Erbe und Verwurzelungen: Resonance – A Festival of Black German-Language Fiction

Resonance – A Festival of Black German-Language Fiction was conceived by the author and political activist Sharon Dodua Otoo for the Ruhrfestspiele in Recklinghausen in 2022. This festival aimed to rethink, reimagine and further develop perspectives and experiences within the German-language literary scene.

Texts:
Joe Otim Dramiga: Adlam
Bahati Glaß: Das Geschenk meines Vaters
Melanelle B. C. Hémêfa: O le gbo gnea?
Winni Atiedo Modesto: Loslassen
Raphaëlle Red: Calvins Väter
Dean Ruddock: pareidolie

Joe Otim Dramiga holds a PhD in Neurogenetics and blogs about science on Die Sankoré-Schriften. He contributed to the poetry anthology Arriving in the Future: Stories of Home and Exile and worked as a project consultant and translator for the photo book Daima – Images of Women of Colour in Germany. Joe Otim Dramiga wrote a short biography of Anton Wilhelm Amo Afer, published in Visionäre Afrikas: Der Kontinent in ungewöhnlichen Porträts (Africa’s Visionaries: The Continent in Extraordinary Portraits). He lives in Berlin.

Bahati Glaß studied German as a Foreign Language and Arabic Studies at the University of Leipzig. She grew up in a small town in Saxony. She became fascinated by language in her childhood, writing poems and stories. Bahati Glaß works as a German teacher in adult education and writes poetry, prose, and songs. Her texts have been published in several magazines and anthologies, including the poetry volume Haymatlos. She lives in Berlin.

Melanelle B. C. Hémêfa is a PhD candidate, poetess, author, speaker, moderator, Blacktivist and consultant. She graduated from the University of Mannheim in 2021 with a degree in Romance Studies and History. Working from an activist, intersectional and emotional perspective, Melanelle B. C. Hémêfa explores issues around anti-Black racism, Black feminism, postcolonialism, colonialism, intersectionality and empowerment. She lives in Berlin.

Winni Atiedo Modesto is a writer and educator. After completing her training as a state-certified educator, she studied German Philology and Literature at the Free University of Berlin. Winni Atiedo Modesto works as a freelancer for the Deutsche Welle Travel editorial team. Her literary texts explore themes of Afrodiasporic identity, belonging and othering; they have been published in the 2014 anthology Afro Shop and elsewhere. She lives in Berlin.

Raphaëlle Red is an author and literary scholar. She researches contemporary literature related to the African diaspora at the Free University of Berlin. In 2020, she earned two master’s degrees in Creative Writing and Cultural Management in Paris. In her debut novel, Adikou(Rowohlt, 2024), Raphaëlle Red explores the complexities of Afrodiasporic identity, heritage, and history(ies). Her writing in French, English and German has appeared in publications including Bella Triste, Jef Klak, L’Humanité, and gal-dem. She lives in Berlin.

Dean Ruddock became involved in writing through spoken word. Memory, issues of postmigrant society and the exploration of decoloniality are important aspects of his work. In 2021, he performed the piece Undine tanzt with Corporeal Poetry Collective Ő as part of the Droste Festival at Burg Hülshoff – Center for Literature. He also won the manuscript competition held by Leipzig Hörspielsommer for the radio play Vorschlag einer Struktur (Suggestion of a Structure), co-written with Cäcilie Willkommen. Dean Ruddock is part of the initiative Postmigrantisches Radio (Postmigrant Radio). He is currently pursuing a degree in Media Arts at Bauhaus University. He lives in Weimar.

Ibou Coulibaly Diop is a literary scholar and curator. He is currently developing the concept of a city-wide culture of remembrance for the Senate of Berlin and, together with Lorraine Bluche, works for the Berliner Stadtmuseum Foundation in the Decolonization Department. His PhD thesis examined the global(ised) dimension of Michel Houellebecq’s literary work and the question of literature’s globalisation and universalisation as a whole. In his work, he is interested in the question of how we can grow together despite our differences and which approaches towards this goal can be found in literature. He lives in Berlin.

Dominique Haensell is an author, translator and co-editor-in-chief of Missy Magazine. She studied English Philology, Comparative Literature and Critical Theory at the Free University of Berlin and King’s College London and holds a PhD from the Graduate School of North American Studies at the John F. Kennedy Institute. Her activities include moderating readings, participating in literary panels and acting as a jury member for the International Literature Award. Her monograph Making Black History: Diasporic Fiction in the Moment of Afropolitanism won a De Gruyter Open Access Award in 2021; she also received an Emma Goldmann Snowball Award for her autobiographical novel project in the same year. She lives in Berlin.