Audre Lorde’s Germany
African Diasporic Presences and Influences on Contemporary German Literary and Cultural Politics
Humboldt University, Berlin. Friday 30 to Saturday 31 January 2015
Informarion Sheet about the conference and Audre Lorde - download English version as a pdf here
Informationen zum Hintergrund der Konferenz und Audre Lorde finden Sie hier beim blog feministische studien.
Conference Program (download program as pdf)
Friday, 30 January [Room 2094]
13:00–14:00 Opening
Germany before and after Audre Lorde
Christine Vogt-William (HU Berlin)
Eva Boesenberg (HU Berlin)
Maisha Eggers (Magdeburg-Stendal / HU Berlin)
14:00-14:15 Break
14:15–15:45 Keynote
Fatima El-Tayeb (UC San Diego)
Dimensions of Diaspora: Women of Color Feminism, Black Europe and Queer Memory Discourses
Moderation: Nicola Lauré al-Samarai (Adefra, Berlin)
15:45-16:15 Coffee Break
16:15–16:30 Pre-Screening Poetry Reading
Gloria Wekker (Utrecht University) reads
Audre Lorde: 'A Litany for Survival'
16:30–18:00 Film Screening [80 minutes]
A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde (1995)
18:00-18:30 Break
18:30–20:00 Distinguished W.E.B. Du Bois Lecture [Senatssaal]
Kara Keeling (University of Southern California)
"A Now that can Breed Futures": Audre Lorde and the Cinematic Politics of Documentary Projects as Legacy Building
Moderation: Peggy Piesche (Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies)
21:00 Conference dinner
Saturday, 31 January [Room 2094]
9:30–9:45 Pre-Panel Poetry Reading
Tracie Morris (Pratt Institute, Brooklyn)
reads Audre Lorde: 'Power'
Sarah Mouwani
'Im Namen des Volkes' ('In the Name of the People‘')
9:45–11:15 Graduate Student Workshop
Studying Audre Lorde’s Poetry and Politics
Students from the MA seminar 'Audre Lorde in Germany' will present short project papers on the significance of Lorde's poetry and essays for Black German identity-building processes.
Chair: Noa Ha (Centre for Metropolitan Studies, TU Berlin)
11:15-11:45 Coffee Break
11:45-12:00 Pre-Panel Poetry Reading
May Ayim
'Borderless and Brazen'
12:00–13:30 Transatlantic Dialogues
The Multiple Perspectives of Audre Lorde’s Black Diasporic Paradigms
These are dialogues directed towards addressing matters that are of political, historical and cultural value to Black diasporic groups both in the US and in Germany, where Audre Lorde’s Black Feminist paradigms and understandings of intersectionality and diaspora are paramount.
Cassandra Ellerbe-Dück (Eine Welt der Vielfalt e.V., Mannheim)
Black Women in the Whirlwind: Forging Diasporic Connections in Audre Lorde's Footsteps
Katharina Gerund (University of Erlangen)
Sisterhood in and beyond the Black Diaspora: Audre Lorde's Feminist Politics
Maggi Morehouse (Coastal Carolina University SC)
African American Women Warriors in the US Armed Forces in Germany
Chair: Eva Boesenberg
13:30-14:30 Lunch
14:30–15:15 Pre-Screening Reading
Tracie Morris reads
Audre Lorde: 'Berlin is Hard on Colored Girls'
'Audre Lorde's Mirror: Myrna Bain, A Reflection'
Sharon Dodua-Otoo reads excerpts from
the things i am thinking while smiling politely...
15:15–16:45 Film Screening [81 minutes]:
Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years (1984-1992) (2012)
16:45-17:15 Coffee Break
17:15-18:45 Three-Part Conversation
The Stories of Our Lives. Historicisation as a Feminist Task
This panel discussion will focus on critical perspectives from feminist scholars of color in Germany with regard to the documentary film Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years. [German]
Maisha Eggers, Nicola Laure al-Samarai, Katja Kinder (Adefra, Berlin)
Chair: Maisha Eggers
18:45-19:00 Break
19:00-19:15 Pre-Panel Poetry Reading
Tracie Morris reads
Audre Lorde: 'A Woman Speaks'
Sarah Mouwani
'Erdreflektion' ('Earth Reflection')
19:15–20:45 Keynote Conversations
Moving Forward: Lorde's legacy of Intersectional, Queer, Black, Feminist Cultural Politics
This panel gathers significant contemporary Afro-European scholars and activists together, (who were close to the poet in one way or another) to focus on Lorde’s intersectional approach in her political activity. This dialog aims to provide an overview of the complexity of experience and the political positions of the black diaspora in Germany through the last 30 years from Lorde’s arrival in 1984 till the present (2014). [German and English]
Katharina Oguntoye (JOLIBA, Berlin), Gloria Wekker, Tracie Morris, Peggy Piesche
Chair: Christine Vogt-William
20:45 Final Remarks from the Organizers