Berliner Literarische Aktion
Berliner Literarische Aktion is a literary organization based in Berlin.
History and functions
The association was founded in 2005 by a network of international literary activists, chaired by the writer Martin Jankowski. The Berliner Literarische Aktion produces and disseminates different forms of literary presentation and performance, creates public platforms for German and international literature and supports international cultural exchange as well as cross-genre art productions.The non-profit incorporated association maintains an office on a volunteer basis in Berlin.
Employees and partners develop new forms of literary events and create public spaces for the presentation of German and international contemporary literature with specially designed lectures, festivals, debates, performances, symposiums, charity events, art, etc. Multilingual events and the support of the two-way publication of translations encourage international cultural exchange in which theater, visual arts and music also play a role besides literature. In addition to public performances and exhibitions, own publications are also developed. As part of regular educational work, new recipient groups for literature are targeted. Fundamental to this is the view that literature in the multimedia age more than ever possesses big social effects whose powers have to be developed actively.
Projects
The Berliner Literarische Aktion organizes regular literary salons in the city of Berlin, similar events have been organized in Italy and Indonesia.Online literary Magazine Stadtsprachen, freely accessible to everyone, introduces and publishes Berlin's current multilingual contemporary literature. More than 167 international Berlin authors are presented there with altogether over 200 texts in 30 languages - also in German translation - and new ones are constantly being added.
The Berliner Literarische Aktion promotes cultural exchange and organizes various Literary Festivals that connect artists coming different languages, countries and artistic expressions.
Of international importance are the multi-lingual presentation forms of poetry slams, which are realized regularly with renowned partners at the Berlin International Literature Festival. The association's development of a new type of slam event the "Slam Revue" in 2002 has since found countless imitators worldwide. The program "Literature behind bars", which was initially developed only for prisons in Berlin and brings international authors in contact with detainees, also attracted interest and found imitators all over Europe. As a result, the Berliner Literarische Aktion participated in research projects of the European Union on cultural education in prisons. In order to stimulate global literary exchange, the Berliner Literarische Aktion designs and implements international, explicitly non-commercial types of events every year.