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Hêja Netirk is a Hamburg-based Kurdish singer/songwriter actress, lyricist, and dramaturg.
Coming from a literary background, Hêja is concerned with migration and integration policies in Germany, decolonization and women’s oppression as well as performance and its relation to Kurdish history and society. Central to her artistic practice is her experience as a woman in exile, which she presents in various forms of art – singing, acting, and film.
She was a Fulbright scholar for the Master’s program in Comparative Literature at Columbia University. She was unable to use her scholarship because she was imprisoned in Turkey. In 2018, she produced the feature film Momê directed by Rodi Güven Yalçınkaya. The film was screened at Hamburg FilmFest and WDR. She plays the lead role in this film. In 2019, she founded BAN Theatre, the Kurdish theatre initiative in Hamburg, with Alan Ciwan and Hüseyin Umaysız. Ban Theatre’s first production, titled Q.B.X / Sad Birds Pavilion, premiered at Monty Kultuurfactorij in Antwerp. In 2020, she released her first EP, Stranen Neshushti (Unwashed Songs). In 2021 she formed the music duo Birds of Babylon with Yassin Ismail and they released their first single Boomerang Refugee. In 2022 she released her first solo album Pistepistek Bilind (Laud Whisper) which was funded by Initiative Musik. She is an alumnus of INTRO Program granted by Hamburg Ministry of Culture and StART.up scholarship granted by Claussen Simon Stiftung.