The dance floor is and always has been a place of encounter, release, joy, love, connection and support. But for many it is also a place of resistance, of self-expression, a place of refuge and community and sadly, too often, also a place of violence and hierarchies. But how can the dance floor become safer? What happens when we try to make it safer? Who is it really safer for (WHO)? And is it truly safer for you (YOU)?

We want the dance floor to be a space of self-reflection, a space where people are not afraid to question their position in society in order to stop reproducing the violent behaviors of the outside world and be accountable if they do. Where the dance floor is truly a space of freedom and joy [juˈhuː].

Safer Spaces can only exist if everyone present sees themselves as guarantors of the space, feels responsible for each other and is aware of their own positioning. Because there is practically no way to create a space for two people that does not involve the reproduction of an unequal power relationship. But we rarely get to explore this before and during a party and determine the parameters of the space ourselves. That’s why we want to use this unique opportunity with YOU | WHO ?! [juˈhuː] and invite you to an immersive experience to question the politics of the dancefloor together and hopefully create a space we will be able to hold together. As Pxssy Palace founding member Nadine Artois says: ‘There’s no reason why the dancefloor can’t be educational’ – so come and join us!

café révolution is a place of encounter. It was founded by eight Black women for people who experience anti-Black racism and sexism. The aim of the collective is to cater a physical safer space and a platform for active anti-racism work. Blaque /bla:k/ is a series of events by café révolution that specifically centres and celebrates queer Black people in all their nuance and fullness.

Concept and curation: Mona-Lisa Kole for Blaque /bla:k/ by café révolution.

With:

DAYTIME

14:00 YOU | WHO?! [juˈhuː] Input – Mona-Lisa (café révolution Bern) & Yaya (Ko-Co Basel), reading by Foncé

15:00 Apinti – mostly plays high-energy afrodiasporic sound where they aim to create spaces for community and aloneness to exist side by side.

16:30 tracy september – is a vocalist, performer, composer, producer and music researcher. She has solo and collaborative projects and creates music for film, theatre and dance pieces. Her music is a reflection of the many places and spaces she inhabits literally and figuratively. With influences of jazz, traditional Xhosa singing and electronic experimentation, tracy works around themes of memory, spirituality and protest, with a particular passion improvisation. tracy also DJs under the name youngseptember. She plays contemporary and experimental music from Africa and the Diaspora.

18:00 Bone Black  – DJ and producer, blends dark hard-hitting yet smooth Gqom with Afrohouse stuttering vogue beats and percussive diasporic tracks creating a unique soundscape that offer a deep gaze into a digital future.

19:30 food

NIGHTTIME

21:00 YOU | WHO?! [juˈhuː] Transition – Mona-Lisa (café révolution Bern) & Yaya (Ko-Co Basel), reading by Foncé

22:00 Sirenessa – is a Burundian-born, Lausanne-based, self-thinking, multidisciplinary performer and artist. Under different names, sheexplores the medium of art. With Sirenessa, her DJ project, she tries to reawaken the feeling she felt when she first heard dubstep in a club.
With heavy bass, she mixes musical genres to create a catharsis for the body and ears. She is one of the founding members of the B2B2B collective and the proud daughter of Ivy Monteiro (Tropikahl Pussy) and member of House B.Poderossa.

00:00 Foncé – is a writer, spoken word performer, DJ and cultural worker currently based in Basel, Switzerland. They are pursuing a Bachelor degree at the Institute for Experimental Design and Media Cultures at the Academy of Art and Design. At the heart of their practice is storytelling, using sound and word as mediums. Through repeating and deconstructing stilistic patterns, FONCÉ engages in a process of un-learning and re-writing internalized dominant narratives, that historically erase and misrepresent Black trans and queer bodies.

02:00 NDH – also known as NDH, directly hailing from the Zagaza collective, wants to make us discover music, to shock us with her mix of varied, opposed and complementary styles and above all to stimulate our musical memory. She focuses mainly on afro rhythms, with hip hop as a reference, with drum’n’bass and jersey gradually added.

04:00 Esengo  – a Geneva based DJ, Community Organizer,  Co-host of the show “Jollof & Cheese” on TRNSTN radio.  From Kuduro, Gqom, Afrohouse,Dancehall, to Brazilian funk these are the ingredients to create a luminous musical cocktail.

06:00 End

MOVIE

15-19:30 & 21-22h – „Space of Comfort” is a short film about the journey to healing. Written by FONCÉ, Anouchka Gwen and Apinti it explores the complexities of vulnerability, solitude and community.

Length: 13’

Cast
Narration: FONCÉ
Original Song: Anouchka Gwen
Score and Audiovisual Creative Direction: Apinti

Production
Script: tracy september
Director of Photography: Binta Kopp
Choreography: Harumi Mumenthaler
Video Editing: Apinti