Song and Lyric: Riah Knight

Mystical, wise, oppressed: the actress, singer songwriter and poet Riah Knight dedicates the evening to the figure of the witch in all her facets. Self-written songs, which she accompanies on the piano, and specially composed poems approach the exhibition Leiko Ikemura – Witty Witches in musical as well as lyrical form. How has the history of the witch become inscribed in that of women?
Knight has already approached the subject of witch hunts in her earlier artistic work, for example in the play Rewichting, which premiered at the Maxim Gorki Theatre in 2019.
The evening will be moderated by Sonja Eismann, co-founder, co-publisher and editor of Missy Magazine. Afterwards, participants will have the opportunity to talk with her and the author. The conversation will be held in English.

This is the second event in the collaboration with Missy Magazine, where contemporary women artists of different genres are invited to create an evening based on themes from the exhibition. Admission to the current exhibition Leiko Ikemura – Witty Witches is included in the ticket price for the day of the event and is valid until 7pm. The event will take place at Café Benjamine. The kitchen and bar will be open and will serve regional and seasonal food and drinks to complement the evening!

About the artist:
Riah Knight (born 1996) is a British-Romani singer-songwriter and actress. She has worked in theatre since 2017, writing, composing music for and performing in multiple productions. She has worked extensively with Yael Ronen at Maxim Gorki Theater, most recently on Slippery Slope (2021), for which she is a co-author and which was invited to the 2022 Theatertreffen. In 2022 she was also nominated by the Theater Haute Critics as one of the ‚best upcoming actresses of the year‘. Riah is a member of the feminist theatre collective Glossy Pain, co-developing and playing in multiple productions. Together with Hannes Gwisdek she also composes music for the shows.
As a musician Riah collaborates internationally with hip-hop and jazz artists. She was described by Jazz News Paris as having „a voice of velvet” in her debut EP Knight in Neukölln (2021) released with independent label Get Together. Her next release – Riah Lick Your Wounds – was compared to „the early works of Little Dragon or Hiatus Kaiyote”. Her latest single, Losing Daylight, was released in September 2022 with Blunt Shelter Records. She currently lives in Berlin.