Audre Lorde - The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992
Audre Lorde Circling the Globe

August 2019 Newsletter • ENG / DEU •  Photo Gallery

THE FILM IS SCREENED EACH THIRD MONDAY OF THE MONTH IN BERLIN AT LICHTBLICK KINO!

Dr. Gloria I. Joseph, Audre Lorde’s partner, author, educator, political activist, protagonist in the film, passed on August 16, 2019, in St. Croix. Gloria Presente!

Again, the film Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992 went around the world in 2019: from Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Salvador Bahia in Brazil to Bogota in Columbia, from San Diego in the US to cities in Europe such as Basel, Zürich, Bordeaux, Innsbruck, Copenhagen, Prague and Bratislava, Bremen, Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden – thus adding up to 300 screenings since 2012 in addition to 75 festivals (and many more screenings in the US and in Germany at pedagogical institutions which purchased the film).

Photo credits: © Dr. Dagmar Schultz, 2019 Belo Horizonte - top: Belo Horizonte film audience. Ika and Dagmar front row on the isle with their friend Gurusangat; middle: proud film goers; bottom: excited audience member with Ika and Dagmar. See more in the gallery…

Especially exciting: the Brazilian-Portuguese subtitles produced by translator Jess Oliveira have made the film available to the Brazilian public (as well as the film Hope in My Heart – The May Ayim Story) In April, Ika Hügel-Marshall and I had the opportunity to be present at screenings in both Belo Horizonte and Salvador Bahia. Each was attended by way over 100 persons. As always, the viewers were deeply touched and reacted with enthusiasm. Panels after the screenings were run by Afro-Brazilian women, some of them lesbians, in a most courageous way, considering the political situation.

Our visit to Brazil was followed by trips to Prague where the film was shown at Display Gallery in conjunction with an exhibit of the Brazilian artist Luiza Prado. And to Bratislava, Slovakia, where the political magazine Kapitál had devoted its April issue to Audre Lorde and showed the film at the Goethe Institut!

Two Women of Color, one from Singapur, the other from Brazil, traveled all the way from Budapest, where they study, to see the film!

Watch Bathurunisha Hamed and Jessica Varela talk about the film and life in Budapest. Watch the interview with Jess Oliveira, translator of the subtitles, and Marny Garcia Mommertz, Afro-German woman working at the Goethe Institut in Salvador.

• Audre Lorde’s work is experiencing a renaissance: her books are being published in more and more countries. Combining book launches or readings with the screening of the film proves to be very successful.

• In Copenhagen the film was shown at the launch party for a volume of her poetry. The event was attended by over 250 people, and they had to offer a second screening.

• The essays Sister Outsider were published in Korea and presently Young-Rong Choo is producing Korean subtitles and organizing screenings in South Korea!

• Polish subtitles were translated by Zofia Nierodzinska for a 2019 screening in Poznan!

• Hebrew subtitles are in the making for a screening in Haifa. More about all these events in the next newsletter!

• Lastly, The New York Times published Audre Lorde’s Berlin by journalist Charly Wilder on July 19. This excellent article is inspired by the digital Audre Lorde in Berlin Online Journey (www.audrelordeberlin.com). Check this out, choose what interests you most from the contents list and share it with as many interested persons as possible!
  One comment of a reader/viewer: “Thanks for putting this website together. It is a very good educational tool.”

In addition, please explore the Audre Lorde YouTube play lists. Especially interesting for teachers are the videos where Audre reflects about her work in Berlin in 1992 two months before her passing. In the Audre Lorde in Berlin Online Journey you find one clip where she reads her poem Berlin 1989 and analyzes it—the play lists contain more parts of this conversation under Audre Lorde on her work.

I also point out the last newsletters on events in different parts of the world (found under Film Journal on the website)

February 2018 | August 2017 | December 2016 | December 2014 | June 2014 | March 2014 | January 2014 | December 2013 | September 2013 | July 2013 | April 2013 | 2012 (the first one!)

Best wishes,
Dagmar Schultz

What else is new? The Audre Lorde in Berlin Online Journey now has a content list under the menu link “website info” which allows you to choose locations you want to visit and get there directly with one click! This online journey is a great resource of text, photos, videos and audios. It can also be used in teaching as a vivid introduction to Audre Lorde in the Berlin of the 1980s and early 90s.

You hear and see Audre recite poems and analyze one of her poems, you hear her talk about her relationship with Black Germans, encourage Afro-Germans to write, give her view on the fall of the wall, on German racism and antisemitism and on (white) feminism, discuss organizing with South-African author and activist Ellen Kuzwayo, offer us her political credo, reminisce on her childhood. Please use and promote this innovative project of archival activism! http://audrelordeberlin.com

Dagmar Schultz

Click here to UNSUBSCRIBE from our e-mail list. Click here to read our PRIVACY POLICY. The European DVD (PAL) is available from www.jcp.de. The DVD is in English with subtitles in German, French and Spanish. DVDs for home use (NTSC format) can be ordered from the director, Dagmar Schultz, for $25 including shipping.