The Heimwee/Heimweh/Exile/Nostalgie du pays/Saudade Project

The Homesick/Heimwee Project is a performance group of women writers who have settled in Luxembourg and who are eager to share their experience of the two-way nature of the process of assimilation into their new European country. It combines the traditional literary reading with performance. The reading/performance is primarily in the English language, and the event lasts for one hour.   

Immigrants usually feel they are “others” – strangers who are estranged. Homesick/Heimwee writers read stories and perform their personal experiences as “others” with the goal of building mindful empathy. It is said that to reduce the extent of polarization in a society, “empathy must go beyond imagining suffering and recognise people’s real experiences. That includes recognising [new arrivals] …as people with resilience, agency and emotional complexity.” [2] Mistaken simplification of the immigrant person as someone who must “fit in” provokes resentment on the part of the immigrant and xenophobia on the part of the host.

Our stories focus on how we often accept conforming to traditional women’s roles, because there are few alternative options. As women, our need for self-expression has been trivialized at times. This is a problem for women immigrants internationally and not just in Luxembourg.  

The Homesick/Heimwee project encourages discussions between writer/performers and audience, highlighting the value of meetings between the citizens who are native and the citizens who have acquired nationality so that “to welcome” and “to be welcomed” flow one into the other. Such projects can make Luxembourg a beacon country for immigration sensitivity.

[The next writing session of the Heimwee project takes place on 25 September 2025 in the in the café of the BNL (National Library) Bd. J.F. Kennedy at 6.15 p.m. For info, send an email to info@trieasbl.eu

“We Are Talking to You” – a street performance shown in various locations in Luxembourg, including at the Centre Hamilius in 2023, at the Human Rights Defender Exhibition – Abbaye de Neumünster and at the headquarters of Amnesty International in 2024. Its theme is the right to demonstrate and freely express one’s opinion.

 In association with Amnesty International Luxembourg, Dana Rufolo is seeking 2 additional actors (male or female) to join the group developing a play on how global warming negatively affects human rights. Participants must become members of Amnesty Luxembourg and be available to perform on 1 July, 2025. Dana Rufolo is the author of the script being used as a basis for this outdoor street-theater performance, and she will lead the preparatory workshops. Rehearsals will begin in April 2025. If anyone can offer a rehearsal space accessible by bus or tram, this will be appreciated. The present rehearsal space is inadequate for a larger cast. 

“I am Viola da Gamba of the Singing Building”

– a Performance and Concert based on the book by Dana Rufolo and music composed by Philippe Partridge