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Young Arts for Queer Rights and Visibility (#YAfQRaV)

1. july 2017 – 31. october 2019​

The project provided a framework that encouraged young artists with different sexual orientations and gender self-definitions to reach out to other young people with strong messages for queer equality, inclusiveness and non-discrimination. Young people were supported in analyzing discriminatory actions and language, and in countering them with artistic means, advocating for queer rights, visibility and recognition.

Photo © Almut Elhardt

The project “Young Arts for Queer Rights and Visibility” (#YAfQRaV) used artistic approaches to raise awareness about diversity in the field of gender and sexual orientations.

The first step in the project was the participation of RRCGN team members in an international seminar on queer biography work in Sitges/Spain, which resulted in the following videos.

The next important step in the project was the one-week seminar for youth workers from Germany and 7 partner countries, which RRCGN organised in April 2018 at Landesmusikakademie NRW Heek-Nienborg. There the participants exchanged information about the situation in their countries and about relevant best practice projects, reflected on their experiences and developed methods and approaches for the following project steps.

During an international meeting in November 2018, young artists from the Greater Cologne area and the 7 partner countries, accompanied by professional artists, artistic coaches and thematic experts, created live performances, songs and videos to address other young people with strong messages for LSBTTIQ* inclusion, equality and visibility of queer identities, lifestyles and partnerships – live and through social media channels.

On this basis, the German participants developed concepts for artistic-thematic actions to reach other young people – workshops, performances, and installations. Starting with the IDAHOBIT Day (international day against homo-, bi-, inter- and transphobia) on May 17th, 2019, these were implemented nationwide.

Statements from Participants

Funding

#YAfQRaV is a ROOTS & ROUTES Cologne e. V. project in cooperation with:
Queer Youth NRW (Cologne/ Germany), Kaunas Chamber Theatre (Kaunas/ Lithuania), Brouhaha International (Liverpool/ UK), Rutes i Origens (Barcelona/ Spain), Centro di Creazione e Cultura (Florence/Italy), SMouTh (Larissa/ Greece), ROOTS & ROUTES Netherlands (Rotterdam/ The Netherlands), Informelle Gruppe (Salzburg/ Austria).

#YAfQRaV has been funded by the Innovation Fund of the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and DOHLE foundation, and was in 2018 also funded by the EU programme Erasmus+ and the North Rhine-Westphalian Youth Ministry (Kinder- und Jugendförderplan).