E hoʻi ka Nani: On Beauty & Return

Objects talk back with the hawaiian author No’u Revilla

Porträt der hawaiianischen Künstlerin No'u Revilla während ihres Besuchs im Depot des Ethnologischen Museums in Dahlem

Objects Talk Back is a project about the possibilities of literature to open up new stories and relations through museum archives. International writers are invited to explore collections at the Humboldt Forum, to select an object, and write about it however they wish. Priya Basil, curator of the project, coined the term ‘fabulography’ for this approach: it involves working creatively with-from-through gaps, erasures and (un)truths around objects in order to expand narrative and imaginative landscapes that have for too long been patrolled and limited by the museum.

Objects Talk Back recognizes that museum collections are inextricably tied to violent colonial histories and on-going practices of domination.

The project reaches towards knowledges of resisting-surviving-transcending colonial ruptures; it is animated by living connections between people, places and things. How far might stories take us in understanding-experiencing-imagining different worlds? Let’s find out as Objects Talk Back.

 

Even before her visit to the Humboldt Forum and the collections of the Ethnological Museum, Hawaiian author Noʻu Revilla was led to Berlin by a clear desire: to meet the kiʻi (sacred figure) of Kihawahine, one of the most powerful deities in Hawaiian history. Without knowing that the kiʻi would not be on display, she set out in search of stories— where had the sacred figure been kept and moved, what happened to her body, who kept her company, how will she return home? No’u now presents a poetic text for Kihawahine, inspired by a visitation practice that eschewed sight and grew instead from the power of story and song.

Participants

Noʻu Revilla

Noʻu Revilla is an aloha ʻāina poet and educator. Born and raised on the island of Maui, she descends from Hawaiian, Visayan, and German ancestors. She is the author of Ask the Brindled, a National Poetry Series selection and winner of the Balcones Prize. Her work has appeared in journals and magazines Lit Hub, Poetry Northwest, World Literature Today, Prairie Schooner, Split This Rock, and elsewhere. She has performed internationally, from Hawaiʻi to New York to Papua New Guinea and Berlin. Her poetry film Nānā i ke kumu was selected for the Smithsonian’s Mother Tongue Film Festival in 2026. Her poetry has been adapted for dance and theater productions throughout Oceania.

Priya Basil

Priya Basil is an author, and curator of the Humboldt Forum project Objects Talk Back. In her book Be My Guest/Gastfreundschaft (2019), she combines memoir, philosophy, food and politics in a reflection on hospitality in the broadest sense. Her most recent book  Locked In and Out (2025) explores memory-culture and belonging in Germany.

Priya is co-founder and board member of WIR MACHEN DAS, an NGO that works with refugees and migrants for a more inclusive society. She is also a member of the advisory board of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. She has conceptualized and curated projects for various institutions including the Goethe Institut and International Literature Festival Berlin. From 2021 to 2023 Priya was International Writer in Residence for Mindscapes, a project of the Wellcome Trust UK, devoted to transforming how we understand, talk about and treat mental health. As part of this Priya undertook a research journey which spanned six continents to learn about different understandings of well being and practices of healing. In 2024, Priya was Writer in Residence for Canopy, Wellcome’s  Climate and Health project. She is working on a new book which draws on her research and travels. In 2025/26 Priya is a fellow of the The Centre for Advanced Study inherit. heritage in transformation Käte Hamburger Kolleg based at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

- Price: 12 EUR/ 6 EUR reduced

- Tickets can be booked online or at the box office in the foyer.

- Duration: 90 min

- Language: English

- Location: Mechanical Arena in the Foyer

- Part of: Objects talk back

Next date:

• Date Thursday, 10/September/2026 19:00
• Venue Humboldt Forum: Mechanische Arena im Foyer, EG
• Address Schloßplatz, 10178 Berlin-Mitte