Delve into the rich tapestry of intergenerational Work & Healing Strategies for black individuals, as we explore the profound intersections of activism, academia, and art within the black community. This event promises to be a thought-provoking exploration of historical legacies and contemporary endeavors, highlighting the resilience and creativity inherent in black culture.

Our esteemed panelists will lead an engaging discussion, sharing insights, experiences, and strategies that have been passed down through generations, shaping the narrative of black empowerment and healing. From the pioneering efforts of activists to the innovative approaches of scholars and artists, we will examine the ways in which the past informs the present and shapes the future for black communities worldwide.

Araba Evelyn Johnston-Arthur

Social Scientist & Activist

Esther Maria Kürmayr

Schwarze Frauen Community

Adebisi Lalemi

Psychological Counselor

Adaora Ofoedu

Genevieve Mayala

Social Worker & Yoga Teacher

Simon Inou

Journalist

Femi Oladeji

Pilates, Kung-Fu und Shiatsu

Candice Joyce

Shiatsu & Reiki Practioner

in decolonial-untraining. Together with Mariama Nzinga Diallo, Lia Kastiyo-Spinósa, Anna Seidel, Savo Ristić and Mehmet Emir, Araba Evelyn Johnston-Arthur recently became part of the director’s collective of MUSMIG (museum für migration). MUSMIG has been and is struggling for self-determined historization of migration in Austria, while at the same time questioning the foundational violence of museums in Europe.

ADEFRA and Black organizations in the UK, Pamoja organized its first Black History Month in the Afro Asian Institute in Vienna in 1997, dedicated to the theme: Die Afrikanische Diaspora. In the following years Pamoja’s BHM was among others supported by Schwarze Frauen Community, Radio Afrika International. Pan African Forum in Austria, Ossiri´s Lernakademie and community businesses like Makuti Restaurant, Jamu Afrika, Black Planet, Global Import&Export Femi Ebenezer. Together with among others Njideka Iroh, Nana-Gyan Ackwonu, Beate Hammond, Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński, Abdallah Salisu, Claudia Unterweger, Jude Sentongo, Ndidi Iroh, Patrick Onyemaechi Kainz, Aisha Lindsey, Aroua Salhi, Dominic Mariochukwu Gilbert, Chima Rameez Okpalaugo Habib Roohi, Araba founded the Research Group of Black Austrian History in 2005. She is now in the process of re-arriving at a deeper understanding of Austrian presents after having lived, studied and taught at the Historically Black Howard University in Washington DC for more than 10 years. As recovering storyteller she is growing into becoming a junior-junior-elder in

Araba Evelyn Johnston-Arthur

Social Scientist & Activist

Born to parents who migrated to Austria from Ghana and Finland, Araba Evelyn Johnston-Arthur’s mother gave birth to her in Vienna. She is the daughter of Maija Asunta-Johnston and the late Thomas Baker Johnston-Arthur. Araba is the great granddaughter of Maame Nana Kwekwenyiwa and granddaughter of Maame Modupe. She is blessed to also be the daughter of her late Aunty Aku Dagadu Akpor-Mensah her second mother. Upon returning from Ghana, where she spent her first year after completing high school, Araba followed the footsteps of her father and became the General Secretary of the Ghana Union, which her father had been the president of for many years in Union’s founding years. Before joining a group of young Black people among them Sabine Haselman and Mike Ongeri (from the rap group Aphrodelics), Titilayo Aloba, Kayode Oshiga that founded Pamoja. Movement of the Young African Diaspora in Austria in an apartment in the 20th district in Vienna in 1996, Araba had been an active member of PANFA the Panafrican Pan African Forum in Austria. Inspired by its connections to the Initiative of Black People in Germany (ISD),

Esther Maria Kürmayr

Social Worker & Activist

Mag.a DSA Esther Maria Kürmayr studied translation and African literature at the University of Vienna, she has a post graduate in Latin American Studies. She studied social work at the Social Academy of Vienna, and has a degree in kindergarten and after school pedagogy and an anti discrimination trainers certificate.

She is an educational and antidiscrimination expert and trainer. She is a founding member and since 2006 the manager of the Schwarze Frauen Community (=women counselling office and empowerment program for black women and youth ), a teacher in a BVL Vienna (professional orientation for pupils with special needs) and a lecturer at different University departments in Vienna, a social worker and translator.

Her studies took her to Cuba, Mexico and Guatemala and her family background to several African countries. The experiences in different countries and different social circumstances in addition to the academic studies shaped her perception and understanding of diversity.

Candice Joyce

Shiatsu & Reiki Practioner

Femi Oladeji

Pilates, Kung-Fu und Shiatsu

Candice Joyce, helped at the SFC when she was a child and teenager. At the time she helped take care of the children and taught dance classes for them.

Now, after living in Brazil for 5 years and her “complete reconstruction of self” as she calls it, she helps spread the spiritual view of raising vibrational frequencies to solve all of the issues the community faces. Practicing Reiki, Shiatsu, Voice Healing and an energetic and intentional approach to traditional Afro Dance, she works 1:1 with her clients to help them find their path and return to the essence: Love.

My name is Femi Oladeji. In my long career as a practitioner and expert in Pilates, Kung-Fu and Shiatsu, I have met people with a whole range of problems. No two of them have been alike, and each case was unique. But they all had one thing in common: they were searching for more – better health, added time for themselves, more recreation, ...

I was born and raised in Vienna. Being a certified social worker - working for the family services and in the field of protection from domestic violence, stalking and sexual abuse for more than 30 years - I’m also certified as Dance and Expressive psychagogue, Yoga teacher and Mat Pilates trainer.

Genevieve Mayala

Social Worker & Yoga Teacher

Born and raised in a white family, as the only Black person in my surrounding, later on being a single mum of two, with hardly any support and for about 28 years being the only Black person in a white professional world, I soon learned to handle the harshness of racism. Creativity, music, singing, dancing and every type of movement were always important means to build resilience. They became my shelter.

At some point in my life I had the wish to dive deeper into yoga. Again I was the only Black person in this world. So I did yoga teacher trainings (Power yoga, Hatha yoga, Yin yoga, Traumasensitive yoga and Afrikan yoga) and started giving Bpoc Yoga Classes, in 2017 In 2018 I founded @bpocyogavienna,, in order to gather and connect Black yoga teachers and students. I had an ideal of connecting and cooperating to serve the community, nonprofit, without competing with each other. Being convinced that there must be something african, that I could better identify with, I finally found and studied Afrikan Yoga.

As I recognized there were starting to be more Black social workers and social pedagogues, I founded @blacksocialworkaustria, in 2022, in order to connect and support each other, as we are dealing with and supporting clients effected by racism, while being affected by racism ourselves - from clients, from colleagues, from the system.

I’m wishing for the Black Austrian Community to thrive.

Adebisi Lalemi

Psychological Counselor

I am a qualified Psychological Counselor

Born in London of Nigerian Parents..Before moving to Vienna, 14 years ago...I worked for 8 years ,in a Therapeutic Community in London,with people diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder,who have histories of Sexual ,physical and emotional abuse ...

I work with individuals, groups and couples,on issues such as eating disorders, relationships, anxiety and depression, low self esteem.

I also offer supervision to companies and individuals..and I also worked as an anti-racist trainer ..

11 Challenging racist iconography:

A History of Black and African Activism inAustria

with SIMON INOU

From Julius Meinl to M*Brau beer, Austria has utilized racist imagery to depict Black people through advertising campaigns. These depictions are not limited to advertisements but also have a history in literature, public space, cultural customs, museums, and other areas. In this lecture, journalist, sociologist, and activist Simon Inou will give a history of Black and African activism in Austria and how this racist iconography has been challenged historically and in the present.

Von Julius Meinl bis zum M*Brau-Bier hat Österreich in Werbekampagnen rassistische Bilder verwendet, um Schwarze Menschen darzustellen. Diese Darstellungen beschränken sich nicht nur auf Werbung, sondern haben auch eine Geschichte in der Literatur, im öffentlichen Raum, im kulturellen Brauchtum, in Museen und anderen Bereichen. In diesem Vortrag wird der Journalist, Soziologe und Aktivist Simon Inou eine Geschichte des schwarzen und afrikanischen Aktivismus in Österreich erzählen und wie diese rassistische Ikonographie historisch und in der Gegenwart in Frage gestellt wurde.

Tayla Myree presents

14 Representations of Blackness

In European art, Black people are often illustrated as bystanders or allegorical figures, sometimes alike mere decorative attributes. This guided tour and dialogue between the Historian Tayla Myree and Art mediator Paul Walther gives an understanding of Black representation in artwork in the Belvedere collection and wall paintings inside the Lower Belvedere.

In diesem Rundgang durch die Ausstellung Das Belvedere. 300 Jahre Ort der Kunst, durch den Prunkstall sowie durch das Schloss legt Historikerin Tayla Myree im Gespräch mit Kunstvermittler Paul Walther den Fokus auf die oftmals übersehene und entwertende Repräsentation Schwarzer Menschen in der Kunst.