Belarusian opposition activist Maria Kalesnikava plans to be back on stage for the first time since her release from prison on April 9 at Berlin’s Radialsystem cultural centre.
The 43-year-old artist revealed on Tuesday in Berlin that she would be playing the flute and “talking a lot about freedom” in her performance of “#freemaria.” People had campaigned for her release using the hashtag #freemaria.
Kalesnikava was one of the leaders of the mass protests in Belarus after the 2020 presidential election. She was arrested in September 2020.
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She spent more than two years in solitary confinement without contact with relatives. She read hundreds of books during her detention, she told German public broadcaster ARD in January.
Under pressure from the United States, Belarus released Kalesnikava together with 120 other prisoners last December.
She now lives in exile in Berlin. She says she wants to pursue ideas for the cultural sector in the city that “build bridges.”