Resilient Communities: Growing Together Instead of Falling Apart

So, how do communities remain capable of taking action when things drag on, the pressure intensifies, and strength begins to fade? How do we work together toward a grand goal, even if our paths to get there may differ? Maybe even across major alliance boundaries and beyond small egos? All without losing our own integrity.
In this lecture performance, we will hear stories from three communities that have been working toward the same goal for years, both directly and indirectly, but are coming together for the very first time tonight:

• Cenaida Guchagmira, Defensora de la Vida (Defender of Life) from the cloud forest of Intag in Ecuador.
• Nicolás Gómez Herrera, artist and activist from Quito and Berlin, part of the political and migrant collective Solisur.
• Uschi Walther, from Berlin, part of the alliance “Tesla den Hahn abdrehen” (Shut off Tesla's Tap).

Together with her community in the Intag Valley, Cenaida protects one of the most biodiverse places in the world against major international corporations, her own government, and an open-pit copper mine. With his collective, Nicolás builds bridges between the struggles of the Global Majority and Berlin, with a particular focus on extractivism. And Uschi, along with her alliance, defends the Berlin surrounding area and its water as much as possible against a company owned by the world’s richest tech oligarch with a penchant for fascism.

Copper is an elemental raw material for our so-called green energy transition and e-mobility.

The three will share their respective experiences on how to keep a community resilient as the storms get rougher. How to grow together instead of drifting apart. How they deal with internal conflicts, as well as external repression. How one can become part of a larger whole instead of tensing up as a lone fighter. This will be accompanied by sounds, videos, and images from their respective territories.

The evening will be moderated by journalist and author Elisabeth Weydt. The event will be held in German and Spanish, with simultaneous translation via headsets.