Presented by Goethe-Institut Boston and CGES Online
How do artists react to the current global protests against racism? The discussion is guided by a quote from James Baldwin: "I think all poets—and I’m a kind of poet—are caught in a situation, which is a kind of pre-revolutionary situation; they have a very difficult role to play. (…) My own effort is to try to bear witness to something that will have to be there when the storm is over, to help us get through the next storm. Storms are always coming."
Joining this transatlantic conversation are the author Sasha Marianna Salzmann and the dramaturg Rebecca Ajnwojner from Germany, and the performer and activist Ireon Roach and the stage director and cultural entrepreneur Guy Ben-Aharon from the US.
Sasha Marianna Salzmann is a playwright, essayist, curator, and writer in residence of the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin. She is a cofounder of the culture magazine freitext and was the artistic director of Studio Я from 2013 to 2015. In 2017 Salzmann finished their first novel,
Beside Myself, which is translated into 16 languages and won two major German awards for best debut novel.
Beside Myself was on the short list for the Book Prize 2017, Premio Strega Europeo 2019 and Central European Literature Award ANGELUS. Sasha Marianna Salzmann is the winner of the art prize in category performing arts of the Akademie der Künste 2020 and is a fellow of Deutscher Literaturfonds.
Ireon Roach (she/her/hers) is a Black, queer, Chicago-bred poet, performer and activist currently pursuing her BFA in Theatre Arts from Boston University. Her writing has appeared in Hoochie Feminst Magazine and Shortline Review Reading Series. She is passionate about liberation through the untelling of western history and retelling of our own.
Rebecca Ajnwojner, M.A., born in Frankfurt am Main, completed her studies in Psychology in Heidelberg and her studies in Dramaturgy and Directing in Frankfurt am Main and Tel Aviv. During her studies she engaged with questions of intersectionality regarding a critical theatre practice and Critical Theory. Furthermore, she worked in the field of addiction support and research. Since the 2017/2018 season, she is a dramaturg at Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin. She co-organized the interdisciplinary festival 4. Berliner Herbstsalon which dealt with the term „Heimat“ from a feminist-intersectional perspective. Rebecca's artistic and scientific work operates at the interface between art and activism as well as the commitment to interests of diverse marginalized communities. Rebecca is currently working on her PhD project on representational critique and strategic essentialism in theater.
Guy Ben-Aharon is a stage director and cultural entrepreneur looking to radically change the way we experience culture. He is the Founder & Director of
The Jar, a company that exists to produce cultural encounters that delight, ignite and unite a diverse and vibrant community. His work has been profiled in numerous press outlets, such as
The Boston Globe, The International Herald Tribune, The Washington Post, among others.
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