Hamze Bytyci

Hamze made his first steps as an activist when he was 8 years old in the church asylum in Tübingen, when his family fought against their own deportation. Today Hamze works as an independent theater and media educator at various Berlin schools, as well as an intercultural family helper. In 2012, he founded the association RomaTrial e.V., where he manages the online station Radio Corel and organizes international film summer schools under the label Balkan Onions. In 2012, he developed his own interactive performance format, Hilton 437, in which he explores social and political issues. Since 2017, he has been organizing the AKE DIKHEA? Festival of Romani Film. In 2018 and 2021 he is co-curator of the 1st and 2nd Roma Biennale, the self-organized biennale by and with Roma artists from all over Europe.

Lilith

Lilith is a trans * rights activist with migration background. She has been campaigning for the rights of LGBTI refugees and asylum seekers in Germany since 2015. Since November 2017 she has been working for the German-wide LSVD e.V project "Queer Refugees Deutschland". Other than that, she is a board member of the "Queers Network NRW eV". She is also involved in the "Queer European Asylum Network", where she provides information about the queer refugees and their needs in Germany so that the project can continue to support the federal government in Germany. She has a degree in environmental science with a focus on climate change and migration in the island states. She is an advisory member of "Säkulare Fluechtlingshilfe e.V." as well as the advisory board member of “New Women Connectors” in the Netherlands.

Victoria Kure-Wu

Victoria works as a User Experience Designer in Berlin (GER). She initiated www.ichbinkeinvirus.org in March 2020 as part of the #WirVsVirus hackathon of the German government, with which she and her team were twice rejected for funding. The website provides people who face corona-related racism a public space for their experiences and offers them experts and support. She expressed her discontent about ignorance on the matter of racism in “social” tech via Twitter where she met her ally Ilona.

Jane Wangari

Jane, a kenyan born, is a community developer and social worker by profession. She migrated to Germany in 2015 and works with a non governmental organisation. She is an activist who believes in social change and the development process of the marginalised and excluded women from the society, enabling them to gain self confidence.

Akiko Ondiege

I was born to a Japanese mother and Kenyan father, and raised in Nairobi, Kenya. I moved to Montreal, Canada to study and then to London, UK for my work and finally to Berlin in January, 2017. I have been working in tech since 2011 and until my move to Berlin, I mostly moved in very diverse and inclusive ‘bubbles’. Only recently have I really begun thinking about what identity even means, and how that affects the advancement of Black professionals in Berlin. Having these conversations is critical if we are to make any moves towards a more inclusive work space for Black people in the Berlin tech scene.

Christoph Hassler

Christoph Hassler is a UX Consultant and Lead for Social and Economic Justice at Thoughtworks, working in the field of design since the early 2000s, active in the struggle against racism and capitalist exploitation since the 90s. Thinking a lot about the future of work and the role technology might take to free or condemn society.

İrem Aydın

İrem Aydın studied Spanish Language and Literature at Istanbul University and attended the Master Program in Theater Creation at University Carlos III de Madrid in Spain. She wrote and directed plays such as Above the Ground Under the Clouds, TürkLand (an adaptation of Dilşad Budak’s autobiographic novel), and Golem at independent theater in İstanbul called Entropi Sahne where she worked as artistic director. She participated in festivals such as the MOT International Theater Festival, the International Forum at Theatertreffen, and the Interplay Young Playwrights Festival. She produces performative and poetic works trying to focus upon and to understand the tragedy of her age and generation. Her works mostly deal with the topics “migration,” “digitalization,” and “traumatic experiences.” Currently she lives and works in Berlin.