2-day festival with poetry, performance & sound: SPEECH IS NOT FREE VII – Galerie Z22 | 07.11. + 08.11.2025

Galerie Z22 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf presents the seventh edition of “Speech is Not Free” on 7. + 8. November, 2025. This two-day festival brings together international and Berlin-based artists for an intensive exchange between poetry, performance, and multimedia sound. The festival is organized by Poet Republik. Admission is free; donations are welcome.

Image above: Festival-Flyer, courtesy of Poet Republik + Galerie Z22

The event transforms one of the city’s most vibrant independent galleries into a space of radical imagination, where avant-garde art and political expression converge. Through live performances, film poems, and experimental soundscapes, Speech is Not Free VII revives the rebellious spirit of the Beat Generation—interpreted through the lens of Berlin’s contemporary art scene. Doors open at 7:00 PM. Admission is free; donations are welcome.

Friday, 7. November, 2025 — Voices of Resistance

The festival opens with Uahuu Tujendapi, whose powerful voice sets the tone for an evening of pushing boundaries.

Among the highlights is The Blue Whale of Madness, a cinepoem by M. Garcia Teutsch with a live performance by Claire Uicker, which blends surreal film aesthetics and spoken word.

Accompanying this, video installations inspired by Allen Ginsberg‘s Fall of America immerse the audience in a meditative audiovisual landscape.

The evening concludes with The Swallows of America: A Poem Protest in One Act with Anna Bănică – a lyrically furious reinterpretation of protest as performance art.

Saturday, 8. November, 2025 — Film, Music & Poetic Uprising

The second day opens with The Revolution Will Have Its Sky, a new cinepoem by M. Garcia Teutsch that explores resistance, vision, and renewal through image and sound.

A re-screening of The Swallows of America further explores the play’s poetic message of protest.

The musical highlight of the evening is a live performance by SCANNER, who transforms Ginsberg’s famous lament, “Elegy for Neal Cassady,” into a multi-layered ritual of sound and light.

Scanner combines electronic soundscapes with live visuals by Antonio Pagano—a compelling fusion of poetry, performance, and digital art that could only emerge in Berlin.

About the Festival

Since its founding in 2017, Speech is Not Free has celebrated the dialogue between literature, performance, and political art. Each edition reinterprets the radical legacy of the Beat Generation—from Berlin’s subculture to international networks of experimental art.

This year’s theme, “Uncensored,” challenges the romanticized view of the “American Dream” and revives the Beat tradition as a vibrant, global language of resistance.

From Henry Miller’s Streets of Disillusionment to Ginsberg’s visionary protest poems, the festival embodies the spirit of rebellion and artistic reinvention that continues to shape Berlin’s creative scene.

WHEN?

Date: Friday, 7. November und Saturday, 8. November 2025

Doors open at 7:00 PM

WHERE?

Galerie Z22
Zähringerstraße 22
10707 Berlin

Organizer: Poet Republik

PUBLIC TRANSPORT

U7 Konstanzer Straße

COST?

Free admission / Donations welcome