Samirah Kenawi was born in East Berlin in 1962. She witnessed and helped shape the beginnings of the lesbian movement in the GDR. Before reunification, she was active in several unofficial GDR lesbian groups, including the well-known Berlin group “Lesben in der Kirche” (Lesbians in the Church), which met in the Gethsemane Church in Prenzlauer Berg from the mid-1980s onwards. The group was known for its activism, which promoted the visibility of lesbian life, but also sent a political message for peace, a more open society, and against the state's appropriation of history and people.

Samirah initiated and founded the GrauZone archive. It preserves the documents of the independent GDR women's*lesbian movement and makes them accessible to the public. Samirah was active in the Independent Women's Association (UFV), a large women's initiative during the reunification period, whose Berlin office she headed from 1990 onwards. She will take us to important locations of the women's movement of the 1980s and the period of upheaval in Prenzlauer Berg. A district that stands for the East Berlin queer scene and the activities of the political opposition during the GDR era.