The Decolonial Realms Working Group presents a book launch event with a special guest from the USA! Activist-scholar Conor Tomás Reed, PhD (City University of New York), will present their book New York Liberation School. Reed’s immersive research reactivates the vibrant collective histories of the 1960s and 70s New York City, when classrooms and streets radiated as epicenters of Black, Puerto Rican, queer and women’s liberation. Drawing insights from the intellectual and activist engagement of women including June Jordan, Audre Lorde, and Toni Cade Bambara to chart a vision for liberating education and society today.

The evening will open with the performance I Step On Air by Oxana Chi Dance & Art. The dance-theater piece conceived and interpreted by Oxana Chi commemorates and celebrates the legacy of the Ghanian-German poet, educator and activist May Ayim, a key figure of the antiracist and feminist movements in Germany, and a friend of Audre Lorde. Chi is accompanied by Layla Zami (Project B05) who performs poetry by May Ayim, live-music, and sound art. The performance is contextualized by a biographical input on May Ayim.

The event rounds up with a conversation with Makda Isak (EOTO e.V.) moderated by Binta Boiro (Project C06), opening a reflection on the historical meaning of Juneteenth in the United States, migration in German politics and transcultural Black interventions, past and present.

The event is part of the laboratory format Intervention Space Art and Academia.