Funun Festival with Jabbar Abdullah

Am 7. October comes Jabbar Abdullahas part of the Funun Festival in Bremen to read from his book “Raqqa am Rhein”, which was published by us in 2020.

At the end of 2012, at the age of 24, the Syrian author and archaeologist Jabbar had to flee his hometown of Raqqa to Alexandria, where he received his master's degree. In 2014 he came to Cologne, where he has lived ever since. In addition to his work in the Roman-Germanic Museum, he is active in the Syrian-German cultural scene. He curates art exhibitions and literature festivals, is committed to cultural exchange and successful integration and is co-founder and second chairman of the 17_3_17 association, which promotes the exchange of German and Syrian culture.

"Raqqa am Rhein”, which was published in 2020, is his first book. It is an autobiographical story about departure and arrival, about destroyed dreams of freedom and hopeful new beginnings. The focus is initially on memories of his childhood in a village near the northern Syrian city of Raqqa and his youth under the influence of the dictatorship. The author describes the first peaceful protests in 2011 at the University of Aleppo and their brutal suppression by the Assad regime. Authentic eyewitness reports offer raw insights into the unscrupulous methods of the Syrian secret services as well as into life under the arbitrary rule of IS, which occupied Raqqa in 2014. But Abdullah also reports about his new home, Germany. He describes the first steps in an initially foreign society and language in detail and humorously. The author questions the common concepts of integration and origins, reflects on the concept of freedom and also offers some surprising changes of perspective.

The reading, with musical accompaniment by Aladdin Haddad, will take place in the Villa Ichon take place in Bremen.

The entry is for the event frei!