Screening and Discussion: Audre Lorde - The Berlin Years 1984-1992

Audre Lorde - The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992 documents Audre Lorde’s influence on the German political and cultural scene during a decade of profound social change, a decade that brought about the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of East and West Germany. The film chronicles an untold chapter of Lorde’s life: her empowerment of Afro-German women.

Supported by Lorde’s example, Afro-German women began to write their history and their stories and to form political networks on behalf of Black people in Germany. As a result, authors such as May Ayim, Katharina Oguntoye, and Ika Hügel-Marshall published their works. Audre Lorde - The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992 outlines Lorde’s contributions to the German discourse on racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, classism, and homophobia within the Black movement and the Black and white women’s movement, a discourse alive and growing today. Interviews explore the lasting influence of Lorde’s ideas and the impact of her work and personality.

The relationship between Audre Lorde and Germany was mutually beneficial. During these years, Audre’s diagnosis of terminal cancer left her American doctors without hope for her survival. Berlin became her third home where she received treatment in part responsible for the next eight years of her life.

After the screening, we will dive into a discussion with:

Dagmar Schultz was born in Berlin and studied at the Free University, as well as in the United States of America and Puerto Rico. She taught “Women’s Studies and Cultural and Immigration Issues” at the John F. Kennedy Institute of North American Studies at the Free University of Berlin, and from 1991 to 2004, she was a Professor of Social Work at the Alice-Salomon University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. Her teaching and research have focused on feminist studies and women’s movements, anti-racist social work, women’s health care, and cultural competence in the psychiatric care of migrants and minorities. In 1974, she co-founded Orlanda Women’s Press and was its (co-)publisher until 2001. As director at Orlanda, she edited and published several works about or by Audre Lorde including Macht und Sinnlichkeit: Selected texts by Audre Lorde and Adrienne Rich and Die Quelle unserer Macht and introduced her works to German readers. In 1980, Dagmar Schultz met Audre Lorde at the Women’s World Conference in Copenhagen and invited her to Berlin to teach as Guest Professor at the John F. Kennedy Institute of North American Studies. She documented their entire time together and directed and produced the film Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992. She is also co-producer of the film Hope in My Heart. The May Ayim Story by Maria Binder (1997).

Abenaa Aqyeiwaa Adomako is a networker, activist, and project assistant at an NGO. Moreover, she is co-founder of ISD Germany (the “Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland”) and of “BeeeG/black elders empowerment education Germany.” In 2023, she co-curated the exhibition “In the footsteps of the Diek family” at Schöneberg Museum. She is co-author of various afro-diasporic publications including Farbe bekennen - Afro-deutsche Frauen auf den Spuren ihrer Geschichte (Orlanda Frauenverlag, 1986), Sisters and Souls - Inspirationen von May Ayim (Orlanda Verlag 2015) and Spiegelblicke - Perspektiven Schwarzer Bewegung in Deutschland (Orlanda Verlag 2016). In addition to her role as a protagonist in Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984-1992, she appears in several other Afro-diasporic documentaries like the 2023 DW Documentary Black and German.

Glenda Obermuller born and raised in Guyana, moved to Germany at the age of 24. As a single Black-Indigenous migrant mother, she is familiar with numerous intersectionalities through her lived experience, education, and networks. She is co-founder of the Afro-diasporic self-organization „Sonnenblumen Community Development Group e.V.“ She is also co-founder of various other networks and decolonial projects and iniatives like "N-Wort Stoppen", PROUD Black-Owned Pop-Up Market and Event, Black Sisterhood NRW and other task forces which were founded after the Black Lives Matter protests. Further, she is a co-founder of the Theodor Wonja Michael Bibliothek, the first Black library in Cologne which is dedicated to education, empowerment, and overcoming the stigma of „the single story.“ “Literature is a tool to deconstruct racism, because literature can bridge the gap that divides us and initiate the necessary change of perspective.” Glenda identifies as a community organizer, activist, and people connector.

Laura Hartmann is a PhD candidate in North American Literary and Cultural Studies at Marburg University. After nine years in Hesse, she found her “Wahlheimat” in Cologne in 2021. In her PhD project, she investigates solidarity and sisterhoods in women’s life narratives from the United States of America and South Africa. During her research she found out about Audre Lorde’s connections to South Africa, which have become a central part of her dissertation. Laura occasionally teaches in literary studies or gender studies and currently teaches at GeStiK, the Center for Gender Studies in Cologne. She volunteers at the South African NGO Philisa Abafazi Bethu and at Allerweltshaus Köln e.V.

Tickets are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. We kindly ask you to only reserve the number of tickets that you will definitely use.

We cordially thank our partners for their cooperation: University of Cologne, Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Cologne, Gender Studies at the University of Cologne, AStA of the University of Cologne, American Studies at the University of Cologne, Theodor Wonja Michael Bibliothek and the Sonnenblumen Community Development Group e.V.

This event is kindly supported by the Federal Foreign Office.