On the eve of the special Pride edition of Silence, we are organizing a second Queer Care Conversation. Mariette Dölle , Director of the Oude Kerk, will engage in dialogue with guest curator Julia Visser and choreographer Alex Blum about Blum's graduation project and performance, SISTER SONGS.

Taking pride as a focal point for the queer care conversation, we reflect upon the role of 'care' in activism. Care and activism are strongly connected in Pride, and requires recourses mobilized by the queer community. 'Activism is not a sprint, we run a marathon' as Blum says. Voice, chant, and singing are powerful tools in casting out anxiety, bring down levels of adrenaline, and manifest friendships and alliances. As a curator, Julia Visser is particularly interested in how song manifests networks of solidarity. Song has been part of the historical repertoire of the old church over the centuries, with its expressive form morphing along with the shifts of ruling classes - Catholicism, Protestantism, and being a contemporary art space. Blum mentions her sonic sculpture to be a way of “sistering.” What does she mean with this? And how does the particularity of the trans femme voice manifest in a world of relations and solidarity?