Opowu

Poetry Performance by Stefanie-Lahya Aukongo

UNEXPECTED LESSONS — Decolonizing Memory and Knowledge, June 11-12 2021 at Academy of the Arts, Berlin, in Nairobi and online. Poetry Performance »Opowu« by Stefanie-Lahya Aukongo (poet, curator, singer)

„Opuwo!“ is the name of Lahya‘s current program. It translates to „it‘s enough“ taken from the language Owambo the language of her people. The world as we know it has been in this state for too long. It’s time to dismantle, change perspectives and feelings toward everything. 

Lahya (Stefanie-Lahya Aukongo) is a black intersectional artist, author, poet, curator, multiplicator, singer, teamer, photographer, and activist whose art and work reflect her social realities and identities. Lahya’s life revolves around molecules of reality, (re)arranged lovingly, yet critically, and enveloped in song, painting, collage, performance, photography and_or poetry. Their purpose is healing and/through transformative practices. Lahya knows that the acts of embodying joy and telling the story in their own words is freedom work. It is a way to hold space and take space. 

Since 2014, Lahya curates and moderates the monthly spoken-word event “One World Poetry Night” in Berlin.

Lahya’s oeuvre is published in various books and zines. In search of radical social responsibility of the heart and deed, Lahya’s doings are political, collective, and personal. Her works touch upon privilege, decolonisation, healing, individual and collective love and vulnerability. Lahya’s pronouns are Lahya and if needed she/her. Her bed currently resides in Berlin.

UNEXPECTED LESSONS – Poetry Performance Opowu by Stefanie-Lahya Aukongo