HAUS FÜR POESIE

It is always the urban space in which Keskinkılıç’s lyrical speakers explore themes such as migration, experiences of racism, queer desire, and Muslim spirituality. In his poems, this manifests as a whirlpool-like interweaving of these themes, translated into a vivid imagery that unites city and nature, human and animal, the sacred and the profane, as well as a multitude of languages. Thus, eye games are coaxed out that are threatened in public space; touches transform into tendernesses that could instinctively be mistaken for acts of brutality; and strangers come particularly close, though never entirely. Keskinkılıç’s poems write spaces of possibility that — in defiance of an often resigned reality — allow for desire and recognition where they previously had no place. The lyrical I that takes us along on its odyssey often seems lost, swaying, on the run. And yet this lyrical I finds beauty wherever the eye turns — and in these poems, the eye reaches far.

The lyrical I does not appear only as Odysseus; myth takes on many forms in Ozan Zakariya Keskinkılıç’s poetry. Elsewhere, the serpent goddess Şahmaran speaks — a mythical figure from Anatolia, Iran, and Iraq. Half human, half animal, she guards secrets, yet the question arises whether secrets should not rather be revealed, whether they should not be spoken in real life instead of merely on social media platforms. This sight must instead be regained in the interpersonal realm, and rather than dismissing encounters with a “once upon a time, once not upon a time,” we might ask: How do these experiences become a once and for all, a definitely, an absolutely?

In his poetry film burak, Ozan Zakariya Keskinkılıç transforms his writing into a sensual experience: we meet burak in Hasenheide, accompany him into the four walls of a typical Berlin Altbau apartment, search for glances and lose them again.

The poetry film burak was created in collaboration with director Sami Morhayim, music artist Fabian Saul, and actor Benyamin Reich.

In conversation with Melina Brüggemann, Ozan Zakariya Keskinkılıç will offer insights into collaborative artistic processes and speak, in the context of the reading, about the current work on his second poetry collection.

The event will take place in German.