Black German Cultural Society of New Jersey 2012 Annual Convention

Katharina Oguntoye, Audre Lorde and May Ayim

 Building on the success of the inaugural 2011 conference, the second annual convention of the Black German Cultural Society of New Jersey (BGCSNJ) will be held at Barnard College in New York City on August 10-11, 2012. This year’s convention will focus on the theme of “What Is the Black German Experience?”

The conference will feature a keynote address by Yara Colette Lemke Muniz de Faria, screenings of the films “Hope in My Heart: The May Ayim Story” and “Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984-1992,” and readings by Black German poet-performers Olumide Popoola and Philipp Kabo Köpsell.

In response to recent interest, the BGCSNJ Review Committee has expanded the scope of the conference and invites proposals for papers that engage the diverse histories, experiences and cultural productions of Blacks of German heritage and blackness in Germany and Europe more broadly. We welcome submissions for twenty-minute presentations on three academic panels. Additionally, two panels will be devoted to life writing, oral history and memoir. These two panels will provide a forum for the work of collecting individual accounts and reflections, as well as raising awareness on the overlooked life histories of blacks of Germany heritage and blackness in a wider European context.

For more information check http://blackgermans.us

May Ayim and Katharina Oguntoye were also the authors of the book Showing Our Colors: Afro-German Women Speak Out (In German: Farbe bekennen. Afro-deutsche Frauen auf den Spuren ihrer Geschichte)


Hope in My Heart: The May Ayim Story



Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984-1992


Olumide Popoola


Philipp Kabo Köpsell