Known for the invention of Starbucks, its deep nostalgia for grunge, and a Silicon Valley appeal, Seattle also has a rich Black heritage. As the city becomes increasingly expensive – and historical Black neighborhoods become white – Black artist collectives are using their platforms to address gentrification, historical erasure and ways of existing outside of those structures. Mia Harrison interviewed Ganesha from Cura Club and Saira Barbaric from Playthey and Scumtrust, three collectives that focus on the ways Blackness can be explored outside of the perpetuation of trauma narratives – through actions that heal.

Über das Potential von Kollektiven. Ein Interview mit Emanuel Wehrli, Céline Hafner und Caesar Anderegg vom «Klimastreik Winterthur».

Since their performance Un violador en tu camino went viral in 2019, the Chilean feminist collective LASTESIS is committed to spreading their ideas, theses, and practices of resistance through performances, both in public space and in art institutions around the world. In 2021, the collective published the manifesto Quemar el Miedo (Burn your Fear) where they outline a queerfeminist and decolonial critic of patriarchal violence based on Latin American experiences of women and gender dissident persons and declare bodies and performance as the central means of transnational resistance. At the festival Theater Spektakel in Zurich, LASTESIS gave a 4-day workshop and staged their performance RESISTENCIA o la reivindación de un derecho colectivo (RESISTANCE or the vindication of a collective right) with more than 30 local participants.