VOA标准英语2013--German Theater Company Helps Minorities Tell Their Stories

 

German Theater Company Helps Minorities Tell Their Stories

It's not every day that you see Turkish-German school kids filming in the German parliament. These kids are interviewing the head of Germany's Roma community as part of a new program at a theater company in Berlin called Ballhaus Naunynstrasse.

The program pairs youths with mentors¹ who work in TV and film. The end product is an hour-long film discussing what it feels like to be a minority in Germany.

Tackling² tough subjects

The Ballhaus' previous films have made headlines nationwide. The last film dealt with racism³ and hate crimes against black people, Turks and others in German cities.

The program's aim is to introduce young minorities to the arts, said program director Veronika Gerhard.

"In Germany, we still have the situation that people of migrant origins have a hard time entering academy, or academia in general, and to be in the arts still is a bourgeois⁴ thing. So what we do is develop projects for people in the neighborhood for everyone who wants to participate," said Gerhard.

The latest film project is about what it means to be black in Germany.

The young people are being led by journalist Michael Goetting and filmmaker Janine Jembere.

"We hope to attract kids with Turkish backgrounds, as well as black kids, and white kids - whoever wants to work with us and is interested in the theme is welcome. I think it's very important to speak about blackness and to think about blackness and to make it public as well, because in Germany there's still little debate about it," said Goetting.

Diverse voices

Jembere said she wants to help young people have a voice in the debate about the lack of diversity in public life.

"I think it's a long story of supremacy⁵, or normality, where certain groups of people are just muted⁶ in a way - they don't have a place in public discourse⁷. So it's very necessary to push back into the discourse, to be in the mainstream," she said.

Some of the young people already know what they want to say in their film. Like Amanda, a 19-year-old Rwandan-German woman studying in Berlin.

"I want it to be more normal, I want people to accept another reality - the reality I see, that Germany's is not totally white, that people accept this. I think it's still very denied," said Amanda.

The film will be screened at the theater on April 15, and hopefully will serve as a bridge between Germans of all backgrounds. 

1 mentors   

n.（无经验之人的）有经验可信赖的顾问( mentor的名词复数 )v.（无经验之人的）有经验可信赖的顾问( mentor的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Beacham and McNamara, my two mentors, had both warned me. 我的两位忠实朋友，比彻姆和麦克纳马拉都曾经警告过我。 来自辞典例句
• These are the kinds of contacts that could evolve into mentors. 这些人是可能会成为你导师。 来自互联网

2 tackling   

n. 扭住, 抱住, 卷起

参考例句：

• a bottom-up approach to tackling the problem 处理这个问题的自下而上的方法
• There are three essentially different ways of tackling the problem. 解决这个问题有三种根本不同的方法。

3 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

4 bourgeois   

adj./n.追求物质享受的(人)；中产阶级分子

参考例句：

• He's accusing them of having a bourgeois and limited vision.他指责他们像中产阶级一样目光狭隘。
• The French Revolution was inspired by the bourgeois.法国革命受到中产阶级的鼓励。

5 supremacy   

n.至上；至高权力

参考例句：

• No one could challenge her supremacy in gymnastics.她是最优秀的体操运动员，无人能胜过她。
• Theoretically,she holds supremacy as the head of the state.从理论上说，她作为国家的最高元首拥有至高无上的权力。

6 muted   

adj. 1.（声音）静静的；减轻的；2.（意见）含糊不清的；表达不明确的

参考例句：

• They spoke in muted voices. 他们轻声说着话。
• The strings are muted throughout the closing bars of the symphony. 该交响曲结束部分各节中的弦乐全为弱化音。

7 discourse   

n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述

参考例句：

• We'll discourse on the subject tonight.我们今晚要谈论这个问题。
• He fell into discourse with the customers who were drinking at the counter.他和站在柜台旁的酒客谈了起来。