“This is wonderful news and a fitting tribute to a great writer.”
Henry Louis Gates
ABOUT THIS WEBSITE
Audre Lorde, the renowned African-american poet, author and activist, lived from 1984 to 1992 each year for weeks and months in Berlin. Are you interested in the time Audre Lorde shared in Berlin with her comrades and friends? Want to visit the places where she lived, worked and spent her leisure time? All of this you can experience in the Audre Lorde Berlin City Tour – a self-guided digital tour containing photos, videos and sound clips.
Some directions for use:
– choose the language in the upper right hand corner (en/de)
– click on an icon on the city map. Under the first photo you find a text for the location
– Click through the photos/videos
– to return to the city map: click the X in the upper right hand corner!
– meaning of the color of the icons: red (not visited); magenta (visited); yellow (last visited)
AUDRE LORDE IN BERLIN
I had the privilege of getting to know Audre Lorde in 1980 at the World Women’s Conference in Copenhagen. In 1984 she came to Berlin as a guest professor of African American literature and creative writing at the JFK Institute of North American Studies. Until 1992, she spent weeks and months each year in Berlin, often accompanied by her colleague and partner Dr. Gloria I. Joseph. During those years, I and others shared Berlin with Audre and she shared with us her boundless knowledge, wisdom, humor, activism, and love of life.
Audre’s life’s journey ended way to soon in 1992 when she lost her long and valiant battle with cancer.
Audre had a profound impact on the German Black community and on the white women’s community. She described her time in Berlin as one of the most significant in her life. To share this largely unpublicized chapter of Audre’s life, I produced the film “Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992” in cooperation with Ria Cheatom, Ika Hügel-Marshall and Aletta von Vietinghoff. The film had its world premiere at the 2012 International Berlin Film Festival. Since then, it has been screened world-wide at 67 festivals, has received seven film awards and is distributed in Europe and the US and Canada. Below you find a link to the website of the film and the trailer.
There have been a number of requests by visitors to Berlin asking where Audre lived and spent time, and one person asked whether there was an Audre Lorde City Tour. Now there is and this is it!
The places depicted in this City Tour were photographed by me and Ika Hügel-Marshall, another close friend of Audre. Ika was also my colleague at Orlanda Press, the German publisher of Audre’s work. These places will give you an up close look at Audre’s political and personal world. I wrote the text accompanying each site in the City Tour. Aletta von Vietinghoff, editor of the film and of the videos in this tour, chose with me the photos, videos and audios. Bijan Latif developed the concept and design for the City Tour website. The programming was done by Matt Henderson. I am grateful for their cooperation and support in making this project a reality.
We welcome your comments and questions on our Contact page. This city tour can also be expanded. If you have information about places where and persons with whom Audre Lorde spent time let us know.
Dagmar Schultz
On the film „Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992“
www.audrelorde-theberlinyears.com
LINKS AND RESOURCES
The Audre Lorde Archive at the Free University of Berlin and at the John-F.-Kennedy Institute for Northamerican Studies:
http://www.fu-berlin.de/sites/uniarchiv/bestaende/abteilung3/nachlass_lorde/index.html
http://www.jfki.fu-berlin.de/en/library/holdings/audrelorde/index.html
The website and Facebook of the film:
www.audrelorde-theberlinyears.com
https://www.facebook.com/AudreLordeBerlinYears
The website of the women’s cultural center „Begine“:
http://www.begine.de/ueber-uns/herstory.html
The website of the „Schokofabrik“ and the Turkish bath in the Schokofabrik:
www.frauenzentrum-schokofabrik.de
The website of the Intercultural Network „Joliba“ founded by Katharina Oguntoye (not a City Tour location):
The website of the Orlanda Press (books by Audre Lorde, Katharina Oguntoye, May Ayim…)
The website of Ika Hügel-Marshall:
The website of Dagmar Schultz:
Books by Audre Lorde can be bought or ordered in any bookstore.
Check these websites for English language bookstores:
http://untappedcities.com/2013/05/15/the-untapped-guide-to-berlins-top-five-expatriate-bookshops/
http://berlin.barwick.de/shopping/books/index.html
Especially recommended:
Marga Schoeller Bücherstube
Knesebeckstrasse 33
10623 Berlin (Charlottenburg)
Ph.: (030) 881 11 12
Mon. – Wed. 9.30am – 7pm; Thu. – Fri. 9.30am – 8pm; Sat. 9.30am – 4pm
(no website)
St. George’s Bookshop
Wörther Strasse 27
10405 Berlin (Prenzlauer Berg)
Ph.: (030) 817 98 333
Mon. – Fri 11am-8pm, Sat. 11am-7pm
http://www.saintgeorgesbookshop.com/
Prinz Eisenherz Buchladen is specializing in queer literature and is located near the City Tour locations „Pour Elle“ and „Winterfeldtmarket“ on Motzstrasse 23
Mon. – Sat. 10am – 8pm
Some especially relevant book titles:
Audre Lorde, Die Quelle unserer Macht, Berlin: Orlanda Verlag 1993
(the bilingual edition of 42 poems which Audre chose herself from her work in 1992 during her last summer in Berlin – see video in location „Grossgörschenstrasse“)
Audre Lorde, ZAMI. A New Spelling of My Name. London: Persephone Press, 1982
Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider. Essays and Speeches, Berkeley, CA.: Crossing Press, 1984
Audre Lorde, The Collected Poems, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2000
Rudolph P. Byrd, Johnnetta Betsch Cole, Beverly Guy-Sheftall (eds.),
I Am Your Sister. Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde,
New York: Oxford University Press, 2009
May Opitz, Katharina Oguntoye, Dagmar Schultz (eds.), Showing Our Colors. Afro-German Women Speak Out, Amherst: University of Massachussetts Press, 1992
(the book on Afro-German history and present which Audre Lorde initiated and wrote the preface for)
Stella Bolaki and Sabine Broeck (eds.), Audre Lorde’s Transnational Legacies, Amherst: University of Massachussetts Press, 2014
Gloria I. Joseph, The Wind Is Spirit. The Life, Love and Legacy of Audre Lorde, villarosa media, 2016
Ika Hügel-Marshall, Invisible Woman. Growing Up Black in Germany,
Peter Lang Publishers, 2008
May Ayim, blues in black and white, Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press & The Red Sea Press, 2003
Films:
A Litany for Survival: the Life and Work of Audre Lorde, dir. Michelle Parkerson, prod. Ada Griffin, New York: Third World Newsreel, 1995
The Edge of Each Other’s Battles: The Vision of Audre Lorde, dir. Jennifer Abod, Women Make Movies, 2003
Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992, dir./prod. Dagmar Schultz,
script Dagmar Schultz in cooperation with Ria Cheatom, Ika Hügel-Marshall, Aletta von Vietinghoff, ed. Aletta von Vietinghoff, Berlin: Salzgeber, New York: Third World Newsreel, 2012