Critical Queer Solidarity

⟡ now all our opportunities, events, news etc can arrive in your inbox nice and tidy, so you don’t miss them in a sea of posts or if you want to go off social media 💌✨ A regular-ish love letter from our queer chaos HQ with all the calls, events, gossip (the political kind), and all the behind-the-scenes tomfoolery, with many critical reflections. Sign up via the link in bio 🦋

⟡ Need help finding therapy? Not sure what’s covered by insurance? Not sure if you need it, or just want someone to talk it through with? 👀 Finding mental health support in Berlin can feel overwhelming - especially with long waitlists, language barriers or insurance confusion. 🤔 If you’re feeling stuck, get in touch with Hannah for practical, compassionate support to help you explore exceptions based on your needs and preferences. 💝 You don’t need to know exactly what you’re looking for yet. We can figure it out together. 🫂 Email [email protected] for advice, or to arrange an online/in-person appointment to support you in finding the right mental health care. 📩 *We changed the format from weekly drop-ins to this to better fit your timely needs.*

⟡ a little throwback to Critical Lens, our Youth Exchange we hosted in Berlin back in Nov 2025 on: * queer rights, how they are instrumentalized by right wing politics (ew) * the role of homonationalism and pinkwashing * and how can we stay critical in a chaotic media landscape It was an absolute joy to do it with an amazing group of queers living in Armenia, Poland, Greece and Germany - but because pictures don’t do it justice, we are preparing something for you… stay tuned ✨ The project is funded by the Erasmus+ program and supported by @jugend_fuer_europa 📸 @francesco_ap_

MORE CITY TOURS INCOMING 👀 We are back with another round of our beloved walking tours in Berlin - on queer decolonial history in Mitte and the African Quarter, throughout April and May. 🦿 QUEER-DECOLONIAL WALKING TOUR OF BERLIN 🗓 Upcoming dates: Saturday 18 April, 12-2pm (English) Sunday 10 May, 2-4pm (English) Sat. 23 May, 12-2pm (English) With Nica @getoffmylawnpunk Meeting point: Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) Through this city tour, we seek to make the intersections of the queer and colonial history of the Weimar Republic and German Empire visible. While there is much research on Germany’s colonial history and the queer nightlife scene of Berlin, the two have rarely been brought together before and are often at odds with one another. We explore their common history with the rise of eugenics, the early gay rights movement, and individual stories of queer and BIPOC people grappling with its consequences. In this tour, we invite you to learn about this “hidden” history. 🦿 COLONIAL NARRATIVES - TOUR THROUGH THE AFRICAN QUARTER 🗓 Upcoming dates: Friday 8 May, 5-7pm (English) Saturday 9 May, 12-2pm (German) Sunday 24 May, 11am-1pm (English) With Jara @jaramachtsachen Meeting point: Seestraße/Afrikanische Straße Structures of violence always need to be justified, downplayed, and normalized. But what are the ways colonialism is made to seem legitimate, even necessary? This tour leads guests through Berlin's African Quarter, a momument to German colonialism, and looks at narratives surrounding German colonialism in Africa as an example of broader colonial narratives, many of which still hold power today. 📩 Sign up by sending an email to [email protected]. 💸 Suggested donation 5-15€, no one turned away for lack of funds!

CITY TOURS INCOMING 🌞 The sun is back out, and so are we! Join our walking tours on queer decolonial history in Mitte and the African Quarter, this and next week. 🦿 QUEER-DECOLONIAL WALKING TOUR OF BERLIN 🗓 Saturdays 21 & 28 March, 12-2pm With Nica @getoffmylawnpunk Through this city tour, we seek to make the intersections of the queer and colonial history of the Weimar Republic and German Empire visible. While there is much research on Germany’s colonial history and the queer nightlife scene of Berlin, the two have rarely been brought together before and are often at odds with one another. We explore their common history with the rise of eugenics, the early gay rights movement, and individual stories of queer and BIPOC people grappling with its consequences. In this tour, we invite you to learn about this “hidden” history. 🦿 COLONIAL NARRATIVES - TOUR THROUGH THE AFRICAN QUARTER 🗓 Friday 20 March, 4pm & Sunday 22 March, 12pm (noon) With Jara @jaramachtsachen Structures of violence always need to be justified, downplayed, and normalized. But what are the ways colonialism is made to seem legitimate, even necessary? This tour leads guests through Berlin's African Quarter, a momument to German colonialism, and looks at narratives surrounding German colonialism in Africa as an example of broader colonial narratives, many of which still hold power today. 📩 Sign up by sending an email to [email protected]. 💸 Suggested donation 5-15€, no one turned away for lack of funds!

Thank you everyone for being there with us yesterday! ❤️And to our wonderful artists, collaborators and volunteers who support us making this fundraiser possible. Photos by Anabelle Bursy

𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒔𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒔 x Critical Queer Solidarity presents: MOVING BEYOND THE NATION STATE In this edition of 𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒔𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒔 we are collaborating with @cqs.berlin and @auto_timer to raise funds for a community members’ legal fees to support them to continue living and working in Germany freely. In oppose to the nation-state framing of social life and history, the fundraiser is intended as a space to imagine an alternative beyond the notion of nationality and citizenship amidst ongoing genocides, imperialisms, and our fight to obliterate all forms of fascism. 20:00 Doors Open 21:00 - 23:00 Lip Sync Open Stage* hosted by Hassandra @queenofvirginity & Angelo Dynamo @angelodynamo 23:00 - 3:00 DJ Sets by Kéwè Bo @kewkewebow XD Erica @xd_ericaa Gadutra @gadutra auto_timer @auto_timer 📍Tennis Bar, Reuterstraße 95,12053 Neukölln @tennisbarberlin Donation based** sliding scale 10-25 € Graphics by @moritz.simons 🔥 *We have limited spots! Please DM us your name and your song to register ✨ ** If you can’t be there in person please still consider to donate. Link in bio 🔗

ANOTHER LOCAL WORKSHOP 👀 Queer Solidarity Against Militarism 101 🫡 Facilitated by Sefa & Thomas Tuesday 10 February, 6-8pm At our CQS Office In Berlin-Schöneberg 📍 Address will be shared after you sign up! As Europe remilitarizes, we are often told enormous military spending and young people being forced to go to the military makes us safer. But for queer communities, these narratives often reinforce the very toxic masculinity, gender binaries, and state violence that we have to struggle with to begin with. 🔄 This workshop is a space for Berlin's queer community to explore antimilitarism not as a distant political stance, but as a vital form of queer solidarity and self-defense. We will tear apart the ""man's job"" of militarism, examine how militarization uniquely targets and affects queer and feminist lives. We will share argumentation strategies against militarization, discuss the right to refuse conscription, and explore ways to get active together. ✊️ To sign up, please e-mail us [email protected]! Photo by Wael @plasticloud 📸

WORKSHOP ANNOUNCEMENT 💅 Drag Make-Up Lab w/ Hassandra 🎀 Saturday 7 February, 1-4pm At our CQS Office In Berlin-Schöneberg 📍 Address will be shared after you sign up! This drag workshop introduces core drag make-up techniques, including eyebrow blocking with glue, base application, contouring, highlighting, and eye makeup. Alongside these skills, participants are supported in developing further drag aesthetics. Time is set aside for experimentation and for shaping a personal make up style, building on ideas from their own Drag personas/fantasies. 🎭 The workshop is led by our Hassandra, who is a drag performer active since 2018, and combines practical guidance with space for individual exploration. 🎊 To sign up, please e-mail Hassandra ([email protected]) with a few sentences on why you want to join 📩 This workshop is donation-based! Photo credits 📸 Cover: Mayar Attia @mayarattia Background: Josh Regitz @joshregitz *Local workshop program funded by European Solidarity Corps*

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS 💖 QUTIE* 2.0: Queer Training for Intersectional Education 🎀 21–28 April 2026 🗓 📍 Bern, Switzerland QUTIE 2.0 focuses on decolonizing gender through drag and performance. Together we will look at how colonial histories shaped race and gender, and how these logics still affect queer spaces today. Through theory, history, embodied practice and creative work, participants will develop critical tools for their organisations and communities. This 7-day training is for trainers focused on queer youth work or activism and want to deepen their skills in intersectionality. The training will bring together 28 participants from different countries across Europe and North Africa. 🧚 Apply through the link in bio. Application deadline EXTENDED: 15 February 2026! Free of charge and travel costs covered ✅️ Led by Jara (Angelo Dynamo) & Hassandra By Critical Queer Solidarity and SCI Switzerland, funded through Movetia.

⟡ bits and pieces of a few of the 31 incredible films participants of Queer Cinema as Resistance made together ❤️‍🔥 1. Untitled 2. Wedding Day 3. Connection through a queer lens 4. Roots 5. Metallaksi There’s so much more to show you, but maybe you need to experience it… Should we make another Queer Cinema? The project is funded by the Erasmus+ program and supported by @jugend_fuer_europa

⟡ We are a system of roots that tangle, nurture, and make each other grow. Even if the conditions are hostile. In love with community, and with how queer filmmaking can make community happen against a reality that wants us to be apart. That is the core of queer cinema, at least for us. Watch the full documentary by @francesco_ap_ on link in bio 💘 The project is funded by the Erasmus+ program and supported by @jugend_fuer_europa