☁️ Growing Session, The Vegetable Parliament, Poesie Festival Berlin 2025, Silent Green, 10.06.2025.
☁️ கடல் ஒன்று / Kadal Ondru, CABANE B, Bern (Switzerland), 24.05.2025.
Kadal Ondru can be translated as “Sea One” or one sea. A poet stands at the point where three seas meet in their ancestral district Kanyakumari. Sangamam. Poet speaks in three languages: Tamil, English and German. Like seas that erase borders and dissolve ashes, poet mixes these languages to reflect on the crude edges of swallowing histories, in whose margins like froth are written genocides, exiles, caste violences and colonial wounds. Rhythm and tide lead the poem. Poet becomes a friend who steps in and out of their own history, a lover of a mother-tongue that hides more than it tells.
PC: Laura Giana Binggeli
☁️ Paalputhu Kalai Maalai: A Queer Tamil Art Evening, H48 Berlin.
Works by:
சாகித்தியன் சந்திரகுமார் (Saahithyan Chandrakumar), தேஜஸ்வினி சந்திரன் (Thejaswini Chandran), காயத்திரி திவியா கங்காதரன் (Gayathri Thivyaa Gangatharan)
Readings by:
அவ்ரீனா AVRINA (ஆதி), சிந்துஜன் வரதராஜா (Sinthujan Varatharajah), ஸ்வஸ்திகா சிவசண்முகநாதசர்மா (Swassthi Sivasanmukanathasarma)
☁️ Poetry & Com Chor Berlin, 31.03.2025, Südblock Berlin.
☁️ World Poetry Day 2025 : A Celebration of Poetry, 21.03.2025, Haus für Poesie Berlin. A joint event by Haus für Poesie and the German UNESCO Commission, Akademie Schloss Solitude, the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program, Kulturstiftung Schloss Wiepersdorf, Czech Literary Centre, and the International Artists’ House Villa Concordia Bamberg.
Readings by: AVRINA, Petr Borkovec, Georg Leß, Rachel McNicholl, María Negroni, Seda Tunç
☁️ “Duality – between reality and escape“, 31.01.2025, Alte Brotfabrik Hamburg, with poets mienamango, Aisling and Ibrahim. All proceeds from the evening were donated to the Gaza Soup Kitchen.
☁️ TOGETHERNESS FEST – 10 YEARS OF POETRY MEETS (w/ LES NUBIANS & BALOJI), Heimathafen Neukölln, Berlin. With CASSIE KINOSHI (saxophone) + BLACK PEARL (dancer), and poets KALAF EPALANGA, DAVID YUSUF, AZADÊ, THỦY-TIÊN NGUYỄN, HYEMI JO.
☁️ 30.10.2024, AGAPE / WEEPING, an independent performance-reading with Day Eve Komet, Kiezkapelle, Berlin
☁️ 19.10.2024, Voicemail #15, Refugio Berlin
☁️ 11.10.2024, Belonging, Barrio Berlin Festival: poco.lit & Hopscotch Bookstore Berlin. A review of the event can be read here.
☁️ 20.07.2024, Readings on the Green (Lesungen im Grünen), Poesie Festival Berlin 2024 at Silent Green.
☁️ 08.05.2024, Poets on a River of Fire: Kitchen Session 3 with dandelion eghosa at Gallerie am Turm, Berlin, as part of DREAMERS POESIE FESTIVAL. Other poets from the evening were Hanita Firoozmand, Moiasse, Giorgio Ferretti and Fatim Selina Diaby.
☁️ 02.12.2023, No.Mad.In.The.Attic: a bilingual musical poetry reading with Deepthi Bhaskar at the Bangalore Literature Festival, The Lalit Ashok.
☁️ 02.12.2023, தமிழ்: A Literary Tapestry, a discussion in Tamil with writers Salma, Perumal Murugan and Imayam, Bangalore Literature Festival, The Lalit Ashok.
☁️26.10.2023, Vocations: Reimagining the Lied, premiere of the art-song after you, i learned to plant a poem, grow a song, a poem I wrote for the project in English & தமிழ், composed by Sol-i So.
☁️ 21.10.2023, Rituals, Fictions and Weaves of Kaftan, House of Kal at ngbk. Read from Poochi, a short story. Artists of the evening included Inky, Sakina Aliakbar and Shaunak Mahbubani.
☁️ 14.10.2023, poets on a river of fire (2nd kitchen session), poetry session co-imagined with dandelion eghosa, as part of Day & Night School of Glimmers. Schwankhalle, Bremen.
☁️ 09.10.2023, Vocations: Salon Abend by Haus für Poesie, Akademie der Künste. Collaborative poetry reading with Felipe Sáez Riquelme.
☁️ 30.09.2023, Byeolmuri – Fest der Sterne* mit Voicemail, Unionplatz. Read from a series of short kitchen poems and before i die.
☁️ 26.08.2023, Open Mic: Voice, Echo and Location, as part of Middle Ground: PREE. Caribbean Writing, HKW Berlin. Read with poets Julianne Chua, Effie Dennis, Day Eve M Komet, Ingrid Lezar , Wassan Fouad Ali, Ncube, Tara Habibzadeh, Sailesh Naidu and yano2d.
☁️ 13.07.2023, Poesie und Rose: Ein Sommerabend mit der Zeitschrift ‚Sinn und Form’, mit Matthias Weichelt und Durs Grünbein, Ferlemann und Schatzer Buchladung, Berlin. Read from „Ein Panzer, ein Battailon, ein Banyanbaum“ and „Amma knows the way“.
☁️ 24.06.2023, Live reading with the literary podcast series Stoff aus Luft for “Prosanova: Festival für junge Literatur”, Hildesheim.
☁️ 23.06.2023 (3:00pm), no.mad.in.the.attic for “Prosanova: Festival für junge Literatur”, Hildesheim. A snippet can be seen here.
Letters. Journal entries. Worn out soles. Nicotine patches. In the moonlight, the yellow wallpaper mutates. We’re on all fours, we’ve broken free. I told me how to save me in a dream. Light the candle. Burn the Great House. Mad, madder, maddest. Cull. That’s not you in the mirror. That’s the child you were. Would you like to hold hands? There’s surely ways to escape diagnoses. The garden awaits. You know the way, you are. Kiss the dark, leak at its lips. Slap yourself awake. Write everything down, don’t you miss even a single detail.
அவ்ரீனா பிரபலா-ஜாஸ்லின் / avrina prabala-joslin has been meaning to tell a story of horror and madness and the strange world of words. It’s time. Inspired by Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys) and The Yellow Wallpaper (Charlotte Perkins Gilman).
☁️ 23.06.2023, Kadal Ondru with writer Sinthujan Varatharajah for “Prosanova: Festival für junge Literatur”, Hildesheim.
“Water masses (are) a constant reminder of what was, what could have been and stopped being” (possible biography of an ocean). What does it mean to share an ocean? To return to water, not land? What does the ocean swallow and hide? Whose epitaphs are written in water and what eulogies do whales sing? In this session, Avrina Prabala-Joslin and Sinthujan Varatharajah will let their tongues form waves to allow for water to form human words.
☁️ 03.06.2023, poets on a river of fire for “A Wa Nibi: We are here” (1st kitchen session), poetry session co-imagined with dandelion eghosa at Kampnagel, Hamburg. Event is curated within a 2-part queer introspection taking place in Lagos, Nigeria and Hamburg, Germany with a goal to create a digital glossary of contemporary queer vocabulary in Nigeria.
„poets on a river of fire: queer and flowing, queer and burning, queer in writing. poets dandelion eghosa and avrina prabala-joslin come together in this kitchen session to let the audience into their world of words, spirits, transitions, siblinghood and love. what makes, breaks and liberates these queer poets in exile? what faces do they wear and dream?“
☁️ 13.04.2023: Sprachlos, Hamburger Lesefrühling at Atelier gausz Ottensen, with writers Sinthujan Varatharajah and Nail Doğan. Curated by Lubi Barre. Read an assortment of “kitchen poems”
☁️ 02.04.2023: SINN und FORM: Lesung aus den ungedruckten Heften, Literarisches Colloquium Berlin (LCB) mit Friedrich Dieckmann, Hans Joas, Kornelia Koepsell, Emanuel Maeß,Wolfgang Matz, Katharina Winkler und Gisela von Wysocki. Moderation: Lutz Seiler und Matthias Weichelt. Ich lese aus meiner Kurzgeschichte “EIN PANZER, EIN BATAILLON, EIN BANYANBAUM” (translated from English by Dr. Gertraude Krueger)
☁️ 05.02.2023: Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters at Kanakakkunnu Palace, Thiruvananthapuram, with Raghavendra Madhu, Ashwani Kumar and Jose Varghese. Panel (Poetry as Hope) and Reading.
☁️ 04.02.2023: Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters at Kanakakkunnu Palace, Thiruvananthapuram, with poets Raghavendra Madhu and Shinie Antony. Read i wrote my nightmares down for you and don’t worry, your thoughts won’t be
☁️ 03.02.2023: Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters at Kanakakkunnu Palace, Thiruvananthapuram, with poets Sridala Swami and Jennifer Mckenzie. Read an assortment of “kitchen poems” in English and தமிழ்
☁️ 02.02.2023: Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters at Kanakakkunnu Palace, Thiruvananthapuram, with poets Karuna Ezara Parekh and Gopika Jadeja. Read poets on fire
☁️ 19.11.2022: “if undelivered, please return to…”, an evening of poetry at Savvy Contemporary, Berlin, with poets Meena Kandasamy, Abul Kalam Azad, Uzma Falak and Reyazul Haque. Read from if poetry is a prayer, is a poem a dare? and குரல் / குறள்
☁️ 29.10.2022: “Poetry Meets:HipHop” at Oyoun Berlin, with Headliner Sammus, Mushiva, Slam-Poet ‘Sir Black’ and Nana d’Artist. Read from poets on fire
☁️ 29.10.2022: “Wepsert: Like Water” at Ada Bar Berlin, with poets Sarah Berger and Adelaide Ivanova. Read from a poet on fire makes thoughts on german-land (multilingual reading in english, german and தமிழ்)
☁️ 06.09.2022: ““The Circus” Revisited” at The Circus Hotel Berlin, with writers Sarah K. Perry and Sarah Van Bonn.
☁️ 03.09.2022: “macht.sprache. Sprint” by poco.lit at the Literarisches Colloquium (LCB) Berlin. Read from let me take you home with me, let me show you where i come from
☁️ 24.07.2022: “FREAK DE L’AFRIQUE presents Ayo City Festival” at Haubentaucher Berlin with artists Josephine Papke, Melanelle B. C. Hémêfa, Oluwafumilade Oyinkansola Anuoluwakpo, Toha and Zaki Hagins. Read from can i tell you what a flower makes me feel?
☁️ 07.07.2022: “in tandem: live literature” at Lettrétage Berlin, with writers Duygu Ağal, Çagla Aribal, hn. lyonga and Dasom Yang. Read from i wrote my nightmares down for you (avrina prabala-joslin) in english and from oru good night story (chella thambi) in தமிழ்
☁️ 16.06.2022: “Poets’ Corner Treptow-Köpenick – Lyrik in den Bezirken (23. poesiefestival berlin)” at Novilla Berlin with poets Nadja Küchenmeister, Marko Pogačar, Mariam Rasheed, Ulrike Almut Sandig and Donna Stonecipher. Read from myfuckmanifesto
☁️ 26.03.2022: “Parataxe” at English Theater Berlin, with writer Aboud Saeed. Read from Tea and Treachery
☁️ 08.12.2021: “Trost. Der Praxistest” at Literaturhaus Berlin, with writers Gabriele von Arnim, Asal Dardan, Daniel Falb, Tomer Gardi, Bernhard Heckler, Nataša Kramberger, Hannah Lühmann, Mathias Traxler, Asmus Trautsch. You can listen to me read from min 14:43 here
☁️ 30.10.2021: “Mapping Memory” at Savvy Contemporary Berlin. Read from you find a place in me with lost words and taste
☁️ 10.08.2021: “Asking the Archive: Über 35 Jahre Li-Be Archiv” at Literaturhaus Berlin, with Michael Goetting, Gurmeet Singh, Janika Gelinek, Sonja Longolius, Herbert Wiesner and Matthias Weichelt
☁️ 10.07.2021: “Voicemail” at Refugio Berlin, with artists Anisha Gupta Müller, Kartini, Linh Müller, The Darvish and Türkish Delight
☁️ 09.05.2021: “Asian Performing Artists Lab presents AmnAsia (2nd edition)”, Berliner Ringtheater, with artists Michiyasu Furutani, Nine Yamamoto-Masson, Shen Sum-Sum, Thủy-Tiên Nguyễn, Tien Yi-Wei und Wang Ping-Hsiang. Read from a writer goes fishing for lost voice. Watch the documentation of the residency here.
(the above is a selection of readings undertaken in the last 2 years)
(below are a few recordings of works from a younger poet)
அவ்ரீனா AVRINA, poet and writer 