D. Adams

Some Final Thoughts on the Block 4 2017 #FemGeniusesinBerlin

Kai (Dylan)

Photo Credit: Dylan Compton

This podcast—led and produced by Kai Mesman-Hallman—provides some final reflections on the Block 4 2017 section of Hidden Spaces, Hidden Narratives: Intersectionality Studies in Berlin with Professor Heidi R. Lewis. Throughout the block, the #FemGeniusesinBerlin have taken walking tours, visited museums and cultural centers, and met with activists and artists in the city to conduct situated examinations of how the identities of marginalized people and communities in Germany (especially in Berlin)—such as Black Germans, Turkish Germans, migrants, refugees, victims of Neo-Nazi terrorism and police brutality, and LGBTQI communities—are constructed, particularly how these constructions are dependent on racism, heterosexism, colonialism, imperialism, and other forms of oppression. Additionally, we examined how these communities resist, reject, revise, and reproduce these narratives as they construct their own subjectivities.

Kai is a junior at Colorado College majoring in Psychology, and is originally from San Diego, CA. She is especially interested in consciousness and the ways our brains’ processing and collecting information can shape our beliefs and thoughts. She spends her free time with her dog and watching conspiracy theory videos.

Joining Kai in her discussion are Uma Scharf—a Baltimore, MD native and junior at Colorado College majoring in Neuroscience, and Drew Ceglinski—a Bath, ME native and junior at Colorado College majoring in Geology.

 

Block 4 2017 FemGeniuses in Berlin Podcast Index:
Click here to view a slideshow, and follow us on Instagram and Twitter to see even more pictures and videos!

“Jewish History & Culture Walking Tour” by Maggie Mehlman
“Das Verbogene Museum” by Anna Balaguer
“Interkulturelles Frauenzentrum S.U.S.I.” by Bridget O’Neill
“Women’s Perspective Walking Tour” by Caroline Olin
“Jüdisches Museum Berlin” by Britta Lam
“Jewish AntiFa Berlin” by Dylan Compton
“Berliner Unterwelten” by Atiya Harvey
“BlackBox Cold War Exhibition” by Karl Hirt
“Generation ADEFRA” by Maya Littlejohn
“Queer Berlin Walking Tour” by Judy Fisher
“Queer City: Stories from São Paulo” by D. Adams
“A Right to Mourn; A Right to Monument” by Maddie Sorensen
“The Spirit of 1968 Walking Tour” by Anabel Simotas
“Reframing Worlds: Mobilität und Gender aus Postkolonial Feministischer Perspektive” by Elsa Godtfredsen
“Queer@School” by Drew Ceglinski
“RomaniPhen: Rromnja Archiv” by Kendall Stoetzer
“Reflections on the Asian Diaspora in Germany” by Uma Scharf
“Street Art Workshop & Tour” by Wynter Scott

To read and/or listen to the finales and view the indices and slideshows for previous FemGeniuses in Berlin, click here. 

Queer City: Stories from São Paulo

Picture IV

Photo Credit: Wynter Scott

This podcast—led and produced by Kayla Adams—examines our tour of the “Queer City: Stories from São Paulo” exhibition with Caro at the Schwules Museum*. According to exhibit curators José Gabriel Navarro, Todd Lanier Lester, Raphael Daibert, and Dr. Kevin Clarke, “Queer City” interrogates the following questions, to name a few, “How does the co-existence of these highly diverse groups work in São Paulo, in the past and today? How affected are they by racism, how free are they, and what possibilities of expansion do they have, in a time when Christian Evangelicals gain more and more political power in Brazil and use that power to shut down exhibitions about queer art, as happened in September 2017? What can we learn from a range of urban processes—social movements, artistic interventions and otherwise—about the building of a future queer community? Who are the protagonists of the current Brazilian LGBTIQ* movement, and how are they different from those of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, as seen in the documentary film São Paulo in Hi-Fi by Lufe Steffen? Why does São Paulo have a state funded Museum for Sexual Diversity since 2012 that’s directly modeled on Berlin’s Schwules Museum*? And why is Saint Tibira do Maranhão the first indigenous queer martyr of Brazil?”

Picture I

Photo Credit: Kayla D. Adams

Kayla D. Adams is a junior, as well as a first-generation college student at Colorado College. She* is from Memphis, TN, and studies Race, Ethnicity, and Migration Studies and intends to pursue a Feminist and Gender Studies minor. She* is currently a Resident Advisor, participates in numerous club organizations, and was the recipient of The Taizo Nakashima Emerging Leader Award in her first year.

Picture II

Photo Credit: Kayla D. Adams

Joining Kayla in her* discussion are Kendall Stoetzer—a junior from Denver, CO majoring in Sociology with a minor in Art Studio, and Drew Ceglinski—a Geology major and German minor from Bath, ME.

NOTE: The photo credit for the featured image also belongs to Kayla D. Adams.

 

Generation ADEFRA

Littlejohn

Photo Credit: Maya Littlejohn

This podcast—led and produced by Maya Littlejohn—examines our session with Peggy Piesche, Maisha Eggers, and Katja Kinder of Generation ADEFRA. In the mid-1980s, a group of Black women activists were brought together in Berlin by self-described “Black lesbian mother warrior poet” Audre Lorde (1934-1992) and inspired to found the initiative ADEFRA: Black Women in Germany. Additionally, historian and founding member Katharina Oguntoye “points to the complexity of the task of not only bringing together previously relatively isolated Black women in Germany with their sometimes very differently developed vital interests, but also to keep them together in the long run.”

Picture I

Photo Credit: Maya Littlejohn

Maya Littlejohn is a junior at Colorado College majoring in Race, Ethnicity, and Migration Studies and minoring in Political Science. She’s originally from Brooklyn, New York. During her free time, Maya is involved in the President’s Council and works for Attorney Jarrett Adams at the Innocence Project. On her good days, you’re likely to find herin a sunny spot sketching and binge watching MSNBC.

Picture II

Photo Credit: Maya Littlejohn

Joining Maya in her discussion are D. Adams—a Memphis, TN native and junior at Colorado College majoring in Race, Ethnicity, and Migration Studies, and Atiya Harvey—a Washington, DC native and a senior at Colorado College majoring in Feminist and Gender Studies.

NOTE: The featured image photo credit also belongs to Maya Littlejohn.

 

CORRECTION: Farbe bekennen: Afro-deutsche Frauen auf den Spuren ihrer Geschichte (Showing Our Colors: Afro-German Women Speak Out) was co-edited by Katharina Oguntoye, May (Opitz) Ayim, and Dagmar Schultz.

 

Jewish History & Culture Walking Tour

Maggie

Photo Credit: Bridget O’Neill

This podcast—led and produced by Maggie Mehlman—examines our Jewish History & Culture Walking Tour with Carolyn Gammon, which covers the historic Jewish Quarter on the trail of the 18th century “German Socrates,” Moses Mendelssohn, Berlin’s first synagogue, the Old Jewish Cemetery, Jewish High School, and where the world’s first female rabbi lived, the city residence of the expressionist painter Max Liebermann, the Holocaust Memorial, and other sites that communicate the significance of Jewish history and culture in Berlin.

Rosenstraße Protest Memorial - Photo by Maggie Mehlman

Photo Credit: Maggie Mehlman

Maggie is a Mathematics major at Colorado College from Denver, CO. Maggie has been living in Lüneburg, Germany for the past 3 months studying German language and philosophy, and she is thrilled to continue her studies in Germany by exploring the hidden narratives of marginalized communities in Berlin under the instruction of Professor Heidi R. Lewis. Outside of the classroom, Maggie’s passions lie in the performing arts. In particular, she has an extensive background in dance, and is very involved with the Dance and Theatre Department at Colorado College.

Lise Meitner - Photo by Maggie Mehlman

Photo Credit: Maggie Mehlman

Joining Maggie in her discussion at Café Lavie about the tour are Kayla Adams—a Memphis, TN native and senior at Colorado College majoring in Race, Ethnicity, & Migration Studies, and Uma Scharf—a Baltimore, MD native and junior at Colorado College majoring in Neuroscience.

NOTE: The feature photo credit also belongs to Maggie Mehlman.

 

Welcome to Are Y’all the Ones?: Re-imaging Love and the Privileging of Heterosexuality

By D Adams, Ryan Garcia, Maya Patel, Griffin Shafer, and Salem Tewelde (Block 2 2017)

Are You the One (Original Print)“MTV’s regurgitation of heteronormativity comes at the sacrifice of plurality and ambiguity of being and relating. As Howard Buford states in Further Off the Straight and Narrow: New Gay Visibility on Television, 1998-2006, ‘We’re dealing in a country where our popular culture really rules. It’s a country where you don’t exist unless you’re on TV.’ Hence, what is not shown on the show implicitly refers to what does not exist. The show fails to display discussions between the cast members about anything other than their failures in past relationships, their excitement in possibly finding their ‘Perfect Match,’ and the drama that ensues relating to the journey of finding love. It does not display people who transgress hegemonic ideals of femininity or masculinity in ways that we can see.”

Are You the One (New Print)“In our new media, we seek to display other kinds of being and relating. First, our show features a cast that includes people of various genders, races, sexualities, and socioeconomic statuses. There are gender non-conforming, cisgender, trans, and queer folk. There are friends, lovers, dance buddies, and roommates. There are no normative narratives about the ways we relate to one another, so many possibilities of relating exist. We are situated in our living room with posters that read, “Brown Bois or No Boys,” “The Homo Depot,” and “Thot House,” creating a comfortable environment that indicates acceptance and cheekiness. We are wearing what makes us feel best and in accordance with how we identify. There are a variety of emotions displayed, as well. Additionally, our show title, Are Y’all the Ones?, communicates the plurality of our contestants and counters the singularity of Are You the One? to suggest that we all belong to one another.”