Artist talk: Mine Nilay Yalçın and Julian Karenga

Earlier this year, Mine Nilay Yalcin and Julian Karenga met each other here with us. Hear them talk about their own artistry, their audience, what inspires them and what they're up to right now.

Mine Nilay Yalcin trained as an actor at the Nordic Black Xpress theater school and has worked as a director and theater instructor since 2006. In 2016, she was part of the EU project PUSH where performing artists from all over Europe met in Ireland and worked with the team "Migration". Mine's work focuses on multicultural and political theatre, and she has worked extensively with youth and marginalized groups. She is now taking her master's degree in theater at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, where she is focusing on directing and street theater. Mine is particularly interested in taking theater out of traditional theater spaces and ensuring that theater also reaches those who rarely or never go to the theater. In 2018, she created the street performance Asfaltpuls - paranoia as hell in sunset by M. H. Hallum, and in 2020 she directed CULPA! in a state of emergency by Taro Cooper at Kilden Teater in Kristiansand.

Julian Karenga (1995) is a playwright and actor who graduated from The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in 2018. After two months in Zambia with Barefeet Theatre and 9 months as a freelancer in London, he is back in Norway and has since worked with Tromsø Byteater and Brageteateret, among others. In the fall of 2021, he is ready with the premiere - both as one of three playwrights in Unge Viken Teater's production of "Alt vi ikke sier" - but also as an actor and playwright in the monologue performance "Snøbrun" in Skien at Teater Ibsen:

On a journey from the quay in Tromsø to the sandy beach in Dar es Salaam, Snøbrun has become a stream of thought that deals with questions of identity and multicultural heritage. Weaving in and out of poetry, rap, northern Norwegian and Tanzanian folk songs, this is a story about what makes up a fractured human being. It's about having a foot in both camps, carrying society's expectations on your shoulders and what it's like to have to stand in perpetual defense without having committed any wrongdoing.

A sofa, an armchair, half an hour, two performing artists. What are they talking about?

You can watch the conversation here, on Facebook or listen to the podcasts.