Audre Lorde - The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992
Audre Lorde Film Around the World

February 2024 Newsletter • ENG / DEU

“Many thanks for your constant contact through newsletters and video links - keeping our community connected and keeping the voices and work of our departed Sisters guiding us in these still precarious times. May, in particular, has been in front of mind… I've been replaying memories of meeting her when we were in Berlin in 1989 shooting LITANY.”

These were the words of Michelle Parkerson, director of the film A Litany for Survival –The Life and Work of Audre Lorde in response to my last newsletter of 2022.

With great pain, I now have to add another Sister to those who passed, my life partner, love, and comrade Ika Hügel-Marshall.

Ika was a close friend of Audre and May. She is the co-author of the script of the film and one of the protagonists in it. Ika left us suddenly and unexpectedly on April 21, 2022 (www.ika-huegel-marshall.com).

In 2021 we published the book May Ayim. Radikale Dichterin, sanfte Rebellin (May Ayim. Radical Poet, Gentle Rebel) which includes many articles by friends and previously unpublished texts by May. Here’s a clip on the book launch: https://vimeo.com/593646826/820c7e4dd9

Ika and I gave readings from the book and screened the film Hope in My Heart. The May Ayim Story. During our last joint event on March 11, 2022 in the Morgenstern Theater in Berlin Ika read this poem by May:

US Embassy Berlin with Tahir Della, 3 Februar 2022

The film Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992 has continued its journey around the world despite Corona—in February, Audre’s birth month, it was screened in Berlin, in Kigali, Rwanda, in Amsterdam and in Harlem, New York.

Berlin’s Black History Month of March 2022 hosted a special event. The US Embassy invited Ika and myself to screen and discuss the film on a panel discussion which included Tahir Della of the ISD (Initiative of Black People in Germany).

During the remainder of 2022, audiences saw the film in London, New York, Vienna, Amsterdam, Trondheim, Norway, Kolkata, India, and several German cities.

2023 screenings began in February: Seattle, Washington US, followed by the Anti-Racism Weeks in Bayreuth, and Women’s History Month in Berlin (March).

The Regina Theater in Helsinki, Finland showed the film twice. In Nice, France it was screened at the occasion of the Colloque Lorde on translations of Audre Lorde’s work.

In Torino, Italy, the film experienced its 76th festival at the Divine Queer Film Festival!

More screenings in Germany – at the art institution Neuer Berliner Kunstverein – n.b.k., Berlin.

Dr. Marion Kraft, author, and translator of Audre Lorde, and Elisa Rosi, director of Lichtblick Kino which screens the film once a month, joined me in a Q&A at XENON Kino in Berlin. 

New York University offered a screening to a large group of students in Berlin. In Köln, the Allerweltshaus showed the film in December as part of their work with African literature.

In 2024, the year begins with celebrations of Audre Lorde’s 90th birthday in London and Berlin.

In July, the Audre Lorde Street will be inaugurated in Berlin – all this and more you will find in the next newsletter! Previous newsletters are on the website under Film Journals – www.audrelorde-theberlinyears.com

Last, but not least: since 2016, Elisa Rosi, director of the Lichtblick Kino in Berlin, shows the film, every third Monday of the month. She has added the 5-minute BBC film on Ika Hügel-Marshall: https://www.bbc.com, and gives an introduction to the very diverse, international audience in this usually sold-out screening.

More coming up in the next newsletter!

I also point out the last newsletters on events in different parts of the world (found under Film Journal on the website).
May 2020 | August 2019 | 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 •  P.S. Go on tour with the Audre Lorde in Berlin Online Journey - enjoy photos, audios, videos.

Click on the photos below to enlarge them.
n.b.k., July 6, 2023	n.b.k., July 6, 2023	Allerwelthaus, 7.11.23
Allerwelthaus, 7.11.23	Xenon (left to right: Kathleen Knötzsch, Marion Kraft, Dagmar Schultz, Sabine Galler, Elisa Rosi) 18. March, 2023	Elisa Rosi (center)