Witnessing these cultural shifts has influenced Amina\u2019s work and career trajectory, and with special thanks to important creative influences in her family, Amina moved to the UK to pursue studies in acting and directing \u2014 first in Liverpool, then at Central Saint Martins\u2019 Drama Center in London, where she completed a Masters in Dramatic Writing. In 2015, Amina\u2019s first play, \u201cYoung, Toxic and Black\u201d, co-written by Thandi Sebe, premiered at Ballhaus Naunynstra\u00dfe. For the 2021 WDR 3 Radio play, “Gone With The Wind \u2014 The Prissy Edition”, Amina concocted a contemporary tale which reorients Scarlet O’Hara, and introduces perspectives of the Black Diaspora.<\/p>\n
Amina Eisner recently starred as the lead in an award-winning performance of \u201cDreams in Black Major\u201d by New York City\u2019s Ta-Nia, at the Berliner Festspiele Digital TheaterTreffen. She is currently working on two new plays: co-writing one set to premiere at Ballhaus Naunynstra\u00dfe, and directing another set to be shown in Treptower Park in September 2021. We met Amina on the streets of Mitte, where she reflected on childhood memories, and discussed ways in which Berlin\u2019s creative scene can learn to adapt to the reality of the city\u2019s important culturally diverse landscape.<\/p>\n
My mum used to be a dancer. She would take me along to gigs, rehearsals and all that jazz, so I decided from early on that I was gonna go into theatre. I went to university in the UK, and from there on things kept coming up that kind of steered my career into the direction it\u2019s heading now.<\/p>\n
\nI love the fact that it\u2019s never the same, each job is different. With every project there\u2019s something new. I also get to meet amazing people and am part of an amazing community. What I love most about writing and acting is that it\u2019s a process that\u2019ll never be finished. I get to learn new skills and find out new things about myself all the time.<\/p>\n
\nI grew up in the Berlin of the \u201890s, and the city was just reassembling itself back then. Places that used to be off limits, so-called \u2018no-go areas\u2019 have now become cultural hubs. Areas that used to be called \u2018rundown\u2019 have been rebuilt in parts and are now \u2018the places to be\u2019 (I\u2019m looking at you Kreuzberg & Neuk\u00f6lln)… Unfortunately a lot of former cultural hubs especially nightclubs and bars had to shut because of \u201cnew\u201d neighbours complaining about noise and such.<\/p>\n
\nI think it helped me a lot to actually see Black people on stage and in leading creative roles to fully understand that I truly CAN do this. I can work in the creative industry and succeed.
\nIt also helped me to look beyond what I knew and broaden my horizon politically as well as creatively and so forth.<\/p>\n
\nThat\u2019s actually a difficult question, as some of my favorite spots don\u2019t exist anymore. There used to be a shop at the corner of Torstrasse towards Koppenplatz, where myself and the other children in the area would buy school supplies. It was called Koschel and the owner was this amazing older lady who knew all of us and always gave us a pen or eraser as a gift along with our purchase. I think it\u2019s now part of a cafe. I still think about this shop whenever I\u2019m in the area.
\nOther than that my favorite spots in Mitte are the flats of my friends and family who still live in the area.<\/p>\n
\nThe same challenges I had to face when I was living in London. I had to work non-creative jobs in order to make a living. Which was exhausting at times and drained the creative juices out of me to the point where I considered taking another career path. How I honestly cannot imagine doing anything else. For the best part of my career I felt like no one was taking me seriously, like my ambitions didn\u2019t matter. Both myself and the work I did was belittled (and sometimes still is), mainly by older white cis-men who up to this day dominate the industry and are trying to keep their exclusive boys clubs alive.<\/p>\n
\nPeople throw around the term \u2018diversity\u2019 as if it\u2019s an accessory, or even worse, a burden.
\nLook around: Berlin is a diverse hub of people and it always has been. Whether it\u2019s in regards to ethnicity, sexuality and so forth. Berlin has never been just one note, it\u2019s always been a symphony. When we look at representations of Berlin, especially on screen, Black people and people of colour keep getting erased from the narrative\u2026 In real life though, you see a sea of different people everywhere.<\/p>\n
\nWe need to keep up the good work without exhausting ourselves. Take breaks and know one’s limits. Policy changes also need to happen to ensure that BiPOC and working class creatives get appropriate funding to compete against creatives who happen to come from a more fortunate background (read: rich parents, inheritance). We need to dismantle old structures and build our own.<\/p>\n
\nJust do it. Do your thing and keep creating. Show respect to the people around you but never forget that these people have to respect you too. Take your space and time and just create.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Actor and author Amina Eisner was born and bred in Berlin\u2019s Mitte borough. The city\u2019s now affluent area, soaked with well-dressed tourists and residents alike, gilded boutiques and foodie-filled cafes, along with the rest of the city post November 1989, has seen a lot of changes since the polymathic talent spent her early days in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":9346,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[32],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yun-berlin.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9341"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yun-berlin.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yun-berlin.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yun-berlin.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yun-berlin.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9341"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/yun-berlin.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9369,"href":"https:\/\/yun-berlin.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9341\/revisions\/9369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yun-berlin.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yun-berlin.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yun-berlin.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yun-berlin.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}