“A House by the Cemetery”

Alexey Sergeev, written in Georgia “I wrote my first note on relocation, ‘Ninety Minutes in the Closet,’ at the airport gate. Afterwards, I spent eight months living in the ‘Antizona’ shelter in Georgia for those for whom it had become unsafe to remain in Russia. It is a house in Tbilisi near a cemetery, rented collectively. Among its residents, alongside anti-war and civic activists, there are many LGBT people. The shelter hosts vulnerable individuals whose income covers little more than a bed. They share small rooms, three or sometimes four people at a time. Apart from the showers, there are no private spaces — you live in full view of everyone else, as if in a reality show. People argue about unwashed dishes, debate politics, fall in love and break up, long for home, and fear for their future.”