Dagmawi Woubshet and Ada Klein Fortuny

What happens when society denies a patient’s illness and hinders the rituals of the grief they have survived? How then can we weep for what we lost? The works of Dagmawi Woubshet and Ada Klein question illnesses which, beyond pain, carry stigma, silence, and a lack of social understanding.

For Woubshet, community is a key element in these complex grieving processes, like what was started with the HIV/AIDS crisis. The Professor in African and LGBTQIA+ studies has written about the role of collective grief in overcoming loss through the exploration of artistic works such as elegies and eulogies. Amid experiences and verses, Woubshet discusses with writer Ada Klein Fortuny, author of La plaga blanca (L'Altra Editorial, 2020), an essay on life and tuberculosis, and together they ponder the invisible ties that unite community and grief. Martí Sales, writer, translator and musician, joins them on stage.