Pipe Up! - The Word Workshop

Creative spaces for young voices in Neukölln

From March 2025, in collaboration with WIR MACHEN DAS, we are offering the project ‘Pipe Up! - Die Wortwerkstatt’ for children and young people in the Berlin district of Neukölln. Our aim is to offer young people a platform to find their voice and develop their creative skills in the areas of writing, media and communication.

‘Pipe Up!’ is aimed in particular at children aged 8-12 and young people aged 16-20, with a special focus on young people from families with migration or refugee experience and/or a bilingual upbringing. Languages such as Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish, Persian or Ukrainian are not only recognised as an everyday reality, but are also used as a valuable resource that supports and strengthens the participants in their creative processes.

The workshops take place in close cooperation with schools in the vicinity of Publix, including Regenbogen-Grundschule-Neukölln and Albrecht-Dürer-Gymnasium. The project is also developing a special workshop format in partnership with Bard College Berlin. Under the guidance of Neukölln journalist and filmmaker Schokofeh Kamiz, the young people learn to creatively realise their thoughts and ideas in various formats.

As part of the project, participants have the opportunity to create content that goes beyond traditional lessons: from vlogs and podcasts to print products, online publications or social media formats. These outputs enable young people to share and reflect on their opinions and perspectives in public. In this way, they not only develop their writing and technical skills, but also their social and political sensitivity.

The programme focuses on helping participants to articulate their concerns, think critically and see themselves as active members of society. Of particular importance is the promotion of media literacy, which gives young people the tools they need to shape, scrutinise and help shape the media.

In cooperation with the international ‘Weiter Schreiben’ programme, which can draw on multilingual (exiled) authors and media professionals, participants benefit from a broad network of experts. This network enables the young people to engage in valuable dialogue and gain insights into the world of journalism and literature.

Photo: Marcus Glahn