Rasheed, Mariam

Mariam Rasheed © privat

Mariam Rasheed is a spoken word poet from Alexandria, Egypt. She moved to Berlin in 2015 at the age of 18. For as long as she can remember, she has consumed a lot of poetry, but never produced any herself. Berlin gave her a gift that Alexandria could not: a reason to believe that she, too, could be a poet. Growing up as an Arab girl, she was always told what she couldn’t be, but rarely what she could be. The words she had bottled up inside found their way out in brushstrokes. Abstract painting was her life and what she thought would always be her preferred form of expression. What is the threat of speaking without words? A pool of colours, harmonious and beautiful in its composition, could be seen as whatever its viewer asks of it. How many will see it as a revolution? Mariam still juggles brushes and bursts dry paint on her skin, but poetry is now her loudest shout.

Festival Content

POETS‘ CORNER Treptow-Köpenick – Poetry in the Districts

The warm-up before the start of the 23rd poesiefestival berlin! Poets’ Corner takes over the city with poetry! Berlin-based poets and musicians will read and perform across the city’s districts in libraries, gardens, and cultural centers, thanks to support of Berlin’s city districts and cultural institutions. There’s room for poetry everywhere!

Küchenmeister, Nadja • Pogačar, Marko • Prabala-Joslin, Avrina • Rasheed, Mariam • Stonecipher, Donna • Insomnia Brass Band • Sandig, Ulrike Almut