Past news & events

Permanent Forum of People of African Descent
Monday, 05. December 2022
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is pleased to announce that the first session of the Permanent Forum of People of African Descent will take place from 5 to 8 December 2022 in Palais des Nations of the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland.

POETRY OF COLOR
Wednesday, 30. November 2022
30.11.2022, 19:30, House of Religions - Dialogue of Cultures
By and with People of Color to promote and represent diversity in the spoken word scene.

Mykki Blanco (USA)
Wednesday, 09. November 2022
09.11.2022, 19:30, Turnhalle at PROGR
Acid, punk, trap: Mykki Blanco is washed in many waters. Launched over 10 years ago as a video art project in the vein of Lil Kim's "Kimmy Blanco". Mykki Blanco quickly grew into a vibrant and almost limitless talent. Poetry, performance, activism and, of course, outrageous and daring rap make Blanco a sought-after role model - even off the concert stage.

Fulu Miziki – Nyege Nyege (COD)
Sunday, 30. October 2022
Eco-Friendly-Afro-futuristic-Punk.
Sun 30 Oct | Door 7.30 pm | bee-flat at PROGR

Embroidery against racism
Saturday, 29. October 2022
The Brazilian-Swiss artist Eva De Souza was a resident at the anti-racist community center "Living Room" in Bern in October. De Souza embroiders to process experiences of violence. By stitching stories onto fabric, she laments against a society that accepts violence as part of itself.

Healing and Transcendence through Radical Decolonial Gestures
Wednesday, 05. October 2022
This panel brings together four contemporary artists whose research and artistic practice puts them at the forefront of decolonial thinking.

International Women* Space
Wednesday, 05. October 2022
O-Platz turns 10 - Migration construction site
10 years ago the Oranienplatz in Kreuzberg and later also the Gerhart-Hauptmann School in Ohlauer Straße were occupied. To mark this anniversary, we want to gather at Oranienplatz from 5.10.-9.10. and celebrate the history of the rebellious refugee movement.

Futures of Black Resistance: Disruption, Rebellion, Abolition
Tuesday, 04. October 2022
04.10.2022, 12:00 - 13:30 (EDT), Online
The summer of 2020 saw the largest black-led protests in UK history. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets across Britain, primarily focused on the ongoing problem of police racism. Britain had not seen black-led protests on this scale since the early 1980s, and this talk by Adam Elliott-Cooper examines some of the impediments to radical black action and thought during that thirty year period.

Craft Lesson Lunch
Monday, 03. October 2022
03.10.2022, 10.10.2022, 17.10.2022, 19.10.2022, Online
The First-Year Writing department at Lang hosts a series of weekly dynamic and interactive lessons in the craft of writing on Mondays during "lunch-time".

AfroBasel (CH) – SICHTBARKEIT Vol. 2
Saturday, 01. October 2022
14:00h – 19:00 Messe, Kaserne, Basel

Better include the realities of BIPOC/PANDC LGBTQ2+ families
Friday, 30. September 2022
29.09.2022, 19:00, Online
Speaker Marianne Chbat, PHD, answers nine questions to demystify and better understand the realities of BIPOC LGBTQ2+ families.

The Ghosts Are Returning
Thursday, 29. September 2022
Musical-scenic performance by GROUP50:50, a collective of artists from Congo, Switzerland and Germany.
29.09.2022 | 20:00 | Kaserne Basel, Reithalle, Klybeckstrasse 1b, 4057 Base

Artist in Community Eva de Souza in Living Room
Saturday, 24. September 2022
Samstag: 24.09.2020 - 16:00 - 18:00 // Moserstrasse 30, 3014 Bern
With the elections in Brazil approaching, the new artist in community Eva de Souza Besetzt das Livingroom. Eva de Souza thematisiert Verbrechen und (politische) Gewalt durch Textilkunst und Stickereien.

Secreening PARTIDA
Saturday, 24. September 2022
Saturday: 24.09.2020 - 18:00 // Moserstrasse 30, 3014 Bern
With the elections in Brazil approaching, Livingroom in partnership with Coletivo Taoca invites to this Brazilian film screening. The film Partida (PT/EN), follows a group of friends who want to overcome the disappointment of Jair Bolsonaro's election as president through political engagement.

OHCHR provides financial support
Friday, 23. September 2022
OHCHR is in a position to provide financial assistance to a select number of civil society representatives planning to participate in-person in the Permanent Forum’s first session. Civil society representatives who wish to apply for this support are requested to send their application package, in a single e-mail, to , by 10 October 2022.

Screening MEDIDA PROVISóRIA
Friday, 23. September 2022
Friday: 23.09.2020 - Open doors 19:00 // Film 20:00 // Moserstrasse 30, 3014 Bern
With the elections in Brazil approaching, Livingroom in partnership with Coletivo Taoca invites to this Brazilian film screenings and welcomes the new artist in community Eva de Souza. The film Medida Provisória (PT/EN), is a dystopia about racism in Brazil. The film is an adaptation of a play that includes historical and recent facts about Brazil.

African Fashion Night
Friday, 23. September 2022
Homage to the Black Man
Das Thema zur African Fashion Night 2022 in Zürich

Whites as victims of racism? This is an upside down debate
Saturday, 20. August 2022
Cultural scientist Jovita Pinto finds the uproar over the cancelled concert at Brasserie Lorraine is wrong. White people did not suffer from racism.

How Can White People in Switzerland Demand a Stop of Racist Police Violence?
Sunday, 01. May 2022
Form different groups of over 50 people each in different cities to meet once a week locally to police the police by observing controls and documenting them.

Screening RAFIKI
Saturday, 29. January 2022
Please join us for a screening and discussion of Rafiki, award winning 2018 film directed by Wanuri Kahiu.

UN media statement
Wednesday, 26. January 2022
OHCHR Statement to the media by the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, on the conclusion of its official visit to Switzerland.

Police shoot a Black man in Morges
Thursday, 16. December 2021
"Take it easy," the railroad worker said to Nzoy. "Sit down." Then the police came running. In Morges, the police shoot a black man. Afterward, they say skin color didn't matter. But the officers' radio transmissions tell a different story. The reconstruction of a fatal police operation.

Swiss police: Serial killer of Black people?
Thursday, 09. September 2021
NEW POLICE HOMICIDE IN MORGES, AFTER BEX, ETC.
PRESS RELEASE, SEPTEMBER 7, 2021
CRAN - Crossroads of Reflection and Action Against Anti-Black Racism
Observatory of Anti-Black Racism in Switzerland

Black representation matters
Wednesday, 08. September 2021
SSOA presents the digital archive with the motto: Black Representation Matters! Contributions of Black people in the fields of politics, culture, literature and art are recorded, as well as Black history in Switzerland documented and thus made accessible.

Rosengarten Memorial
Monday, 24. May 2021
We are angry and grieve for those who have lost their lives to racist police violence around the world. We mourn not only for the many people who were killed in other countries, like Achidi John, Laya-Alama Condé, Ndeye Marieme Sarr, Christy Schwundeck, Yaya Jabbie or Amad Ahmad and Oury Jalloh in Germany. We also mourn those people who were killed by racist violence in Switzerland.

Screening BLACK PANTHER
Saturday, 01. May 2021
Join us for a screening of the multi award-winning film Black Panther in Reitschule Bern on 01.05.2021 at 14:00

Black History Month
Saturday, 20. March 2021
SSOA presents the digital archive with the motto: Black Representation Matters! Contributions of Black people in the fields of politics, culture, literature and art are recorded, as well as Black history in Switzerland documented and thus made accessible.

Black Feminism as Reconstruction of the World
Tuesday, 16. March 2021
BiblioTalk: "Black Feminism as Reconstruction of the World" with Vanessa Thompson.

What Black Lives Matter means for Switzerland
Tuesday, 23. June 2020
For the first time, a broad public denounces structurally anchored racism in Switzerland - and dispels Helvetic myths.

An open letter of Black artists* and cultural workers in Switzerland to Swiss art institutions
Tuesday, 09. June 2020
In an open letter, more than 50 Black artists* and cultural workers who are professionally active in Switzerland call on Swiss art institutions and organizations to translate their symbolic gestures on social media against structural discrimination towards Black people into concrete commitments in their own institutions.

Criticism of the handling of the racist mural in the Wylergut school building
Monday, 18. May 2020

The Racist Symbols and The Resistance
Saturday, 21. March 2020
It is through the work of anti-racist organizers who brought to light this racist violence and took action to remove this trash, that we can now celebrate.

Lamin Fatty’s Family Urges Swiss Authorities to Explain Cause of Death
Wednesday, 01. November 2017
Lamin Fatty, a 23 year-old Gambian asylum seeker was arrested by the Swiss police on Sunday and he was found dead in a police cell in Blecherette in Laussane, Switzerland on Tuesday.