A few days before their comedy show at Den Atelier on 11th May, déi aner had the honour of interviewing the internationally acclaimed poet, comedian and actor Alok, who is currently on their Europe tour. Like many people before – and undoubtedly, after – us, we felt touched and inspired by Alok’s wisdom and humour, but above all by their profound humanity. What they shared with us were thoughts that were filled with political urgency as much as they were filled with poetry.

It is through conversations of unwavering honesty and critical reflection that we allow ourselves to open up our current reality to imagine a better one. Pit has given us a glimpse of what it means to be an artist in Luxembourg, how creativity can be a gateway to imagine brighter worlds and what changes this country can start to make in order to accomodate artists and to generate a more welcoming, nourishing environment for them to thrive in.

Queer feminist spaces in Luxembourg are rare—not because we don't exist, but because the places where we can feel at home are so limited that they practically don't exist. One of the few places in the country where you can feel abnormally normal is Dunia Ciuferri’s feminist queer tattoo space located between the former social security headquarters and the Bouillon parking lot in the capital. This space is now celebrating its one-year anniversary.

Kevin is a non-binary autistic Portuguese-Luxembourgish creative who has been on my radar for a while. Now, doing their masters in Philosophy. I stumbled upon their reels criticizing Luxembourg’s treatment of queer people and I felt right at home. I automatically clicked follow (not the most common action after looking at some people’s profiles…).

Luxembourg made history when its current head of state, Xavier Bettel, became the first openly gay prime minister in the world to be reelected for a second term in 2018. Nevertheless, Luxembourg’s queer history is rather hard to tell, with very little evidence of documented LGBTQIA+ events.