The reading circle is back at das weisse haus!
Initiated in March by former Curator in Residence Malou Solfjeld, and continued as podcast during the lockdown, it will be now realized as part of the discursive series Wednesday with… and aims to support the worldwide protests for BLACK LIVES MATTER. By reading out loud selected texts by James Baldwin, Frantz Fanon, Nikki Giovanni, bell hooks, Toni Morrison, among others, we hope to create a space of togetherness and to increase the awareness of structural racism and violence that our society is built on. As Ibram Xolani Kendi, leading scholar of race and discriminatory policy, points out: “There’s no neutrality in this struggle––either we’re producing this racist society or we’re struggling against it.”
We start off with a conversation between the black writer James Baldwin and the white anthropologist Margaret Mead, who met in August 1970 to discuss race and society. Their conversation, which lasted approximately seven and one half hours, was tape-recorded and later published under the title A Rap on Race. In 2016, this thought-provoking talk was recreated at das weisse haus in the form of a performative reading session curated by Petra Ponte.
The reading circle is hosted by Faris Cuchi Gezahegn (member of Afro Rainbow Austria, femme non-binary LGBTIQA+ advocate and fellow at Salzburg Global LGBT forum) and Katja Stecher (program manager studio das weisse haus).