Connect.
Connect is the foundation of AfroSwissters. We build spaces, online and sometimes in person, where people in Switzerland can meet, exchange and build meaningful relationships across cultures, generations, professions and geographies.
Connection is not only social. It is practical. It helps people find language, support, confidence, information, collaborators, friends, and new rooms to enter.
Many people in Switzerland move through professional, social and cultural spaces where they are present but not always fully seen. Connect builds the tools and formats for moments where people can arrive without having to explain everything: online, and sometimes in person, over a shared meal, a cultural experience or a conversation.
Some Connect formats are intimate. Some are public. Some are built around art, theatre, film, food, music, or conversation. What they share is a commitment to meaningful presence.
Four ways we meet.
01Gatherings
These are easy ways into the AfroSwissters network. They may take the form of dinners, brunches, informal meetups, online conversations or hosted circles. The purpose is simple: to bring people into relationship.
What to expect: introductions · guided conversation · space to meet others · a clear host or facilitator · no pressure to perform · respect for privacy and boundaries.
02Annual Summer Vineyard Brunch
Every summer, AfroSwissters gathers in Lavaux among the vines to reflect, reconnect, and spend time together outside the speed of everyday life. The brunch is intergenerational, informal, and rooted in presence. It brings together women shaping culture, business, family, education, art, community, and professional life in different ways.
It is not a conference. It is not a networking event in the narrow sense. It is a pause. A table. A view. A moment to remember that connection also needs beauty, food, conversation and time.
03Cultural Experiences
AfroSwissters attends cultural events together: theatre, cinema, exhibitions, art fairs, opera, performances, and public conversations. We do this because cultural participation matters. It shapes belonging, memory, visibility, and access.
Sometimes we simply attend together. Sometimes we arrange guided introductions. Sometimes we stay afterwards and create a held space to reflect on what we saw, felt, questioned, or recognised.
04REMAIN
REMAIN is AfroSwissters' cultural reflection format. We attend a cultural event together, then remain. We remain with the questions. We remain with the images. We remain with the feelings. We remain with each other.
REMAIN creates space to process art and culture beyond consumption — from different perspectives: artistic, personal, diasporic, historical, professional, and emotional. Past and current REMAIN contexts include Schauspielhaus Zürich, photoSCHWEIZ, Kunsthaus Zürich, VOLTA Basel and other cultural institutions and partner spaces.
Connect formats are for people who want to build relationships with care. They are open to everyone who shares our values, and each event page says who the format is for.
You can attend alone. Many people do. You do not need to have the perfect introduction, title, or story. You can arrive as you are.
Institutions and hosts can partner with AfroSwissters by offering space, inviting our network to cultural events, supporting guided access, sponsoring tickets, co-hosting a conversation, providing food, documentation or facilitation support, or creating space for reflection after public programmes.
A good Connect partnership is not about filling a room for optics. It is about creating conditions for meaningful participation.