All-inclusiveness. Some reflections on the FemmeQ Conference in Berlin
Renata Keller
It has now almost been two weeks ago that I took part at the FemmeQ Summit here in Berlin. I was kindly invited by the organizer Alexandra Feldner by a personal handwritten card which in and of it self struck me as an unusual gesture. That touch of care that struck me then I also noticed in many details when I went to the conference itself. When I walked into the building (me Collectors Room in Mitte, Berlin – a fancy venue) I was surprised by the beautiful aesthetics, the food that was served, but foremost by a bubbling wave of curious and very engaged excitement that came from the waiting crowd. What struck me first of all was that there was beauty in the room – not the kind of superficial beauty you would think of – but a certain human beauty that expresses strength, maturity and responsibility amongst the participants. That was just the first few minutes. There were about 150 participants, mainly women, but also quite a few men.
The speakers of the conference are to be found here. They are all members of Rising Women Rising World, a powerful group of women who are working on practically and spiritually changing the world through instilling what they see as more feminine values into their work and lives by creating twelve constellations of activism. As myself, you may wonder about the term ‘feminine’ and shrink away a bit. At least I always have associated words like ‘feminine’ with esoteric concepts like ‘divine feminine’ and ‘shakti power’, so with the kind of terminology that again separates men from women and makes women look holier than they are and alienates men. This is the reason I was always skeptical about any movement that emphasized the feminine side, since I believe, that the more meaningful values we have to instill in this world have to be common-sensically ‘more human’ and shared by women and men. So I entered the conference with a skeptical but open mind. And after taking part and hearing and witnessing the power and passion with which these women not only spoke of activism but also visibly are in the midst of many very important wide-ranging projects, I became aware of a part of me that just started to feel more sure about the fact that love, compassion, beauty, responsibility, respect, care for what is sacred and developing a deeper intuition and a sharpness of mind are the qualities that are going to be the most important qualities that ensure a better way of working together and are going to support us in developing new solutions for a pretty much crisis-laden and violent-crazy planet. I did experience an all-inclusiveness and the men who were there expressed this too with deep appreciation. One man said that in no moment did he feel ‘other’ than the women, he felt at home and invited to join the discussion full-heartedly.
By the way – femmeQ stands for an intelligence that is informed by the feminine. However, to me the values it expresses are not only about women but are wholesome, in accordance with the cosmic laws and a deep spiritual intuition and intelligence. Something that men and women alike, who feel responsible for our world, would love to aspire to. The question is how do you ‘load’ such a new term like ‘femmeQ’? How do you make clear with a new name like this what you mean by it? The power of branding is something that I know from my own work, and I am aware that the organizers are very sensitive also to make an effort to ensure that the term femmeQ is not misunderstood and creates another dualistic perception of ‘better’ versus ‘other’.
I will not be able to take you through the whole program, and for those of you who are curious about the deeper content of the event, there will be a download available in a couple of weeks of all the talks and sessions of the two days.
But I will add one more very important point: I have been involved in various women’s groups over the years. In my own experience and in working on deep conditioned structures with other fellow women I know that deep sisterhood amongst women is not something that we are born with. We have to work it. This is why I was doubly moved to see such a powerful group of women who did not only exude authentic qualities of self-confidence, strength, originality and mature responsibility, but also a genuine sisterhood – in the small details – behind the scenes, in the breaks, in the way they looked at each other (and us) and in the way they supported each other. The memory of them sitting together on stage and witnessing the love, fire, pragmatism and binding commitment they have together for a bigger cause still fills me with a renewed sense of hope for the future.
Renata Keller ist Künstlerin, Filmemacherin und Grafikerin und Art-Direktorin und lebt in Berlin. Seit über 25 Jahren arbeitet sie im Bereich der Visuellen Künste (Masters in Applied Imagination, University of Arts, London), leitet das Art-Büro Vertical Impulse und ist Geschäftsleiterin und Art Director von evolve Magazin. Sie hat sich ihr ganzes Leben lang mit philosophischen und spirituellen Themen auseinandergesetzt und versucht auch im Gebiet der Kunst und Gestaltung Ausdrücke eines evolvierenden Weltbildes zu entwickeln. Vor kurzem hatte ihr Dokumentarfilm Why Women Need to Climb Mountains über das Leben und Werk von Dr. Gerda Lerner Premiere.