BIGSAS Festival of African and African-Diasporic literatures:
Festival Guests
Mohamed Amjahid | Nassur Attoumani | Marc Alexandre Oho Bambe | Anis Chouchène | Aya Cissoko | Hamado Dipama | Hicham Ibrahim | Bernd Kasparek | M1 und Bonnot | Phillip Kojo Metz | Mutombo Da Poet | Catherine Nakawesa | Pap Ndiaye | Abasse Ndione | E.C. Osondu | Olumide Popoola | Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin | Chantal Sandjon | Jahwer Soudani | Najem Wali | Gary Younge
- Date: June 8th -10th, 2017
- Location: D-95444 Bayreuth | Maximilianstr. 6 | Altes Schloss Bayreuth
Mohamed Amjahid
is a political reporter at the ZEITmagazin. He has been awarded the Alexander-Rhomberg-Prize for young journalists and nominated for the CNN Journalism Award. His book Unter Weißen: Was es heißt, privilegiert zu sein (Amongst Whites. What it means to be privileged) was published in 2017. He lives in Berlin.
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Nassur Attoumani
is a well known author, actor, composer, dramaturge, founder of a culture house and »Ancien DJ de bals poussière« lives and works on Mayotte. His body of work consists of a short story collection, 4 theatre pieces and 4 novels: Le calvaire des baobabs (2001), Nerf de boeuf (2001), Mon mari est plus qu’un fou: c’est un homme (2006) und Tonton! Rends-moi ma virginité (2015). He has also authored essays, novellas and poems.
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Marc Alexandre Oho Bambe
is a French-Cameroonian poet, spoken word artist, author, and 2015 winner of the Prix Paul Verlaine de poésie de l’Académie Française. His books, Résidents de la Republique (2016) and Le Chant des possibles (2014), written »in a state of emergency«, feature poems, writings and reflections »in favor of finding ways of living together, against the defeat of ideals, desperation, and fatalism«
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Anis Chouchène
is a Tunisian poet whose poems address the political and social realities of Black Tunisians. He became a household name during the so-called ‚Arab Spring’, but more so when his cult poem »Peace be Upon You« was aired in April 2015 on the Hannibal Television program »Taalu Nehkiyu» (Let’s Talk).
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Aya Cissoko
was born in France as the daughter of Malian immigrants. In 1986 her father and sister fell victim to an arson attack. Boxing became Aya Cissoko’s refuge and in 2006 she became Amateur Boxing Champion. A fracture of the spine ended her boxing career in 2010. In 2011, she (together with Marie Desplechin) published her first book, that was also filmed and released under the title Danbé, head held high. In 2016, she published her second book n’ba, a German translation of which will be released by Wunderhorn in September 2017. Aya Cissoko studies political science at the Institut d’études politiques in Paris.
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Hamado Dipama
fled from Burkina Faso to Germany in 2001. Since 2007 he has been spokesperson of the Bavarian Refugee Council and is committed to finding solutions for the concerns of refugees and Black people in Germany in various ways. He is founder and chairman of the Work Group Panafricanism Munich and co-founder and deputy chairman of the Central Committee of the African Communities in Germany. In 2010 he was elected into the Foreigner's Council of the City of Munich and in 2011 he was elected to the board of directors of AGABY, the Working Group of the Bavarian Councils of Foreigners, Migrants and for Integration.
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Hicham Ibrahim
aka DJ Sotusura has been a passionate Hip Hop DJ since 1998 whilst living in Los Angeles, California. He has hosted a number of Radio shows dedicated to Hip Hop in the Jordan, Lebanon and New York City, as well as playing live shows with local and global artists worldwide. He is actively involved in expanding the Arabic Hip Hop scene and giving exposure to upcoming talents in the Middle East.
----------------------------
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Bernd Kasparek
is a mathematician and cultural anthropologist and has been researching the European border regime for more than ten years. He is a founding member of the network »Critical Migration and Border Regime Research« and a member of the »bordermonitoring.eu« research association. Kasparek has published numerous articles on the European border regime, in particular also on Frontex. He is a co-editor of »Grenzregime - Diskurse, Praktiken, Institutionen in Europa« and editor-in-chief of »movements - Journal für kritische Migration- und Grenzregimeforschung«. His book on Europe's borders: Escape, Asylum and Migration appears in Bertz + Fischer in July 2017.
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M1 and Bonnot
is a duo made up of Brooklyn-born rapper/activist M1 of Dead Prez, aka »The Reality Archivist«, and Italian music producer Bonnot. The two started working together years ago as like-minded musicians and activists and have now produced the full album Between Me and the World. Besides raising awareness through music, M1 and Bonnot have also co-founded the AP2P (All Power To The People) crew, which links the Black Liberation movement and the Italian left with a message of »co-operation and togetherness«.
----------------------------
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Phillip Kojo Metz
is a German-Ghanaian artist and photographer. His long-term project »EAGLE AFRICA« is concerned with the history of German / African history, while it questions artistically socially dominant historical developments. Metz lives in Berlin.
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Mutombo Da Poet
is a pioneer and trendsetter in the Ghanaian Spoken Word scene and has through his performances inspired many artists in Ghana and internationaally to pursue this art form. Mutombo is the winner of the first Ehalakasa Poetry Slam 2009 and was a poet in residence of 'Bless Da Mic'. He released his first album Photosentences in 2012 and has since released many Spoken Word Tracks.
www.elnathanjohn.blogspot.com
----------------------------
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Catherine Nakawesa
is a Ugandan dancer, choreographer and writer. She draws from a comprehensive repertoire of dance styles and performs and teaches Africa-wide as well as internationally. In Uganda, she has initiated and directs Beautiful Feet Dance Company - a collective of female dancers, as well as Clay Dance Company which mentors young people through dance. Nakawesa seeks to inspire and connect with people worldwide through her creations.
----------------------------
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Pap Ndiaye
Pap Ndiaye is a Professor of history and Chair of the History department at Sciences Po Paris. His main area of interest is the history of persons of African descent, on both sides of the « Black Atlantic ». He has recently published La Condition noire. Essai sur une minorité française (Folio Gallimard 2009) and Histoire de Chicago (Ü: A History of Chicago, Fayard 2013) , and is currently working on a global history of the civil rights in the 20th century.
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Abasse Ndione
is a Senegalese writer. After his first 2 novels, La vie en Spirale (Life in a Spiral) and Ramata, his third novel, Mbëkë mi (2008) addresses African migration to Europe. The novel was filmed and released by Moussa Touré in 2012 and was published in German translation in 2014 as Die Piroge (The Pirogue) by Transit Publishers. Meanwhile the German edition is no longer available in print, yet still exists as an e-book. Abasse Ndione is the guest of honor and godfather of the BIGSAS Literature Festival 2017.
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E.C. Osondu
was born in Nigeria. He is active as an author, publisher and lecturer, and also engages in the Nigerian Writers Association. In 2009 he was awarded the Caine Prize for his short story »Waiting« . Since 2004, Osondu has been living in the U.S., where has has been teaching at Providence College as an Associate Professor for Creative writing. In 2017 his novel This House is not for Sale (2015) will be published in German translation as Dieses Haus ist nicht zu Verkaufen by Wunderhorn.
----------------------------
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Olumide Popoola
is a London-based Nigerian German author, poet, performer and speaker who presents internationally, often collaborating with musicians or other artists. Her novella this is not about sadness was published by Unrast Verlag in 2010. Her play Also by Mail was published in 2013 by Witnessed (edition assemblage) and the short story collection breachwhich she co-authored with Annie Holmes, in 2016 by Peirene Press. Her publications also include critical essays (often on practice-led research and the novel), hybrid pieces and poetry.
----------------------------
-- top --
Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin
is one of Sudan’s foremost writers. Since his works were banned in Sudan and he had been temporarily imprisoned, he has been living and working in exile in Austria since 2012. His books and texts tell of the complexity, tensions and conflicts in his home country. The harsh fate of seasonal workers is shown in the short story collection At the Peripheries of Sidewalks (2005) and the novel The Jungo. Stakes of the Earth (2009). The Messiah of Darfur(2013) addresses the conflict in the west of the country. Alkchandris. Wer hat Angst vor Osman Bushra?, which was published in German in 2012, tells the story of a street worker working with alcohol-addicted street children.
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Chantal Sandjono
is an African-German author, Spoken-Word artist and nutritionist (MSc), who also conducts performative city tours on colonial tracks. Having grown up in Berlin, she moved to Cameroon and the UK for several years and also resided in Johannesburg, South Africa for an extended time period. In her work as an artist, Sandjon deals primarily with postcolonial and identity-political themes. In 2012 she received the Daniil Pashkoff Prize for Lyric. Since 2012 she again lives and works in Berlin.
----------------------------
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Jahwer Soudani
is a Tunisian street artist, graphic artist and actor. He graduated from the Higher School of Science and Technology of Design in Tunis. In 2016, he played the leading role in the dialogue-less film The Last of Usof the Tunisian filmmaker Ala Eddine Slim.
----------------------------
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Najem Wali
is an Iraqi writer and journalist. He fled to Germany in 1980 after the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War. Wali writes as a cultural correspondent for the Arabic daily newspaper Al Hayat Al Hayat and regularly for German-speaking newspapers such as Süddeutsche Zeitung, Neue Zürcher Zeitung und Die Zeit. He has been the city scribe Graz since September 2016 and will be until August 2017 . His novels Baghdad Marlboro (2014), for which he was awarded the Bruno Kreisky Prize in 2014, and Baghdad (Memoirs of a World City, 2015) were published by Hanser.
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Gary Younge
is a British author and journalist. He writes for the British newspaper The Guardian. His most famous publications include The Speech – The Story behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.‘s Dream (2013), Who are We? And Should it Matter in the 21st century? (2010) and Stranger in a Strange Land: Travels in the Disunited States (2006). His 2016 Another Day in the Death of America was nominated for the Orwell Prize for Books 2017 Longlist.
----------------------------
-- top --
-> open festival program as pdf (750 KB)
You are on the site optimized for smartphones and tablets. Click here for the mainpage (Flashplugin and a screen resolution from at least 800 px (width) required).
-- top --
Festival Guests
Mohamed Amjahid | Nassur Attoumani | Marc Alexandre Oho Bambe | Anis Chouchène | Aya Cissoko | Hamado Dipama | Hicham Ibrahim | Bernd Kasparek | M1 und Bonnot | Phillip Kojo Metz | Mutombo Da Poet | Catherine Nakawesa | Pap Ndiaye | Abasse Ndione | E.C. Osondu | Olumide Popoola | Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin | Chantal Sandjon | Jahwer Soudani | Najem Wali | Gary Younge
- Date: June 8th -10th, 2017
- Location: D-95444 Bayreuth | Maximilianstr. 6 | Altes Schloss Bayreuth
Mohamed Amjahidis a political reporter at the ZEITmagazin. He has been awarded the Alexander-Rhomberg-Prize for young journalists and nominated for the CNN Journalism Award. His book Unter Weißen: Was es heißt, privilegiert zu sein (Amongst Whites. What it means to be privileged) was published in 2017. He lives in Berlin.
----------------------------
-- top --
Nassur Attoumaniis a well known author, actor, composer, dramaturge, founder of a culture house and »Ancien DJ de bals poussière« lives and works on Mayotte. His body of work consists of a short story collection, 4 theatre pieces and 4 novels: Le calvaire des baobabs (2001), Nerf de boeuf (2001), Mon mari est plus qu’un fou: c’est un homme (2006) und Tonton! Rends-moi ma virginité (2015). He has also authored essays, novellas and poems.
----------------------------
-- top --
Marc Alexandre Oho Bambeis a French-Cameroonian poet, spoken word artist, author, and 2015 winner of the Prix Paul Verlaine de poésie de l’Académie Française. His books, Résidents de la Republique (2016) and Le Chant des possibles (2014), written »in a state of emergency«, feature poems, writings and reflections »in favor of finding ways of living together, against the defeat of ideals, desperation, and fatalism«
----------------------------
-- top --
Anis Chouchèneis a Tunisian poet whose poems address the political and social realities of Black Tunisians. He became a household name during the so-called ‚Arab Spring’, but more so when his cult poem »Peace be Upon You« was aired in April 2015 on the Hannibal Television program »Taalu Nehkiyu» (Let’s Talk).
----------------------------
-- top --
Aya Cissoko was born in France as the daughter of Malian immigrants. In 1986 her father and sister fell victim to an arson attack. Boxing became Aya Cissoko’s refuge and in 2006 she became Amateur Boxing Champion. A fracture of the spine ended her boxing career in 2010. In 2011, she (together with Marie Desplechin) published her first book, that was also filmed and released under the title Danbé, head held high. In 2016, she published her second book n’ba, a German translation of which will be released by Wunderhorn in September 2017. Aya Cissoko studies political science at the Institut d’études politiques in Paris.
----------------------------
-- top --
Hamado Dipamafled from Burkina Faso to Germany in 2001. Since 2007 he has been spokesperson of the Bavarian Refugee Council and is committed to finding solutions for the concerns of refugees and Black people in Germany in various ways. He is founder and chairman of the Work Group Panafricanism Munich and co-founder and deputy chairman of the Central Committee of the African Communities in Germany. In 2010 he was elected into the Foreigner's Council of the City of Munich and in 2011 he was elected to the board of directors of AGABY, the Working Group of the Bavarian Councils of Foreigners, Migrants and for Integration.
----------------------------
-- top --
Hicham Ibrahimaka DJ Sotusura has been a passionate Hip Hop DJ since 1998 whilst living in Los Angeles, California. He has hosted a number of Radio shows dedicated to Hip Hop in the Jordan, Lebanon and New York City, as well as playing live shows with local and global artists worldwide. He is actively involved in expanding the Arabic Hip Hop scene and giving exposure to upcoming talents in the Middle East.
----------------------------
-- top --
Bernd Kasparekis a mathematician and cultural anthropologist and has been researching the European border regime for more than ten years. He is a founding member of the network »Critical Migration and Border Regime Research« and a member of the »bordermonitoring.eu« research association. Kasparek has published numerous articles on the European border regime, in particular also on Frontex. He is a co-editor of »Grenzregime - Diskurse, Praktiken, Institutionen in Europa« and editor-in-chief of »movements - Journal für kritische Migration- und Grenzregimeforschung«. His book on Europe's borders: Escape, Asylum and Migration appears in Bertz + Fischer in July 2017.
----------------------------
-- top --
M1 and Bonnotis a duo made up of Brooklyn-born rapper/activist M1 of Dead Prez, aka »The Reality Archivist«, and Italian music producer Bonnot. The two started working together years ago as like-minded musicians and activists and have now produced the full album Between Me and the World. Besides raising awareness through music, M1 and Bonnot have also co-founded the AP2P (All Power To The People) crew, which links the Black Liberation movement and the Italian left with a message of »co-operation and togetherness«.
----------------------------
-- top --
Phillip Kojo Metzis a German-Ghanaian artist and photographer. His long-term project »EAGLE AFRICA« is concerned with the history of German / African history, while it questions artistically socially dominant historical developments. Metz lives in Berlin.
----------------------------
-- top --
Mutombo Da Poetis a pioneer and trendsetter in the Ghanaian Spoken Word scene and has through his performances inspired many artists in Ghana and internationaally to pursue this art form. Mutombo is the winner of the first Ehalakasa Poetry Slam 2009 and was a poet in residence of 'Bless Da Mic'. He released his first album Photosentences in 2012 and has since released many Spoken Word Tracks.
www.elnathanjohn.blogspot.com
----------------------------
-- top --
Catherine Nakawesa is a Ugandan dancer, choreographer and writer. She draws from a comprehensive repertoire of dance styles and performs and teaches Africa-wide as well as internationally. In Uganda, she has initiated and directs Beautiful Feet Dance Company - a collective of female dancers, as well as Clay Dance Company which mentors young people through dance. Nakawesa seeks to inspire and connect with people worldwide through her creations.
----------------------------
-- top --
Pap NdiayePap Ndiaye is a Professor of history and Chair of the History department at Sciences Po Paris. His main area of interest is the history of persons of African descent, on both sides of the « Black Atlantic ». He has recently published La Condition noire. Essai sur une minorité française (Folio Gallimard 2009) and Histoire de Chicago (Ü: A History of Chicago, Fayard 2013) , and is currently working on a global history of the civil rights in the 20th century.
----------------------------
-- top --
Abasse Ndioneis a Senegalese writer. After his first 2 novels, La vie en Spirale (Life in a Spiral) and Ramata, his third novel, Mbëkë mi (2008) addresses African migration to Europe. The novel was filmed and released by Moussa Touré in 2012 and was published in German translation in 2014 as Die Piroge (The Pirogue) by Transit Publishers. Meanwhile the German edition is no longer available in print, yet still exists as an e-book. Abasse Ndione is the guest of honor and godfather of the BIGSAS Literature Festival 2017.
----------------------------
-- top --
E.C. Osonduwas born in Nigeria. He is active as an author, publisher and lecturer, and also engages in the Nigerian Writers Association. In 2009 he was awarded the Caine Prize for his short story »Waiting« . Since 2004, Osondu has been living in the U.S., where has has been teaching at Providence College as an Associate Professor for Creative writing. In 2017 his novel This House is not for Sale (2015) will be published in German translation as Dieses Haus ist nicht zu Verkaufen by Wunderhorn.
----------------------------
-- top --
Olumide Popoolais a London-based Nigerian German author, poet, performer and speaker who presents internationally, often collaborating with musicians or other artists. Her novella this is not about sadness was published by Unrast Verlag in 2010. Her play Also by Mail was published in 2013 by Witnessed (edition assemblage) and the short story collection breachwhich she co-authored with Annie Holmes, in 2016 by Peirene Press. Her publications also include critical essays (often on practice-led research and the novel), hybrid pieces and poetry.
----------------------------
-- top --
Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin is one of Sudan’s foremost writers. Since his works were banned in Sudan and he had been temporarily imprisoned, he has been living and working in exile in Austria since 2012. His books and texts tell of the complexity, tensions and conflicts in his home country. The harsh fate of seasonal workers is shown in the short story collection At the Peripheries of Sidewalks (2005) and the novel The Jungo. Stakes of the Earth (2009). The Messiah of Darfur(2013) addresses the conflict in the west of the country. Alkchandris. Wer hat Angst vor Osman Bushra?, which was published in German in 2012, tells the story of a street worker working with alcohol-addicted street children.
----------------------------
-- top --
Chantal Sandjonois an African-German author, Spoken-Word artist and nutritionist (MSc), who also conducts performative city tours on colonial tracks. Having grown up in Berlin, she moved to Cameroon and the UK for several years and also resided in Johannesburg, South Africa for an extended time period. In her work as an artist, Sandjon deals primarily with postcolonial and identity-political themes. In 2012 she received the Daniil Pashkoff Prize for Lyric. Since 2012 she again lives and works in Berlin.
----------------------------
-- top --
Jahwer Soudani is a Tunisian street artist, graphic artist and actor. He graduated from the Higher School of Science and Technology of Design in Tunis. In 2016, he played the leading role in the dialogue-less film The Last of Usof the Tunisian filmmaker Ala Eddine Slim.
----------------------------
-- top --
Najem Waliis an Iraqi writer and journalist. He fled to Germany in 1980 after the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War. Wali writes as a cultural correspondent for the Arabic daily newspaper Al Hayat Al Hayat and regularly for German-speaking newspapers such as Süddeutsche Zeitung, Neue Zürcher Zeitung und Die Zeit. He has been the city scribe Graz since September 2016 and will be until August 2017 . His novels Baghdad Marlboro (2014), for which he was awarded the Bruno Kreisky Prize in 2014, and Baghdad (Memoirs of a World City, 2015) were published by Hanser.
----------------------------
-- top --
Gary Youngeis a British author and journalist. He writes for the British newspaper The Guardian. His most famous publications include The Speech – The Story behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.‘s Dream (2013), Who are We? And Should it Matter in the 21st century? (2010) and Stranger in a Strange Land: Travels in the Disunited States (2006). His 2016 Another Day in the Death of America was nominated for the Orwell Prize for Books 2017 Longlist.
----------------------------
-- top --
-> open festival program as pdf (750 KB)
You are on the site optimized for smartphones and tablets. Click here for the mainpage (Flashplugin and a screen resolution from at least 800 px (width) required).
-- top --