ROOTS

We launched our Community Builders interview series to sit down with members of our community and speak about care, resistance, belonging and what it means to build spaces where people can truly show up as themselves. Through these conversations, we want to highlight the people shaping our communities through their work, art and care.

As a powerful voice within the community, Tsellot Melesse tells the stories of those who often go unseen. Through her film direction and community work, she creates spaces where people can connect, nurture one another, and feel part of something larger than themselves.

“I try to give people the feeling that they’re heard, they’re seen, and they’re not alone.”

Tsellot’s vision and understanding of community and care has been lovingly shaped through witnessing her parents in action - both of whom migrated from Ethiopia before making their way to Berlin and becoming community church leaders.

Growing up with this example and a natural gift for “yapping”, Tsellot carved her own path in the community, leading many initiatives including those specifically for Black FLINTA*.

Watch our conversation to learn more about Tsellot’s reflections on community, care, and belonging.

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We launched our Community Leaders interview series to sit down with members of our community and speak about care, resistance, belonging and what it means to build spaces where people can truly show up as themselves. Through these conversations, we want to highlight the people shaping our communities through their work, art and care.

Ilaaf (she/her) is a Sudanese activist, artist and scholar based in Berlin. Her work focuses on places and people left at the margins of history, shedding light on Sudanese history.

Learning about the war in Sudan, specifically the lack of knowledge surrounding the conflict, and seeing her loved ones affected by it led her to work towards more education, awareness, and support.

Ilaaf’s last exhibition at Savvy Contemporary (), presenting a colossal work of archiving, research, and historical documentation from the Sudanese community, reminds us of the importance of remembrance while nurturing collective memory.

She highlights the importance of difference as a strength, while working to provide support for migrant youth and people from the diaspora.

We spoke with them about their work, vision and values. Watch our conversation.

As part of our Conversations with Community Builders interview series through ROOTS, we sat down with members of our community to speak about care, resistance, belonging and what it means to build spaces where people can truly show up as themselves. Through these conversations, we want to highlight the people shaping our communities through their work, art and care.

“I started writing because my feelings had to go somewhere, and over the years, that survival became a practice of resistance and care. I have learned that the revolution lives in laughter, in joy, in the fullness of showing up, that resistance is not only about continuing the fight, but about continuing to exist: openly, loudly, hopefully, fully.”

Anwaar Al Nour (she/they) is a first-generation immigrant activist, poet and survivor based in Berlin.

As a community leader, they have actively worked to bring people together by organizing gatherings and supporting Palestine through their art.

Their work teaches us about grief, identity, migration and power, rooted in the belief that rest, healing and community are not rewards of struggle, but the means through which liberation becomes possible.

In our conversation, they show us the importance of hope — not as something passive, but as “a moral decision, a daily choice to act as though a better world is worth building.”

Anwaar also speaks about the importance of creating safer community spaces where people can speak up, share their experiences and learn from one another.

Watch our conversation to learn more about their journey, commitment, vision and approach to community care.

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