What began in 2014 with a three-week festival has now matured into a long-term participation project: Concerts, plays, discussions, fashion shows, mini golf courses, exhibitions, interreligious encounters and much more take place in the Immanuelkirche in the center of Veddel. In the former community hall, café nova has established itself as an important place, especially for women and families from all over the district. A preliminary highlight of the more than 150 events since 2015 was the “SoliPolis” festival in 2018: Based on Veddel themes, many different projects addressed the question of a better urban society and, with around 5000 visitors, were dedicated to concepts of “Solidarity City”.

Experiences of discrimination, fear of deportation, lack of affordable housing and access to culture, urban planning decision-making processes, health care, etc. w. continue to play a major role for the residents of the district and the adjacent residential accommodation for refugees. At the interface of art, social work and activism, NEW HAMBURG will therefore also develop projects with kids from Veddel in 2020-21 and thus address questions that concern everyone in Hamburg. NEW HAMBURG is a cooperation of the Ev.-Luth. Church district Hamburg-Ost, the Ev.-Luth. Parish of Veddel and the Deutsches SchauSpielHaus Hamburg. In March 2020 I supported the Kids of Hafenbahn Veddel to create a short dance piece, which was shown as last performace before the Corona shut-down at Deutsches SchauSpielHaus.

Concept | Choreography:  Lina Lev in collaboration with kids from Hafenbahn/ Veddel
Photography: Christian Bartsch