Adira, or the Diva

Notes from an Arab Queer Party in Berlin

Peer-reviewed article, Submitted 29.09.2025, Accepted 23.06.2026

Konrad Sierzputowski

k.sierzputowski@uw.edu.pl
Instytut Kultury Polskiej, Uniwersytet Warszawski (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1519-2098

Abstract

The article examines the history and socio-political frameworks of the ADIRA club event as a set of community-building practices within the Arab LGBTQ+ diaspora in Berlin. Tracing its transformation – from the grassroots initiative Queer Arab Barty, through the regular ADIRA Party, to the annual ADIRA Drag Festival – the analysis demonstrates how the event intertwines popular music, political performance, and educational initiatives with a critique of Western regimes of queer representation. At the center of this inquiry lies the question of how alternative diasporic spaces and transnational forms of solidarity can be generated to transcend hegemonic, binary, and exclusionary models of non-normative identities.



Keywords:

queer, diaspora, Arabic, popular music, nightlife

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Published
2026-08-28

Cited by

Sierzputowski, K. (2026) “Adira, or the Diva: Notes from an Arab Queer Party in Berlin”, Konteksty, 353(2), pp. 210–219. doi: 10.36744/k.4653.

Authors

Konrad Sierzputowski 
k.sierzputowski@uw.edu.pl
Instytut Kultury Polskiej, Uniwersytet Warszawski Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1519-2098

Konrad Sierzputowski – kulturoznawca, muzykoznawca, badacz współczesnych kultur LGBTQ+, adiunkt w Instytucie Kultury Polskiej UW. Autor książek Słuchając hologramu. Cielesność wirtualnych zespołów animowanych (2018) oraz Ciała do słuchania. Szkice z muzyki popularnej (2026). Stypendysta Fundacji Fulbrighta na Uniwersytecie Columbia w Nowym Jorku (2020) oraz programu START FNP (2021). Laureat Krakowskiej Nagrody Miasta Literatury UNESCO (2023). Jego zainteresowania naukowe obejmują: aktualną muzykę popularną, historię mediów audiowizualnych, transformacje kultury cyfrowej oraz wernakularne strategie i praktyki queer – online i offline.



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