Decolonization in Action Podcast

In this episode, Kristyna Comer welcomes Wendi Muse — creator and host of the Left POCket Project Podcast — back to this podcast. This episodes begins with Wendi talking about the need to listen, making reference to Paulo Freire’s "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" and listening in the context of collective empowerment, anticolonial resistance movements past and present, and for creative work in general. This episode is dedicated to what listening can mean with a special focus on the Left POCket Project Podcast. In addition to talking more about her podcast and the critical histories of leftist people of color the podcast makes available, we talk about how Wendi activates anticolonial practices in the very design and expanded forms of her podcast.

Wendi Muse is a PhD candidate in History at NYU, and is currently finishing her dissertation regarding the activities of leftist networks formed between Brazilians and Lusophone African activists during their concurrent struggles against dictatorial rule and colonialism, respectively. She also has an MA in Latin American Studies and has lived and worked in Brazil, where, in addition to her current work, she has also conducted research on the black press, black women's activism in the early 1900s, and political subversion among samba performers during the dictatorship.

The LeftPOC podcast is available on Soundcloud and iTunes as well as many other podcast platforms: https://soundcloud.com/leftpoc

For all show notes, please visit:

https://www.decolonizationinaction.com/episodes/season-4-episode-1

For all episodes, please visit

https://www.decolonizationinaction.com

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@decinaction

Image:

from the Left POCket Project Facebook Page: https://web.facebook.com/leftpoc/?_rdc=1&_rdr

In this episode, edna bonhomme is in conversation with Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju, a transdisciplinary Nigerian-American artist and writer living in Berlin. Primarily working with painting, performance, video, installation and writing, her studio practice acts as a (meta)physical space where she can produce evidence and embark on earnest freedom pursuits. It is a way of coping, questioning and occasionally proposing something new. Recurring points of interest in her work include perversion and intuition, evolving sexuality in relation to intimacy, trauma, and body image, queer and anti-colonial methodologies, religion and spirituality, improvisation, and the recovery of child selves. Her main concern as an artist is to look at the frayed edges and ruptures of constructed realities and locate spaces where healing, liberation, and (re)generation can take place. She is often pulling from her experience of her own body and though she works through narrative-driven subject matter, she is also interrogating the wider systemic contexts and constructed realities in which these issues and questions lie.

Monilola's Website: https://monilola.com

Image: from Monilola's performance of Wayward Dust at Deutsches Technikmuseum in collaboration with Decolonize Berlin

In this episode, edna bonhomme interviews Ncube, a Zimbabwe-born, British writer and director based in Berlin, Germany. Ncube's films explore the Black African psyche in the modern world, especially how the past informs our present and derails our future. Ncube has been making off-theatre productions for close to 10 years. His three feature films consist of his directorial debut: All The Pretty Girls (a quixotic psychodrama with mockumentary elements), that fly 70s sci fi futuristic shit !! (an afrofuturistic blaxploitation wanderlust in the memory of Adam Merai) the AGE of WONDER (a film with 9 names, exploring a changing world from the perspective of two brothers.

Ncube's Films can be viewed at Kino Central in Berlin: kino-central.de

Music by Podington Bear, entitled: Releasing The Sculpture

Musician website: Podingtonbear.com

In this episode edna bonhomme is in conversation with artist and writer Grace Ndiritu. Ndiritu has been engaged in “The Year of Black Healing” which is an artistic response to President Macron’s declaration that 2020 is the year of Africa in the entire French territory. In order to counterbalance the co-opting of Black Culture by politicians to promote their own agendas, Grace Ndiritu has declared that 2020 is in fact The Year of Black Healing. A year long programme of exhibitions, performances and talks in collaboration with different institutions, focusing on Ndiritu’s work and its relation to decolonization, spiritual practice, black and indigenous culture, neoliberalism and racism #georgefloyd.

The conversation was originally recorded for HAU Radical Mutation: On the Ruins of Rising Suns which was Curated by Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Saskia Köbschall, Tmnit Zere, in collaboration with Wearebornfree! Empowerment Radio

Season 3, Episode 7: Reading May Ayim through Poetic Revolutionaries in Berlin

This episode opens with spoken word poetess Savannah Sipho reading May Ayim’s poem titled “blues in Schwarzweiß” (“Blues in Black and White”) during a recent critical walking tour in Berlin called Dekoloniales Flanieren, or Decolonial Flaneur (August 21, 2020), organized by the Nachbarschaftsinitiative Anton-Wilhelm-Amo-Straße led by students, scholars, and professors from Humboldt University, which aimed to establish a broad coalition with activists, artists, Institute for European Ethnology, Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland (ISD), SAAVY Contemporary, and the recently established Decolonize Berlin to mobilize demands to change a racist street name in the Berlin District of Mitte called M*Straße or M Street—which is an abbreviated form of a street name that has been called out for its anti-Black racist language for well over 30 years—where the Institute for European Ethnology and other departments of Humboldt University are also located. After decades of activism and one day before Dekoloniales Flanieren took place, the District of Mitte in Berlin announced on August 20th that M*Straße will be renamed to honor 18th-century philosopher, professor, jurist, and poet Anton Wilhelm Amo.

In conversation with Kristyna Comer, Savannah Sipho shares more about her reading of May Ayim’s poem during Dekoloniales Flanieren as well as more about her creative process and the transformative experience of writing and performing poetry while also acknowleding spaces and organizations led by the Black POCs in Berlin that continue to support and empower Black artists.

This episode begins and ends with poetry: At the end of the episode, Savannah reads “exotik” by May Ayim and Decolonization in Action host edna bonhomme reads one of her own poems titled “Foremothers.”

A special thanks to Savannah Sipho and edna bonhomme for contributing their readings to this episode.

— Biographies —

Savannah Sipho

Savannah Sipho—born and raised in Berlin—is a 24-year-old student of Area Studies Asia/Africa. She was inspired by May Ayim's life and poetry to start writing as a young girl.

Identity, the array of emotions, racism, and life in Berlin are recurring themes in Savannah Sipho’s writing.

She had her debut performance in May 2019.

edna bonhomme

edna bonhomme is an art worker, historian, lecturer, and writer whose work interrogates the archaeology of (post)colonial science, embodiment, and surveillance. A central question of her work asks: what makes people sick? As a researcher, she answers this question by exploring the spaces and modalities of care and toxicity that shape the possibility for repair. She has collaborated and exhibited critical multimedia projects in Berlin, Prague, and Vienna. In addition to her academic interests, Edna has written for publications such as Africa is a Country, Al Jazeera, Analyis und Kritik, The Baffler, Daddy Magazine, Der Freitag, Mada Masr, The Nation Magazine, and more. Bonhomme earned her PhD in History of Science from Princeton University.

www.ednabonhomme.com

— Show Credits —

Interview and Post-production

Kristyna Comer

Poetry

“blues in Schwarzweiß” by May Ayim, read by Savannah Sipho, recorded by Michael Westrich

“exotik” by May Ayim, read and recorded by Savannah Sipho

“Foremothers” by edna bonhomme, read and recorded by edna bonhomme

Images

Profile photograph by Leo Wolters; Courtesy of Savannah Sipho

Cover image: still image from video documentation by Thị Minh Huyền Nguyễn of Savannah Sipho’s reading of May Ayim’s “blues in Schwarzweiß” with Claire Irene Künzel, co-organizer of Dekoloniales Flanieren who curated and introduced the third stop of the critical walking tour

Music

All music is from Freesounds.org (Creative Commons)

— Please visit www.decolonizationinaction.com for the complete show notes for all episodes. —

edna bonhomme interviews Tiffany Florvil and they discuss Black-led social movements in Germany, the history of German colonialism, and transforming academic institutions.

Bio

Tiffany N. Florvil is an Associate Professor of 20th-century European Women’s and Gender History at the University of New Mexico. She specializes in the histories of post-1945 Europe, the African/Black diaspora, social movements, feminism, Black internationalism, gender and sexuality, and emotions. She received her PhD in Modern European History from the University of South Carolina and her MA in European Women’s and Gender History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has published pieces in the Journal of Civil and Human Rights and The German Quarterly. Florvil has coedited the volume, Rethinking Black German Studies, and has published chapters in To Turn this Whole World Over, Gendering Knowledge in Africa and the African Diaspora, and Audre Lorde's Transnational Legacies. Her forthcoming manuscript, Mobilizing Black Germany: Afro-German Women and the Making of a Transnational Movement with the University of Illinois Press, offers the first full-length study of the history of the Black German movement of the 1980s to the 2000s.

She is a Network Editor of H-Emotions and a Network Editor and an Advisory Board member of H-Black-Europe. She serves on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee for the German Studies Association, the Editorial Board for Central European History, the Executive Board for the Journal of Civil and Human Rights, and the Advisory Board of the International Federation for Research in Women’s History (IFRWH). She is also an editor of the “Imagining Black Europe” book series at Peter Lang Press. Her next projects include a volume on Black Europe, examining the experiences of Shirley Graham Du Bois in Central Europe, and analyzing the activism of Black diasporic women in 20th-century Europe.

Florvil has wide-ranging interdisciplinary and intersectional interests and training in Modern European History, Black German Studies, African Diaspora Studies, Emotion/Affect Studies, Black Cultural Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her research interests include Black Europe, Black internationalism, Black intellectualism, global 1960s and the Cold War, space/Black geography, social movements, transnational feminisms, and African diasporic literature and culture. She works to excavate the narratives of Black Europeans, expanding our understanding of identity, belonging, and space. Her Mobilizing Black Germany: Afro-German Women and the Making of a Transnational Movement focuses on the birth and evolution of the modern Black German movement of the 1980s to the 2000s. In it, she demonstrates how Black German women’s efforts at political activism involved intellectual, cultural, internationalist, and queer practices and strategies that shaped their larger diasporic movement. Using an array of sources from both sides of the Atlantic, Mobilizing Black Germany is one of the first books to provide a detailed history of the modern Black German movement.

Co-founder and Series Editor of "Imagining Black Europe," Peter Lang Press

Co-founder and Co-chair, Black Diaspora Studies Network, German Studies Association, 2016-2021

Co-founder, Advisory Board Member, and Network Editor, H-Black-Europe

Co-founder and Network Editor, H-Emotions

*Forthcoming Book: Mobilizing Black Germany: Afro-German Women and the Making of a Transnational Movement (Illinois, 2020)

Edited Volume: Rethinking Black German Studies: Approaches, Interventions and Histories (Peter Lang, 2018)

*Latest Essay: "Anti-racism Protests and Black Lives in Europe" (June 2020)

In this episode, edna bonhomme spoke with Natasha Marin, curator of "Black Imagination: Black Voices on Black Futures" (2020 McSweeney’s).

Natasha Marin (NONWHITEWORKS) is an antiracism consultant based in Seattle, specializing in communications, community building, and digital engagement. Marin is also the curator of Black Imagination: Black Voices on Black Futures (McSweeney's, 2020) and a conceptual artist whose people-centered projects have circled the globe since 2012 and have been recognized and acknowledged by Art Forum, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the LA Times, NBC, Al Jazeera, Vice, PBS and others. BLACK IMAGINATION — a series of conceptual exhibitions amplifying, centering, and holding sacred a diverse sample of voices including LGBTQIA+ black youth, incarcerated black women, black folks with disabilities, unsheltered black folks, and black children is her bravest work thus far. Her viral web-based project, Reparations, engaged a quarter of a million people worldwide in the practice of "leveraging privilege," and earned Marin, a mother of two, death threats by the dozens. Find more online: www.Black-Imagination.com

In this episode, Laurence Meyer asks various Afro/Black French people about racism and police brutality in France.

Laurence Meyer is a jurist in public law and a PhD student in constitutional comparative law. She works on the impact of race on the French legal system.

Marie-Julie Chalu is a theater actress; curator of the website Afropea (https://afropea.net/) on afropean identities and creativities; and creator and administrator of the Instagram accounts Zouk Vintage (https://www.instagram.com/zouk.vintage/) and Noir Cinema (https://www.instagram.com/noir.cinema/).

Mame-Fatou Niang is a photographer, film director, and Associate Professor of French Studies at Carnegie Mellon University.

Maliga is a high school teacher of sociology and economics.

Olivia Mabounga is a theater actress and playwright.

Mwasi is a French Afrofeminist collective (https://www.mwasicollectif.org/).

Assa Traoré is a social worker and an activist part of the "Justice et vérité pour Adama Traoré" collective mobilizing against police violence and the sister of Adama Traoré, who died in the hands of the French gendarmerie.

The song Idadé is by the artist C.T. Koité and is dedicated to the Traoré family.

Image from left to right : Fatou Dieng, Diané Bah, Eve, Mamadou Camara, Awa Gueye

This episode is in the French language

This panel, entitled, "Revolutions from the Kitchen: On Technologies of Resistance and Radical Care," was part of the Alt_Cph20, co-produced with Salon Hysteria as part of the summer seminar series Hysterical Utopias, and curated by Ida Bencke. The conversation was between edna bonhomme, Luiza Prado de O. Martins, and Nazila Kivi on technologies of resistance and radical care. The talk is hosted by Alt_Cph20, Patterns in Resistance and co-produced with Salon Hysteria as part of the summer seminar series Hysterical Utopias.

LUIZA PRADO DE O. MARTINS

Is an artist and researcher engaging with material and visual culture through the lenses of decolonial and queer theories. O. Martins holds an MA from the Hochschule für Künste Bremen, and a PhD from the Berlin University of the Arts. She is a founding member of the Decolonising Design collective and the research duo A Parede. Her current artistic research project, titled “A Topography of Excesses,” starts from a call to re-appropriate the concept of excess in relation to gendered and racialized bodies in the modern/colonial gender system.

https://www.luiza-prado.com/

NAZILA KIVI

Is an independent scholar on reproduction and decoloniality, editor, essayist and co-founder of the feminist magazine Friktion. She teaches gender study courses, among others the course From Witches to Cyborgs: Gender, Race and Resistance.SALON HYSTERIA

Salon Hysteria is a space for next level conversations on society, politics and science.

edna bonhomme

Is an art worker, historian, lecturer, and writer whose work interrogates the archaeology of (post)colonial science, embodiment, and surveillance. A central question of her work asks: what makes people sick? As a researcher, she answers this question by exploring the spaces and modalities of care and toxicity that shape the possibility for repair. She has collaborated and exhibited critical multimedia projects in Berlin, Prague, and Vienna. In addition to her academic interests, Edna has written for publications such as Africa is a Country, Aljazeera, Analyis und Kritik, The Baffler, Daddy Magazine, Der Freitag, Mada Masr, The Nation Magazine, and more. Bonhomme earned her PhD in History of Science from Princeton University

https://www.ednabonhomme.com/

More information about Patterns of Resistance can be found here: https://altcph.dk/event/revolutions-from-the-kitchen-on-technologies-of-resistance-and-radical-care/

In this episode, edna bonhomme speaks with Dr. Natasha A. Kelly about Afrofuturism, Black feminism, German colonialism, and the word "Rasse" in the German language.