HERSTORY

MY VOICE - MY WEAPON OF CHOICE

 

Like in almost all of the musical fields the genre of HipHop or Rap is mostly dominated by men. As JENSEITS VON NELKEN UND PRALINEN, we made it our task to make female* artists in the music industry more visible, to give them a stage and to make them heard. While Rap and HipHop may work as a mirror of society by pointing out issues, deficits and developments, most of the time it has to offer little but stereotypes and clearly defined roles to women.

 

This is the point where we come to play: We are strengthening power and presence of women*, avoiding old, washed up cliches and by that are pushing forward a much needed change - in music and in society. For us, feminism is necessarily intersectional: a narrow definition of what is feminine or female does not make sense to us. From our perspective, feminism is a fight for equality, human rights and self-empowerment for humans of all genders and the fight against sexism.

 

We are supporting the individual women* as well as cooperation and networking within the female* HipHop community, which is why we value an equal Line-Up with no main-act to prevent potential competition among the artists.

 

GIRLS* TO THE FRONT

 

The topic of women* in Rap and Hip Hop is experiencing increasing media attention, female rappers* are more present than ever and are more and more relying on cooperation instead of competition - against the supposedly fixed laws of the music industry.

We are particularly interested in the differences and similarities of these developments in different parts of the world, the new and the old, the individual and common themes, in short: the whole range of feminist trends and struggles in international Rap and Hip Hop. Especially female* artists from countries and regions that are not associated with HipHop or Rap in the first place and don’t get the international attention they deserve are given a stage at our festival.

 

Rap is music, artform and vessel. The languages of the world give it various timbres, intonations and melodies. These are meant to be used skillfully beyond the English templates. Who finds the right words, puts them together to a perfect rhyme and develops a unique style and flow will be queen* of their class.

 

Each year, we pick our artists with great diligence, they are the specialty of our festival. They all share outstanding talent and a remarkably high musical standard while representing the various shades and forms of Rap and HipHop. They are not (necessarily) coming from the mainstream, yet they are masters of their fields, having already gained attention and popularity in their respective scenes. For many, their performance at the festival is their first appearance in Berlin or Germany.

 

Some of our artists from the past years:

 

Spoke (GER) // KT Gorique (CH) // Lentos & Dym (RUS) // Illustre (FR) // Lisaholic (GER) // Machete En Boca (ESP) // BURD (UK) // Ravi Kuma (DK) // Caxxianne (GER) // AddeN (GER)

 

JENSEITS VON NELKEN UND PRALINEN stands for Empowerment of everybody involved, be it the artists on stage, us as the organizers or the audience in the club and at the screens. Over the years, we managed to establish a festival that is unique in Berlin, presenting an all-female* line up to an all-genders audience. We celebrate International Women's day with powerful national and international artists and a great crowd - exciting, diverse, confident and respectful.

 

THE TEAM - open minded, creative, combative and female*

We are a collective of women* from Berlin, who are intertwined in various ways with the cultural sector. Artistic direction and festival production have been in the capable hands of women* from our collective since 2016.