ACCOMPANYING PROGRAM

Dr. Marion Kraft is an Afro-German literary scholar, lecturer, author, publisher and translator. She has spent over 35 years working at various educational institutions all over the world and has published countless essays on racism, feminism, African-American writers and on the black (women’s) movement in Germany. She is author of the book The African Continuum and African American Women Writers, co-publisher of SCHWARZE FRAUEN DER WELT – EUROPA UND MIGRATION (“Black Women of the World – Europe and Migration”), publisher of KINDER DER BEFREIUNG – TRANSATLANTISCHE ERFAHRUNGEN UND PERSPEKTIVEN SCHWARZER DEUTSCHER DER NACHKRIEGSGENERATION (“Children of the Liberation – Transatlantic Experiences and Perspectives of Post-war Generation Black Germans”) and co-translator of Audre Lorde’s volume of poetry, DIE QUELLE UNSERER MACHT (“Sources of our Power”). At the Public Library she will give a reading from her latest book EMPOWERING ENCOUNTERS WITH AUDRE LORDE (Unrast Verlag, 2018) – a homage to the poet and activist who died in 1992 and who had a huge impact on the black women’s movement in Germany.

The author and presenter Sami Omar writes and works on migration, integration, racism and discrimination-related issues for print and online media. He is frequently invited as a speaker on these matters and hosts political and cultural events. Sami Omar is the campaign spokesman and employee of a specialist integration and migration department at a German charity organisation. His short stories have been published in literary magazines and anthologies and are part of his entertaining stage show which he has performed throughout Germany. Sami Omar was born in Sudan in 1978 to Eritrean parents and grew up in the Swabian town of Ulm with German parents. His third book was published in 2018 with the title SAMI UND DIE LIEBE HEIMAT (“Sami and the Beloved Homeland”), from which he will give a reading at the Public Library.