FEM SLAM 2025 - Host: Annika Blanke
It will be loudly female at the Wilhelmshaven Pumpwerk in cooperation with the Equality Officer of the City of Wilhelmshaven as four female poets face off in a literary competition for International Women's Day!
In the first reading round, the theme is "Being a Woman" - what does it actually look like nowadays? What did it look like in the past? And what is good or bad about it?
Four poets talk about what moves them. From near and far, stirring and captivating, sometimes funny and sometimes serious, but definitely entertaining — it’s a must-see! And as always, at the end, the audience decides the winner of the evening! On stage: Pauline Prigge, Annalisa Azur, Eva-Lisa, and Monika Mertens.
As last year, Annika Blanke will charmingly guide us through the evening. Also joining is Insa Sanders. The tallest woman of the Berlin reading stages will warm up the audience together with Annika as the featured team "Insannika".
Fem Slam in the Pumpwerk with...
1. Pauline Prigge (Hannover, Photo: Matthias Stehr): Pauline Prigge has been writing since she was 11 and for the past 2 years, she has been reading her texts on stages across Germany. In May 2023, she was among the finalists of the Lower Saxony State Championship. Pauline often addresses stigmatized topics in her texts and does not hold back. Her motivation is to raise awareness for such topics and create visibility.
2. Anna Lisa Azur (Bonn, Photo: Jott Shot): When the petite woman, measuring just 162 cm, steps up to the microphone, one knows: Now the lyrical post is going to take off! Anna Lisa Azur was born in 1998 in Remscheid, the rainiest city in Germany. Bad weather doesn’t stop Anna Lisa. What started by chance quickly became a passion: She regularly stands on stage in three languages and five countries and has participated in state championships and the German-speaking championship. Anna Lisa Azur was awarded the Young Poets Prize (2022) and the Wilhelm-Fabry Promotion Prize (2023). She is a double Karl-Marx Poetry Prize winner and in 2024 she will receive another literary award at the Leipzig Book Fair. Since this red-haired whirlwind cannot be stopped in her passion and motivation, she now organizes poetry, song, comedy, and queer slams throughout the entire Bergisches Land up to Bonn and Borken and beyond. In 2023 she founded the cultural association Bright Lights e.V., which advocates for safe spaces in culture. Additionally, Anna Lisa Azur initiated the program "Slam im Bergischen." In 2024, she will also host the first North Rhine-Westphalian Song Slam Championships, which even made it to television. Off stage, Anna Lisa is all about still water, loves to cook passionately, and always has a good breakfast at home.
3. Monika Mertens (Hamburg, Photos: Matthias Stehr/Christoffer Greiss): Spoken Word artist, author, and creative chameleon - encounters the world. Fearless, brilliant, nasty, and with beautiful eccentricity. The native Hamburger started writing her own poems and short prose at the age of 14 and has been successfully traversing the boards that mean the world for over 12 years. Mertens writes poetry and prose, loud and quiet, does not shy away from rap poems, and generally doesn’t shy away from anything. She is a multiple finalist in the Hamburg City Championships in Poetry Slam and a semi-finalist in the German-speaking Championships in Poetry Slam 2015, and participated in the German-speaking Championships in Poetry Slam 2018 in Zurich. Her almost exclusively autobiographical text world ranges from serious to contemplative and melancholic to painfully funny and bizarre. She charmingly and cheekily hits the core of things, resembling a nonchalant "meet and greet": Absolutely authentic, unpretentious, and disarming.
4. Eva-Lisa (Mühlheim an der Ruhr, Photo: Der Fotowikinger): Eva-Lisa has been storming the slam stages in the German-speaking area since 2018. There’s no topic safe from the native of Dortmund: From escapades in her parents' living room to pointed observations of everyday life to scandalous experiences from her work as a German teacher, Eva-Lisa covers everything - always with a wink and, of course, perfect orthography.
5. Team "Insannika" (Photos: Matthias Stehr): Insannika - that’s Insa Sanders and Annika Blanke! They have individually won numerous awards, published books, and rocked stages - and together, they should not be missed! Their team texts deal with the big themes and the tiny observations of everyday life. Funny, fast-paced, and absolutely entertaining!
Annika Blanke won, among other things, the "Poetry Slam Battle" at Wacken Open Air and for her solo program "Blankes Entsetzen!" the Reinheimer Satire Lion 2023 in bronze. She co-moderates the Night of Small Arts at CSD Nordwest with Annie Heger and feels very connected to CSD Wilhelmshaven.
Insa Sanders has been regularly bringing tears of laughter to the capital audience as part of the reading stage Rakete2000 for several years. As a journalist, she writes news for children. Her reading stage stories appear in numerous anthologies as well as in her short story collection "Leben auf Spaßflamme." She lives in Berlin with her American husband and Labrador dog, is an expert in German-American relations, and is the tallest woman of the Berlin reading stages.