June 19, 2014, 6 pm, room 340, John F. Kennedy Institute for North
American Studies
A joint event of the Women’s Representative and the Library of the John
F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies
Audre Lorde, afro-american author, feminist and civil rights activist,
taught in 1984 as a guest professor at the John F. Kennedy Institute for
North American Studies.
As celebrated icon of the second feminist movement Lorde inspired
several generations with her engaging poetry. In 1991 she received the
Walt Whitman Citation of Merit which declared her from 1991 to 1993 New
York State Poet Laureate. From 1984 to 1992 Lorde spent each year
several months in Berlin and read from her work in Germany, Switzerland,
the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. During this time she affected
black and white feminists in Germany and beyond especially by linking
the themes of racism and feminism.
Afro-german women participated in the courses which Audre Lorde offered
at the John F. Kennedy Institute, and Lorde motivated them to write and
to publish. Thus she influenced in a major way the beginnings of an
afro-german movement.
Dagmar Schultz, publisher of Lorde’s work in Orlanda Verlag, documented
Lorde’s impact in the film „Audre Lorde – the Berlin Years 1984 to
1992“. The film is based on a large variety of photos, audio- and video
recordings, letters and posters which Dagmar Schultz had made and
collected as companion of Lorde. She gave this historical raw material
as well as the papers of Orlanda Verlag as an archive on Audre Lorde to
the University Archive of Freie Universität.
Lectures by Marion Kraft and Dagmar Schultz(in German language) remind
of the connection of Audre Lorde with the John-F.-Kennedy-Institut and
her influence of the afro-german movement.
Subsequently the photo exhibition „Audre Lorde – the Berlin Years“ will
be opened in the library, where a reception will take place.
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