Opening of Human Rights Exhibit & MLK Celebration (Bonn)

WHAT: Opening Reception of the #StandUp4HumanRights Exhibit
WHERE: Alte VHS, Kasernenstr. 50, Protected content
WHEN: Thursday, January 17, Protected content , starting at 7 PM

Please join us next Thursday evening for the opening reception of the #StandUp4HumanRights exhibit and MLK Day celebration at Alte VHS Bonn. The event includes a poetry reading, short film screening and various artistic inspirations for human rights, justice, peace and dignity.

The exhibit shows 30 posters from designers across the world, curated by the Paris-based non-profit Poster4tomorrow for the “One for all, all for one!” exhibition to celebrate the 70th anniversary the UN Human Rights Declaration.

A wooden king figure by Bonn artist and deacon Ralf Knoblauch will also be at display as a local human rights ambassador. Knoblauch will share with us how he is using these "royal" sculptures (in different shapes and sizes) in public spaces to engage with people of all ages, from different cultures and walks of life raising awareness for human dignity.

Bonn's “lyric to go” poet Wilko will read some inspiring poems (after 7 PM). The event will also honor the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who would have turned 90 this year on January 15.

In Protected content , a little over a year after his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. King visited the divided city of Berlin. The American civil rights leader was invited to West Berlin by its then mayor Willy Brandt. King also made a surprise visit to East Berlin where he delivered the same sermon as the one he delivered earlier that day at the Waldbühne in West Berlin. However, his words had special meaning for East Berliners. It was clear, King said, that “on either side of the wall are God’s children, and no man-made barrier can obliterate that fact.”

Today, as US-President Donald Trump wants to build a wall at the Mexican border and messages of intolerance and hatred prey on our fears, we must reaffirm our common humanity.

In Protected content , to mark the 50th Anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Nelson Mandela spoke at the UN General Assembly. "Born in the aftermath of the defeat of the Nazi and fascist crime against humanity, this Declaration held high the hope that all our societies would, in future, be built on the foundations of the glorious vision spelt out in each of its clauses," he said. “To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity”.

These rights belong to all of us. But that universality has not translated into reality, and currently we see this core principle under severe attack from right-wing populists and authoritarian regimes around the world.

The local #StandUp4HumanRights exhibit at Alte VHS, which runs until Feb. 3rd, is organised by Bonnections in collaboration with Rhizom e.V. and the “Im Namen der Welle“ initiative, and supported by the municipal Catholic parish (katholisches Stadtdekanat), the City’s integration office (Stabsstelle Integration) and Engagement Global.

The exhibition was designed in collaboration with the NGO Poster for Tomorrow for the launch of the global 70th anniversary campaign of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which took place in Paris on December Protected content . The posters are currently also displayed in Argentina, Brazil, Spain, France, Portugal and Switzerland, and exhibits will continue up to December 10th Protected content .

#WalkTogether #StandUp4HumanRights #BridgesNoWalls

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