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Mahide Lein: "Courage and humor have made my work bearable"

Mahide Lein: "Courage and humor have made my work bearable"

How can the music industry reinvent itself and what job perspectives does it need? Mahide Lein is 73 years old and has been revitalizing the music industry for 50 years. A conversation with a woman who just doesn't get tired.

 

INTERVIEW      FABIAN NESTLER

 

CCB Magazine: Hello Mahide, please introduce yourself briefly. Who are you and what do you do?

Mahide: I am Mahide Lein, 73 years young, and have been active as a cultural mediator for 50 years. I would like to get to know and network the whole world - to preserve and spread joie de vivre.

CCB Magazine: You're speaking this year at the Most Wanted Music Convention on the topic of unusual career paths. What is unusual about your career path?

Mahide: Oh, it started early on. Even as a child, I stood up against injustice, and that's still the case today. However, my story really took off in 1972: At that time, I ran a women's café in a squatted house in Frankfurt am Main with others from the New Women's Movement - we organized exhibitions, readings, concerts and political discussions there. There were hardly any women in the concert business at that time. That's why I had set myself the goal of showing the way forward. After the café, other women's/lesbian projects followed in Frankfurt and Berlin. In the 90s, I worked with gay men on Russian-German cultural exchange. In 1992 I co-organized the first CSD in Russia. Later, through my first trip to Africa in Zimbabwe, my desire was awakened to work with others regardless of their background and lifestyle.

CCB Magazine: In 1996 you founded the concert & event agency AHOI-kultur...

Mahide: Yes, exactly. Through AHOI-kultur, we now bring together over 400 artists from all over the world. We manage 12 of them ourselves. We also receive requests from festivals and venues looking for special culture, themes and music styles. They find them through our archive, which we have built up over 50 years with a lot of effort and passion.

Overview of artists managed by AHOI-kultur in 2023

CCB Magazine: The topic of queer and feminism was an outcry on the fringes of society back when you started. How has the music industry responded to these issues over the years? What has changed and where is there still a need for action?

Mahide: The music industry is more open today than it was 50 years ago, that has to be said. Take the example of the gay drag queen Conchita Wurst: It would have been unthinkable years ago for this person to play a leading role in the Eurovision Song Contest.  I was also very pleased to see Maren Kroyman come out as a lesbian, and things are also moving in the line-up area, and many things are becoming more diverse. Nevertheless, one should not rest on one's laurels. The event industry is still dominated by men.

CCB Magazine: Music has always played a key role in a historical perspective. Electronic music styles such as High Energy or the punk-influenced Riot Grrrl movement have emerged significantly from a gender context. You've been a mainstay of the gender/feminsm generation for years. What resistance did you have to overcome?

Mahide: Oh, some of them. When I started pushing the LGBTQl-XYZ scene in the '80s, there was basically no openness. It was an exhausting time. But courage and humor made my work bearable. Today it is different. Of course, that shouldn't obscure the fact that there are still grievances. For example, I tried to arrange female acts for a jazz club in Berlin several times. My requests were not answered at least as often. There is still a lot of room for improvement here.

CCB Magazine: The music industry now has sustainability consultants, and there are equal opportunity officers for culture. The music industry was hit particularly hard by Corona. According to a survey by the Landesmusikrat Berlin (Berlin Music Council), months ago one third of music creators no longer saw any career prospects due to Corona and were planning to change careers. How could the music industry reinvent itself? What job opportunities could arise?

Mahide: We will see. But I am hopeful here. Just as sustainability transformation managers are currently being deployed everywhere, the topic of equality could become more important in the future. At the moment, you can already see so-called awareness teams at events everywhere, who act as contact persons for the topic of equality. When submitting applications, organizers are also increasingly required to specify the composition of the line-up, whether it is diverse or whether there is barrier-free access. There is a lot going on here, and this will also create new jobs.

Even if the music industry is more open today than it was 50 years ago, this should not obscure current grievances

CCB Magazin: With AHOI-Kultur, you are also active as consultants for other event organizers. On which topics do you advise? What are your goals?

Mahide: We do not have a concrete goal. The path always comes as you walk. Overall, we want to help people create their events the way they want - whether it's a wedding, a company party or a concert. We are an all-round consultancy. This starts with the catering and ends with the search for suitable acts.

Mahide Lein at Lesbisch-Schwules-Stadtfest (Photo: Brigitte Dummer)

CCB Magazine: Let's get back to you: At the CSD 2004 you were awarded with the Civil Courage Award and at the Lesbian and Gay City Festival Berlin 2018 with the Rainbow Award. What exactly is your commitment in this area?

Mahide: Here I have done quite a lot. I organized the Irren-Offensive Tribunals and the KultHur-Festival for the rights of sex workers. I also organized the legendary African cultural salons MoKATO and the ROMANO BIJAV festivals. I also launched FREE TIBET with the big annual New Year's parties LOSAR, and my TV format LÄSBISCH-TV - as you can see, there's a lot going on here.

CCB Magazine: Finally, a look into the crystal ball: How could the music world reinvent itself so that the topics of equality and feminism are no longer marginal issues?

Mahide: I think we have to keep fighting for these issues. Nothing comes by itself. This society simply needs actors who contribute to making our world more open. The music industry has a key role to play here: it always develops within the framework that society sets for it. If society becomes more diverse and open, this will also rub off on the music industry. We have it in our own hands. Let's make something of it.

Category: New Player

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