At first, only a heartbeat could be heard. The artist Nakano Rina sat on the floor in a beige yukata, her eyes closed. A highly sensitive microphone transmitted her rhythmic pulse into the audience of the packed Theatre Verlängertes Wohnzimmer. Then, calligraphy artist and poet Sakurai Yoko, highly contrasted in a black dress, entered the stage with her canvas model, also in a beige suit. Sakurai blindfolded herself, drew out her ink brushes and an impressive work of art emerges both on the fabric and before the eyes of the audience.
After the last heartbeat a big round of applause followed. The Japan Spoken Word Night kicked off its third session with a brilliant start as a satellite event in Friedrichshain. This time, the JDZB's new experimental format chose as the successor to "URA hidden verborgen" the conceptual term "OMOTE revealed sichtbar". More than ten artists, including the Japanese dance duo Sugiyama Shiori and Kiyota Ayuko, the Vietnamese-German author Miki Do with a contribution in Japanese, the US-American Japanese Tai Igarashi as well as numerous German authors and poets, gave their interpretations of Omote. We heard a newly appointed professor talk about the “Japanese ice-bottle tarpir”, idyllic Swiss villages with a twist, about unclassifiable appearances and, of course, beautiful haiku in spring.
At the end, things got spectacular once again. The Berlin-based Japanese performance collective Elektro Kagura performed a short variation of their latest production "Geistzeit". Amid monk chanting and spirit conjuring, the artist and spirit "Okiku" (Ikutani Sachiko) danced her way into the hearts of the audience. The night was brought to a festive close at countless talks at the bar.
The Japan Spoken Word Night is created and realized under the artistic and technical direction and moderation of Sascha Lück and Sabrina Wägerle.

We thank all participating artists and authors for their amazing contributions:
Sakurai Yoko & Nakano Rina
Miki Do
Elisabeth Masé
Jens Wiesner
Sugiyama Shiori & Kiyota Ayuko
Petra Klingl
Luisa Nishimura
Lady Gaby
Tai Igarashi
Ikutani Sachiko & ElektroKagura
(in order of appearance)