The poet and dramaturg Philipp Khabo Koepsell will present a number of his texts. American Professor of German Literature Priscilla Layne will address how his work draws on Afrofuturism, and the two will speak about the topics of black masculinity, German norms and the influence of African American culture, especially hip hop, in Germany.

Afrofuturism is the reimagining of a future that infuses science fiction and fantasy with cultures of the African diaspora. It celebrates the uniqueness and innovation of black culture. Renown proponents of this cultural movement are the musician Sun Ra, who infused elements of space and jazz fusion in his work, and science fiction author Octavia E. Butler who explored black women protagonists in novels like Fledging and Parable of the Sower.

Philipp Khabo Koepsell is a Berlin-based author and spoken word performer of German and South African descent. With a clear focus on empowerment and negotiations of race and identity he has been touring Europe and South Africa. On stage he mixes savvy afropolitan poetry with Black German activist messages and theatrical bits creating a unique, gritty, and entertaining style of performance poetry. He is the author of Die Akte James Knopf. Afrodeutsche Wort- und Streitkunst (2010) and editor of the anthologies Afro Shop and Arriving in the Future: Stories of Home and Exile (both published in 2014). Currently he works as curator and dramatic advisor for the Berlin-based theatre Ballhaus Naunynstraße.

Priscilla Layne is an associate professor of German at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She completed her BA at the University of Chicago, and PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. Layne is author of White Rebels in Black: German Appropriation of Black Popular Culture (Michigan, 2018) and co-editor of Rebellion and Revolution: Defiance in German Language, History, and Art (with Melissa Etzler, 2010). She is currently Fellow of the American Academy in Berlin.

In cooperation with the American Academy in Berlin and the TU Dresden.

Supported by the program 360° – Fund for New City Cultures by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.

Afrofuturism – The Future is unwritten. A talk between Philipp Khabo Koepsell and Priscilla Layne (in englischer Sprache) | Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Hörsaal | 9. November | Freitag | 19 Uhr | Eintritt: 5 Euro/ ermäßigt 3 Euro | Karten im Vorverkauf