Tabletalk Europe is a cross-media publishing format founded in Berlin by culture scholar Asal Dardan, publisher Christiane Frohmann and journalist Michaela Maria Müller as a part of Orbanism Publishing. The underlying idea of the project is, that nothing strengthens and enhances empathy, humanity and a sense of community more than encounters between people.
Tabletalk Europe offers a platform for people who live in Europe and have experienced migration or flight. Coming together to share their ideas and stories, they can learn from each other and grow together over a good dinner and in a pleasant atmosphere. By now, the format has grown into a lively network, which is spreading beyond Germany’s borders.
Tabletalk Scandinavia took place by invitation of the Goethe Institute Sweden on the 27th and the 28th of October in Malmö and Copenhagen.
The conversations were recorded and this podcast is an attempt to convey something of the magic the evenings held, to preserve our impressions, insights and experiences but most of all to make the stories and voices of our guests heard.
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OUR GUESTS
Jude Dibia

PHOTO OF JUDE DIBIA, (C) BY FREDERIK ELG
Jude Dibia is a novelist, social activist and an ICORN resident fellow living in Malmö, Sweden. Before moving to Sweden, Jude’s writings and cultural work touched on the sensitive issue of LGBTQ+ rights in his home country as well as the representation of LGBTQ+ individuals within the creative space. In Malmö, Jude has worked and collaborated with the Malmö Culture Department on various projects with a focus on migration, cities providing safe havens to writers/artists and an on-going dialogue series between migrant artists and their new communities.
Khaled Barakeh

PHOTO, (C) COURTESY OF KHALED BARAKEH
Born in 1976 in Damascus Suburb, and currently based in Berlin, Khaled Barakeh graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus, Syria in 2005, completed his MFA at Funen Art Academy in Odense, Denmark in 2010 and finished his Meisterschueler at the Städelschule Art Academy in Frankfurt a.M, Germany in 2013. During his stay in Europe Barakeh, originally trained as a painter, has developed a stronger concentration on conceptual art practices. Today he works in a variety of media, focusing on the current and pertinent issues, often revolving around politics and power structures in context of identity, culture and history. He has exhibited at the Künstlerhaus Stuttgart; Shanghai Biennale; Salt Istanbul; Kunsthalle Brandts, Ovegarden Denmark; Frankfurter Kunstverein; Artspace New Zealand and many other institutions and venues around the world. Recently Barakeh started a new initiative called Syria Cultural Index, dedicated to mapping and connecting the Syrian artistic community around the globe and showcasing their work to wider audience.
Lesley-Ann Brown

PHOTO, (C) COURTESY OF LESLEY-ANN BROWN
Lesley-Ann Brown is a Brooklyn-born writer, educator and activist who currently lives in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her parents hail from Trinidad and Tobago. She studied writing and literature at the New School for Social Research and is currently a contributor for NBCBLK. Her book, Decolonial Daughter: Letters from a Black woman to her European Son will be published in May, 2018 in both the States and UK by Repeater Books. She also created the critically-acclaimed blackgirlonmars blog. is the founder of Bandit Queen press and co-founder of Say It Loud! Poetry Collective of Black and women of color poets in Copenhagen.
She was also a co-organizer of the Women’s March Copenhagen, which drew over 5000 demonstrators.
Mareen Bruns

PHOTO OF MAREEN BRUNS, (C) BY DIRK SKIBA
Naeimeh Doostdar

(C) COURTESY OF NAEIMEH DOOSTDAR
Ahmed Fahmy
Reza Haji Hosseini

PHOTO, (C) COURTESY OF REZA HAJI HOSSEINI
Nannina Matz

PHOTO, (C) COURTESY OF NANNINA MATZ
Nannina Matz was born in Berlin in 1983 and currently lives in Munich. She studied at the German Institute for Literature in Leipzig. Her account of the refugee crisis at the border between Greece and Macedonia in 2016 In Idomeni was published in May of the same year by Hanser Verlag.
Jila Mossaed

PHOTO OF JILA MOSSAED, (C) BY EVA BERGSTRÖM
Jila Mossaed was born in Tehran in 1948 and has been living in Swedish exile since 1986. She has published several collections of poems both in Persian and Swedish, which have been translated into many languages. Even though her work is banned in her native country, her poems are well known in Iran, where she is regarded as one of the most important poets of the 20th Century. She has been awarded the prestigious
Rahel Weldeab Sebhatu

PHOTO, (C) COURTESY OF RAHEL WELDEAB SEBHATU
Rahel was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. At the age of two she migrated to the United States together with her mother and brother, where she lived for fourteen years before moving to Eritrea, her family’s country of origin. For the past four years Rahel has been studying and working in Sweden, where she is a graduate student in Global Studies at the Graduate School of Lund University. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Public Administration and Political Science at the University of Asmara, Eritrea. Rahel is a project assistant for the project “Gender-Just Peace and Transitional Justice”, as well as the editorial assistant for the academic journal “Cooperation and Conflict”.
Spyros Sofos

(C) COURTESY OF SPYROS SOFOS
Spyros grew up in Anthens and is Research Coordinator at the CMES, Lund University where he is also a researcher and teaching in the MA in Middle Eastern Studies. He is also coordinator of a Raoul Wallenberg Institute strand of an Inclusive and Open Societies project on Turkey. He has previously been a Senior Research Fellow in International Politics at the Helen Bamber Centre for the Study of Rights, Conflict and Mass Violence of Kingston University, a Senior Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer in International Politics at Portsmouth University.
Many thanks to Eva Bergström, Tanja von Dahlern and Christiane Lahusen from the Goethe Institute Sweden, Rickard Lagervall from Lund University and all the participants.