Who Intervenes? Thoughts from the Perspective of Arts and Culture Activism

The following text is a transcription and translation of a conversation between Rahel El-Maawi and Sarah Owens, which took place as part of the 2018 lecture series “‘The Art of Intervention.”’. Their dialogue touches upon topics such as Blackness, in/visibility, community, culture, art and criticism. Using their own voluntary work and Black-/queer-feminist literature as a starting point, El-Maawi and Owens talk about their motivations for, as well as possibilities and consequences of, intersectional activism in arts and culture. Through this, the point of view shifts from the art of intervention to the question of who intervenes and how this intervention is supported or restricted by sociopolitical conditions.