Hi! I’m Gizem (they/them), aka 6zm, I am an artist and tech professional based in Berlin. Besides music under my pseudonym, my creative portfolio extends to film, theatre, and interdisciplinary art projects.
As a transmasculine non-binary person of color, it’s crucial for me to celebrate the intersections of creativity, queerness, and identity politics with a feminist and inclusive perspective. I am interested in making culture more accessible, hence, in addition to being a co-founder of dif, I am part of the queer feminist collective OYA Bar, a community-driven space dedicated to creating a safer and more accessible environment, particularly for sexual and gender minorities of color and their allies.
We are more than ever in need of sustainable ecosystems based on intersectional solidarity. Exploitation and marginalisation come in multiple forms, and seeing the interconnections between these is key to understanding the injustice systems of the modern world; so that we can discover new ways to break the cycles of oppressions, until there is no more exploitation of the body, labour, and land. These are the reasons why I am part of dif.
Resources
One of the best reads I have encountered about accessibility: PromiseAndPractice.
An inspiration and reminder that we all need to appreciate shows of love as a means of individual support and means of working together: All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks
An interesting code of conduct by a Black collective of music industry pros in the UK, can be applied to different cultural industries and Western countries: Equitrack.blim.org.uk/anti-racist-code-of-conduct
Together with three other artists, we discussed gender representation in the music industry, away from binaries and pink-washing: NBHAP.com/berlin/soli-tunes-gender-representation