Ralph Tharyil and ñeroune léonie

Ralph Tharayil (born in 1986) was born in Liestal to South Indian parents and studied History, Media Studies, and Literary Studies in Basel. He works across disciplines with text in print, audio, and performance. In 2023, he published his literary debut Nimm die Alpen weg, which received several awards and was adapted for the stage. During the 2024/25 season, he was writer-in-residence at **Bühnen Bern, where his recent play MOGLI or this way is not the way to the waterfall, directed by Miriam Ibrahim, was performed. In September of next year, his new collaboration with Miriam Ibrahim will premiere at Schauspiel Bremen. Together with Ivna Žic and Henri-Michel Yéré, he curates and hosts the literary discussion series Second Thoughts at the Literaturhaus Basel. He is also a member of the post-German artists’ collective parallelgesellschaft. Ralph lives in Berlin.

ñeroune léonie, born in Bern in 1999, is Afropean. The Aare in sight, snow biting into her fingers. Dakar in her ears, sand burning her feet. The Atlantic swallowing the sun.
Named after her grandmother Nar Diop. ñeroune, from the Arabic نار (nar), fire in the snow, and نور (nūr), light in the darkness.

She admires and mourns a disturbingly beautiful life. And she poses questions back to life: Social work as community capitalism? Care as resistance? Loving, unlearning.
For her, language is not a tool but a place. Every word she shapes shapes her in return.