Latest Quotes and News

Art Exhibit & Talk

23/7/2021

Last month in honor of CALLE Lavapies Festival 2021 in Madrid, I was selected to exhibit some of my quotes, this time in an all new exciting form : customized tiles. The exhibit was followed with an intimate talk as well as a quote workshop, all hosted in the Gato Gato Café. Currently the tiles are still exhibited at the bar and are for sale too. Ask inside for prices and information!

Gato Gato Café & Tapas is situated on Calle del Marqués de Toca, 6, 28012 Madrid.

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Emma - To travel is to live - Greece 2018

30/10/2018

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They come in packs of thousands. Travelling through a continent in search of themselves and something they can't quiet explain.
In search of difference. In search of confusion and of their own limits. Until finally they find it. Sometimes out of luck, sometimes out of destiny, sometimes just out of the exhaustion.
One only really knows themselves not from how they conformed, but from how they stepped outside their limits.

But doing so at times is tiring, and sometimes it seems that your will to move is limitless. Until one day, something clicks and you find yourself with your feet in a territory you had never imagined before.
Something about their air, the people, the food, the smells, the way the streets looked and felt that suddenly made you think one night :"this will be my new home now". "i am ready to settle down here for now". And that first night there will be something you'll never experience twice.
As you unzip that backback for the first time to finally put those clothes into a closet.
As you put down a toothbrush by your sink knowing it will be there tomorrow,
As you pull up the sheets of a bed you know is yours now,
As your wifi connects automatically,
And as you know tomorrow you will wake up in the same place,
Suddenly you feel content.
You're doing a life of work and living. Only this time it is different.
You don't mind the 9 to 17, or the crazy schedules, or seeing the same faces over and over.
Your eyes are untouched by the sting of mediocrity and the day to day you so badly wanted to run away from.
You are still a tourist in a new place. And you rejoice every minute of it. Until you feel like escaping something that became a day to day. Only this time, you won't be afraid to leave and start over. Because you've done it once. And you know you can do it again.

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Last Words for the Road nominated for the social Art Award 2017 in Berlin

14/8/2018

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I am very happy to announce that a fragment of Last Words for the Road can be found in the catalogue of the Social Art Award 2017 in Berlin. The people of the Social Art Award selected my project in the nominations - and though it did not come out as a winner I was very happy to be counted onboard of so many different and talented artists. The book can be bought or viewed online at the following adress - and my project can be found on page 57 and 58 : http://social-art-award.org/social-art-award-book

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Ramy - Lesbos Greece - 2017

11/5/2018

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A few days into my volunteering with Lighthouse relief in Greece, I sat down for a coffee at Goji’s Café and befriended a Syrian guy named Ramy. Ramy had apparently crossed about a year ago, and after some time in the camps, managed to establish himself in Skala where he volunteered as a translator for the newly arrived refugees. He was still waiting on the answer for his asylum status.
I could trace a kind and cartoon-like smile through his heavy beard, and he had a bulky laugh that made his whole body shake as he chuckled. I liked that about him. But it also contrasted greatly with the shades of darkness in his eyes
When Ramy and I weren’t playing chess or smoking cigarettes together, we would talk about his life back in Syria. About his job and his latest 3D animations, about silly memes we’d seen on the internet and about our families and ex-girlfriends. And sometimes, we would talk about how he got to Europe.
That’s when he avoided eye contact the most, as the story that he lived was a grim one; of his boat capsizing in the middle of the night and having to swim for eight hours until he reached the beach with a torn life jacket in one arm and the body of a lifeless child in another… But if Ramy’s eyes were evasive, it wasn’t because of the content nor the nature of his story. I felt him avoiding my eyes because it wasn’t the first nor the second time that he shared his story and that he faced the questions that ensued...

Read more here...

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April 28th, 2018

28/4/2018

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Damn. I just watched this video and even though it may be a marketing stunt by Drake - hip hop is teaching us it's not just all about cars, moneys and girls (selfishiness) - but about being the bad boy that gives (selflessness). Hip hop artist for president !
If it's one thing I keep learning from travelling is the different musical cultures there are in world. Brazilian Bossa Nova, Cuban Salsa, Argentian Tango, Chilean Cueca, Spanish Flamenco, African dancehall, Korean or Vietnamese Pop, German techno, British alternative rock, UK Garage, Jamaican Ragga, South African Soul, Mississipi Blues, Hungarian Psytrans, Swedish Harcore, Italo-Disco, African Heavy Metal, Latin Trap and more...
Listening to music is the best way to travel (for free)
And today I discovered Re-defined American Hip Hop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpVfcZ0ZcFM
This quote was left to me by Colin, a boy I met at the hostel bar who had arrived a few hours ago in Madrid and was already rejoicing in his new destination, celebrating with a drink and smoke hangning from his mouth. When I asked him what's the first thing he does in every new city he travels to, he tells me : "I put my headphones on, with blasting volume, and puts on "I'ma touche the sky' by Kanye West as I take my first giant steps in a new city feeling like nothing is impossible.."

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Public reading of text

12/4/2018

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"Refugees Super Stars : On helping others and ourselves" public reading in Madrid

After volunteering in Greece last year (in part for the project, in part just for myself) I finally came up with the courage to write and publish a text of mine about it - my first political one ! The piece is called "REFUGEES SUPER STARS : on helping others and helping ourselves" and it was read publically at the Cuentos por los refugiados event at La Cuidad Invisible in Madrid to talk about the importance of volunteering and media victimization !

For the first time ever I read this text in Spanish as it got not only edited but also fantastically translated by Leticia Municio Pardo who is also a writer.

Present were the members of La Escuela de Cuentacuentos, who get together and develop short stories to read out in public, as well as the people of Reacción 28 and Madrid for Refugees who all helped organize the event.

The event was a great success as all tickets got sold out, and most of all I presented myself with a personal challenge of reading out in Spanish for the first time ever. The words I wrote were mine, the words translated to spanish were not, but I l relied on tone (and my half broken voice) to give it the story-telling degree it needed to let the words speak from my heart. Seeing people's attention as well as empathic eyes as I told the story of my torn shirt as well as the story of some of the refugees - I felt the message had gone through, and as a story teller that is the best compliment you can receive.

The text will be published online very soon and special thoughts are sent to all the volunteers I met along the way who shared with me their motives, stories and open hearts as well as those who shared with me their experience crossing over to Europe, like Ramy and Omar. This is for all of you !

Event : https://www.facebook.com/events/1002691269907629/

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Art Exhibit & Talk

Emma - To travel is to live - Greece 2018

Last Words for the Road nominated for the social Art Award 2017 in Berlin

Ramy - Lesbos Greece - 2017

April 28th, 2018

Public reading of text

"Refugees Super Stars : On helping others and ourselves" public reading in Madrid

"Last words for the Road" by Lauren Klarfeld

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