Szczepan Twardoch: Pokora
Despite longing for his childhood sweetheart Agnes, the miner’s son Alois immerses himself in Berlin’s underworld after the end of World War I, experiencing the turmoil of the revolution and finally the unrest in Upper Silesia. »Szczepan Twardoch stages a great play with intertextual references in ›Pokora‹. Despite hefty surface stimuli, the novel unfolds considerable depth« [DLF Kultur].
Moderation: Olaf Kühl
Speaker: Jan Uplegger
Claudia Rankine: Just Us
What does it mean to be white? With this question, Claudia Rankine, award-winning author of the poem »Citizen«, continues her examination of race and racism in the United States. For her latest volume, a collage of essays, poems, and images, she details conversations with white people – friends as well as chance acquaintances – about their whiteness. »Rankine writes with disarming intimacy and searing honesty.« [Kirkus Reviews]
Moderation: Toby Ashraf
Hans-Jürgen Syberberg: The Art of Scriptwriting
Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, geboren 1935 in Nossendorf/ Pommern [heute Mecklenburg-Vorpommern], ist Filmregisseur, Autor und Produzent. Als sein Hauptwerk gilt die »Deutschen Trilogie« mit den Filmen »Ludwig: Requiem für einen jungfräulichen König« [1972], » Karl May« [1974] und »Hitler: Ein Film aus Deutschland« [1977]. 10 Jahre Monologe mit Edith Clever führten zu dem »Nossendorf-Projekt«, der im Jahr 2000 begonnenen realen und virtuellen täglichen Transformation der elterlichen Gartenanlage mit weitausgreifendem Weltbezug der Aktualitäten als ein filmisches Installations-Artefakt des Internets. Im Gespräch gibt er Einblicke in sein Wirken und Schaffen.
Moderation: Knut Elstermann
Poetry Night with Margaret Atwood, Paul Muldoon, Haris Vlavianos, Jay Bernard
Margaret Atwood, a two-time Booker Prize winner, may be a world-famous novelist, but she started out writing poetry. Her poems feature observations and reflections and are often inspired by fairy tales and myths that have fascinated her since childhood. Important themes in her prose works, such as feminism and saving the climate, also find expression in her lyrical work, where they are transformed into states of personal interiority.
Paul Muldoon, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet whom »The Times Literary Supplement« called »the most significant English-language poet born since the Second World War«, has published more than thirty collections of poetry. His poetry is characterized by allusions, a subtle wit, wordplay, unusual rhymes, and a subtly inventive use of meter.
Haris Vlavianos is a poet and translator who ventures down what Michael Longley calls »the dark alleys of language«. His poems, beautifully crafted, precise, and clear, show the power of words to record and transform our experiences, to give us the means to respond to the violence of History and face up to the fragility of life.
Jay Bernard’s artistic output is multidisciplinary, critical, queer, and grounded in extensive archival work. The poems from the volume »Surge« take up the so-called New Cross Fire events, when thirteen Black teenagers died in a fire at the house at 439 New Cross Road during a party in southeast London in January 1981 – the cause was never properly explained. Based on this incident, Jay Bernard recounts the long history of racism in Britain.
Moderation: Maren Jäger
Speakers: Frank Arnold, Julia Malik
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Als Romanautorin ist die zweifache Booker-Preisträgerin Margaret Atwood weltbekannt, dabei hat sie mit dem Schreiben von Lyrik begonnen. Ihre Gedichte zeigen Beobachtungen und Reflexionen und sind oft von Märchen und Mythen inspiriert, die sie seit ihrer Kindheit faszinieren. Wichtige Themen ihrer Prosawerke wie der Feminismus und die Rettung des Klimas finden
Felix Klein, Eva Menasse, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Miriam Rürup: Was ist Antisemitismus?
Die Verächtlichmachung von Juden ist nicht allein Ausdruck einer rechtsradikalen Gesinnung, sondern ein Phänomen, das sowohl in vergangenen Zeiten wie auch heute in der Mitte der Gesellschaft verortet ist. Gerade die jüngsten Ereignisse im Vorfeld der documenta fifteen und die darauf begonnene Debatte um Antisemitismus und Kunstfreiheit zeigen die Notwendigkeit eines fortgeführten Diskurses über das gesamtgesellschaftliche Problem.
Moderation: Shelly Kupferberg
Drangsal & Mia Morgan: The Art of Songwriting
The two German musicians Mia Morgan and Max Gruber, aka Drangsal, who recently presented his literary debut »Doch«, have been friends for many years. Their lyrics are also close to each other in terms of content. In a conversation, Drangsal and Mia Morgan provide insights into the creation of their lyrics.
Moderation: Martin Schüler
Margaret Atwood und Jan Wagner: Die Füchsin (English)
»Die Füchsin. Gedichte 1965–1995« [2020] is the first volume of poetry by novelist Margaret Atwood to be available in German translation. The lyricist and Büchner Prize winner Jan Wagner. He talks with Margaret Atwood about her lyrical work and translating.
Speaker: Hildegard Schmahl
Interpreter: Gyda Thurow, Astrid Geese
Barbara Vinken, Ulrike Edschmid, Luka Holmegaard: Text und Textil – Literatur und Mode
Ob als Kunstform, kulturelle Praxis oder Alltagsgegenstand – Kleidung ist Ausdruck von Identität. Doch wie wird sie definiert? Wann wird aus einem Stück Stoff Mode oder Kunst? Ist die Rede vom Stoff der Fiktion nur eine Metapher oder gehören Text und Textil untrennbar zusammen? Es diskutieren mit Verena Lueken die Kulturwissenschaftlerin Barbara Vinken, die 2013 mit »Angezogen« für den Preis der Leipziger Buchmesse nominiert war, Luka Holmegaard, die in »Look« (2020) vom Lesen und Gelesenwerden schreibt, sowie die Schriftstellerin, Textilkünstlerin und aktuelle Günter-Grass-Preisträgerin Ulrike Edschmid.
Barbara Vinken: Diva – die etwas andere Opernverführerin
In her new book Barbara Vinken dares to take a feminist look at the divas in the Italian operas of the 19th century: Tosca, Carmen, or Madame Butterfly are tragic figures, but at the same time a symbol of the triumph of feminine love and proof of the enduring beauty of the world beyond death.
Lob des Dribbelns: Über den Mythos des südamerikanischen Fußballs
Three experts talk about the fine art of dribbling and Latin American football. Not only did they play with the ball for decades (Moritz Rinke still does today as a striker in the DFB national team), but as journalists they reported on the extremely dramatic events. Which Latin American football artists have left their mark on us? Was it the Brazilians at the end of the 50s/beginning of the 60s with Didi, Vavà, Pelè, and Garrincha – or rather the galactic Argentines around Maradona years later? Who are the best students today?
Irene Solà: When I Sing, Mountains Dance
Imaginative and poetic, Irene Solà tells of life and death in a mountain village in the Pyrenees. Not only people have their say; the author also gives a voice to animals, plants and the mountains. »This book is a true miracle. A many-voiced choral song, so full of imagination and life that one feels enveloped and enchanted while reading, as if transported to another plane of reality« [SZ]. The novel was awarded the European Union Prize for Literature in 2020.
Jana Hensel und Daniel Cohn-Bendit: Der Kampf um Freiheit und Demokratie – Wie weit muss er gehen?
Mit welchen militärischen Maßnahmen muss der Krieg Russlands in der Ukraine seitens der westlichen Staatengemeinschaft begegnet werden? Können die von Russland militärisch besetzen Gebiete zurückerobert werden? Wenn ja: wie? Sind die Lieferung schwerer Waffen und das Definieren einer Flugverbotszone tatsächlich fahrlässige Maßnahmen, die automatisch eine weitere Eskalation provozieren oder muss nicht allein aus Gründen des Vorrangs von Freiheit und Demokratie als elementare Kriterien unserer Gesellschaften entschiedener als bisher der russischen Aggression Einhalt geboten werden?
Race and Identity: Mit Thomas Chatterton Williams, Glenn Loury, Joyce Nyairo
The two scholars Glenn Loury and Joyce Nyairo will talk with the author and critic Thomas Chatterton Williams about topics such as racism, colonialism, state identity, and social movements, with reference to the African continent, and the dynamics of development there. The focus will also be on the question of religious, cultural, and ethnic identities as well as their development in the face of social perception.
Anuk Arudpragasam: A Passage North
When Krishan learns that his grandmother’s housekeeper has died under unexplained circumstances, the young man travels to civil war-torn northern Sri Lanka for the funeral. Anuk Arudpragasam, »One of the most individual minds of their generation« [Financial Times], was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his moving reflection on the country’s history and the impact of violence on individual lives.
Philip Gourevitch and Anton Peez: Lessons From Rwanda
More than 800,000 people fell victim to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Journalist and author Philip Gourevitch has traveled to the shattered country for nine consecutive years and traces the psychological aftermath of the genocide in his literary portraits of people from Rwanda. Anton Peez has explored questions of the international community’s responsibility, analyzing German foreign policy in the run-up to and during the genocide and formulating policy recommendations for similar situations in the future.
Bernardine Evaristo: Girl, Woman, Other
Megan is wild and likes wearing pants. Conflict is inevitable, because her mother wants a well-behaved, dress-wearing daughter. Along with eleven other girls and women* of color, Megan forms the center of this Booker Award-winning novel. This breathtakingly written book fans out the struggles and longings of its characters in a kaleidoscopic way, telling the stories of identity, gender, and racism in alternating perspectives.
Sam Thompson: Wolfstongue
Since he often lacks words, Silas is bullied at school. By rescuing an injured wolf, he catapults himself into a world of talking animals, where wolves in an underground city are oppressed by sneaky foxes. Silas can help the wolves, but to do so he must finally find his voice. In poignant language, this children’s book debut, at the same time grippingly dreamy and profound, tells about exclusion, the power of language, and overcoming boundaries.
Words of Love and Hate – Bernardine Evaristo: Manifesto: On Never Giving Up
Bernardine Evaristo, who in 2019 became the first Black writer to win the Booker Prize, tells of her life in her memoir that is »racy and funny, brute and touching, mostly self-deprecating and above all: uninhibitedly honest« [DIE ZEIT]. The formative influence of theatre on her as a teenager and her path to writing are as much a topic as her love life and reflections on personal development.
Dacia Maraini: Trio
This epistolary novel by the grande dame of Italian literature is set in 1743, when the plague ravaged Sicily. Two friends write to each other about the horrors they experience. Meanwhile, the husband of one friend, who also loves the other, travels back and forth between the two. »Trio« is a book about friendship, but also about loss and the end of all familiar structures.
Aleš Šteger: Neverend
This highly poetic and socially critical novel intertwines different time levels and plot lines: present-day Slovenia, texts by prisoners from the Yugoslav war, an emerging novel about war-ravaged Europe in the 18th century, and diary entries by prisoners in a writing class. »A book set in a European future, but in which the echoes of the war are still present« [SWR].
Durs Grünbein: Äquidistanz
Gleich einem Wanderer durch Zeit und Raum streift Durs Grünbein, der Dichtung auch »als Gerät zum Einfangen der Zukunft« begreift, mit seinem zwölften Lyrikband durch Geschichte und Gegenwart, durch Deutschland und Italien. Er setzt damit auch seine langjährige Auseinandersetzung mit dem europäischen Gedanken fort. »Durs Grünbein ist einer der wirklich Großen auf dem Feld der deutschsprachigen Dichtung und dabei vollkommen gegenwärtig, provozierend souverän.« [DIE ZEIT]
Ilya Kaminsky: Deaf Republic
When a deaf boy is shot in the street by a soldier in the occupied city of Vasenka, the inhabitants resist by communicating only in sign language. On the gates of the soldiers’ barracks is written in chalk: »NOBODY CAN HEAR YOU«. In Ilya Kaminsky’s volume »Deaf Republic«, which won the Los Angeles Times Literary Award in 2020, silence becomes legible, poetic material. It opens a space of imaginary sounds and a powerful silence that opposes war.
Peter Stein, Roland Schäfer: Kriegsberichterstattung in der Antike
»Die Orestie« und »Die Perser« von Aischylos erzählen von der Grausamkeit des Kriegs. Eine besondere Rolle kommt den Kriegsberichterstattern zu. Roland Schäfer liest aus den beiden Stücken und spricht über sie. Peter Stein erinnert an seine legendäre Orestie-Inszenierung an der Schaubühne 1980, an die einjährige Probezeit, an die Entstehung seiner Übersetzung und deren Wirkungsgeschichte.
Jérôme Ferrari: In His Own Image
In Corsica, Antonia, a young photographer, and Dragan, who once fought as a Croatian mercenary in the Yugoslav war, meet again. On the way home, Antonia has a fatal accident; at her funeral, her godfather delivers the eulogy. Interspersed with essayistic passages, the Goncourt Prize winner’s novel explores Corsica’s history as well as questions of religion and the nature of photography. »Shattering, in the best sense« [Spiegel Online].
Tatev Hovhannisyan and Maxim Edwards: True Stories – About investigative journalism
Bellingcat is an international research collective founded in 2014 that focuses on crimes against humanity and international conflicts – such as the downing of the MH17 airliner by the Russian military, the murder of opposition figures in Russia, or the use of Russian cluster bombs in Syria and Ukraine. The NDR, WDR, Süddeutsche Zeitung research association is a German investigative research association also founded in 2014, which deals with China’s foreign affairs, American whistleblowers or the Salafist scene in Germany, among other things. Tatev Hovhannisyan of openDemocracy and Maxim Edwards, editor of Bellingcat, provide information about the methods, obstacles and challenges of their work and possible topic areas in the coming years.
Madame Nielsen: Lamento
»Lamento«, the latest novel by the multitalented artist Madame Nielsen, tells of a passionate and ultimately painful relationship between a writer and a theater producer, and of the impossibility of reconciling the magic of infatuation with daily life. »Madame Nielsen dissects the nature of love and infatuation, with disaster always appearing as an all-too-obvious possibility and danger« [Berlingske].
Radka Denemarková: Stunden aus Blei
Along with historical digressions, quotations from Chinese classics and essayistic passages, this major political novel about contemporary China shows the development of individual characters in the resistance, but also criticizes European capitalism and Western arrogance. »The novel shows what it can mean to continue to hold on to hope for freedom, hope for a life of truth, not lies, despite outrageous repression« [BR].
The Naked Don’t Fear the Water: Matthieu Aikins and Taqi Akhlaqi on flight from Afghanistan
Canadian journalist Matthieu Aikins is known for his war reporting from Afghanistan and has been awarded the 2022 Pulitzer Prize. In 2016, he accompanied a young Afghan fleeing to Europe and wrote a book about what he witnessed, »The Naked Don’t Fear the Water«. The Afghan writer Taqi Akhlaqi, the Kabul narrator in the summer 2021 anthology »Refugees Worldwide III«, lives with his family in Berlin. An exchange that discusses the experiences and world behind the buzzwords flight and exile.
WRITING, HISTORY, AND PROJECT 3541. With Maaza Mengiste
The artistic and educational remembrance project will be presented by its founder, Maaza Mengiste: The project consists of photographs of people during the war between Ethiopia and Italy from 1935 to 1941, some of which come from the private collection of Maaza Mengiste, whose novel »The Shadow King« tells the story of this war and of those who lived through it.
Contemporary Arabic Literature – Khaled Khalifa: No One Prayed Over Their Graves
To kick off the series »Not Dead But Dreaming: Focus on Contemporary Arabic Literature«, the novelist and screenwriter, who has been nominated several times for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, will present his latest novel for the first time in Berlin. In it, Khalifa weaves a hundred years of Syrian history and culture into a text about the fate of several families. It is a portrait of a people in the throes of great change: from village life to the modernity of the city, where Christians, Muslims, and Jews live and work together.
