THE MIDPOINT

“I Was Raised Mexican” by Sayda Trujillo (New York)

“Say You're Proud” (excerpts of a solo show) by Katinka Kraft (Berlin)

all tickets 5€

Draw a map of a cultural midpoint. Does it fall into international waters or the dry desert border between two countries?

The Midpoint is collaboration between Guatemalan-American performer, Sayda Trujillo and German-American Spoken Word artist, Katinka Kraft.  Two solo performances where stereotype meets identity, Guatemala meets Los Angeles, Berlin meets Seattle, silence meets noise, language meets translation, and national identity meets shame. 

"I Was Raised Mexican" investigates the experience of acquired identity. A Guatemalan teenager finds herself identified by her community as Mexican. Visually, it is a peeling of layers, each offering a possible answer to What is Mexican? Asking, What do you see when you see me? What do we carry with us? What is impossible to leave behind? Through movement, song, absurdist and poetic text, "I Was Raised Mexican" pays close attention to what the immigrant carries with him/her and what this translates to in their adopted new home/country.

“Say You're Proud” is an autobiographical account of growing up German/ American, the child of a flower power hippie from Philadelphia (USA) and a German political science teacher from the 68’ Student Movement. In hot pink Lycra pants and purple cowboy boots a young girl choreographed her dreams of becoming a pop star in the USA in the backyard of her Berlin home, only to find herself swallowing the words “I am German” on her first day in a US middle school. Teenage survival in the USA meant assimilating to no accent, patriotism, GAP shirts and white Keds.  As an adult Katinka finds her cultural midpoint in international waters, between rage and confusion, history and shame, trying to make sense of two national identities that she is not per say proud.

More about "I Was Raised Mexican" HERE.   A 3-mInute excerpt from "I Was Raised Mexican" HERE.

More about Katinka Kraft HERE