally a pop-up breakfast establishment celebrating Americana classics like hash browns and maple syrup-drenched bacon, now hosts an unassuming 'Beta' restaurant space at the far edge of Neukölln's Reuterkiez. A visit allows for the giddy return to childhood memories that lead to goosebumps and pride, or a combination of both. Let's call this the California Breakfast Slam effect... [Read More!]

April 22, 2014 1

The Collidoscope Manifesto

A couple months ago, Collidoscope Berlin was invited to write its first guest post for the Global Citizens Initiative - an organization that aims “to build a network of people who see themselves as global citizens and want to build a better world”. Part of the task was to connect what we do here to the significance of borders. “Borders?”, we wondered, unsure how to proceed but mostly questioning why we had never concretely addressed the topic before... [Read More!]

February 20, 2014 2

Lens: An Ode to the Maybachufer

From Berlin's "problem district" to more expensive than spießig Charlottenburg: Kreuzberg's made quite the transformation over the decades, but migration continues to shape its identity and reputation as a district. The bulk of Kreuzberg's diversity stems from the '50s and '60s, when guest workers were recruited by West Germany to fill labor shortages after World War II*. Kreuzberg's dilapidated housing became home to guest workers, primarily from Turkey... [Read More!]

February 3, 2014 0

Beyond Berlin: Difference on the Blessed Isle

For about three weeks this holiday season, I explored the small tear-shaped island of Sri Lanka with a close friend from Berlin. Though Sri Lanka and the South Asia region were new terrain for us both, this wasn't our first backpacking rodeo. We were experienced enough travelers to expect the ups and downs that a trip of this magnitude would throw our way. We reveled in the highs - a school of fish gracefully drifting past us 12m deep into the Indian Ocean, the exquisitely pungent scents and colors of turmeric and homemade roasted curry powder... [Read More!]

January 21, 2014 1

Beyond Berlin: Difference in the Wet Country

For nearly a month this holiday season, I explored the social fabric surrounding my US origins with a German national, who had never before been to the land of plenty. Through the fresh eyes of 'the foreigner', I saw my part of America unfold under a curious and critical lens. America is a country that defines itself by historical narratives of migration and manifest destiny. What one encounters on the road in its northwestern corner, however, is a bit more mundane. At closer glance, emptiness and the prosaic everyday give food for thought, in regards to locating and valuing difference wherever it bubbles up... [Read More!]

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