American Academy In Berlin Hosts Virtual Event Tagged, Making Sense of (and in) Senseless Times.’
Date and Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2020, at 17:00 CEST (Berlin); 11 a.m. EDT (NYC)
Location: Online via Zoom
The American Academy in Berlin cordially invites you to an online discussion with novelists Paul La Farge and Jan Brandt, along with moderator Simone Schröder, who will jointly consider the question, How do writers of fiction make sense of a world in which familiar social structures collapse overnight, and ideas about reality are politicized in polarizing ways? They will talk about conspiracy theories, alternative facts, viral disinformation, real viruses, and other ways in which lived experience strays into the fictive — and how fiction does (and might) respond.
This event will take place via Zoom. The online audience may submit written questions during a Q&A period following the discussion.
Please note that this discussion will take place at 17:00 Central European Standard Time; 11 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
Paul La Farge is the author of The Night Ocean (2017), Luminous Airplanes (2011), The Facts of Winter (2005), Haussmann, or the Distinction (2001), and The Artist of the Missing (1999). His writing has appeared in the New Yorker, Village Voice, and Harper’s, among others. In the winter term of 2016-17, La Farge was the Picador Guest Professor at the Universität Leipzig; in spring 2020 he is the Holtzbrinck Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin.
Jan Brandt is the author of Gegen die Welt (2011), which won the Nicolas Born Début Prize and was shortlisted for the German Book Prize. He is also the author of three memoirs: Death in Turn (2015), City without Angels (2016), and A House in the Country/An Apartment in the City (2019). His second novel, to be published in late 2021, is about Germans who immigrated to America.
Simone Schröder completed a PhD in comparative literature at the University of Bath and has been working with the international literature festival berlin since 2017. Her book The Nature Essay. Ecocritical Explorations, was published in 2019. Schröder is the German translator of Paul La Farge’s The Facts of Winter.
Democracy Day; The Defining Backstory
As we celebrate Democracy Day, we must look back and appreciate the labour of Nigeria’s past heroes.
On this day, 27 years ago, the hopes of millions of Nigerians anticipating the peaceful transition into democracy was dashed by General Ibrahim Babangida, the former military head of state who annulled the June 12 elections.
The annulled elections may have happened 27 years ago, but Nigeria was never the same afterward. Still, we must remember June 12, for those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
As we celebrate this day, we must take a cue from the players that defined that era, fighting against an oppressive rulership in the face of threats of harm to family and friends.
Happy Democracy Day, Nigeria.
Culled: text excluding title reworked from Neusroom
Join BellaNaija for a Special Panel Discussion at TEDxLagos Conference: “Storytelling for our Future History Books”
BellaNaija is hosting an insightful workshop tagged “Storytelling for our Future History Books” and we want you to join us.
How do we document and preserve current events so that future generations will have access to their history? Join us this weekend at TEDxLagos Virtual Conference as we talk about the need to use the media to shape the stories and conversations we want the world to remember in the future.
Journalist Kiki Mordi, Actress Lala Akindoju and Rapper iLLBliss have all used their words in one way or another to give a voice to social issues. They will join the BellaNaija panel to speak about the importance of consciously creating media that will outlive us. This workshop will be moderated by our very own, Adesola Ade-Unuigbe.
Date: Saturday, June 13, 2020.
Time: 12 PM
RSVP: tedxlagos.com
