Within the framework of the international literature festival »Membrane – African Literatures and Ideas,« curated by Felwine Sarr, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, and Nadja Ofuatey-Alazard; and initiated by Literaturhaus Stuttgart, Institut français and Akademie Schloss Solitude, the online platform Schlosspost created the special issue »Membrane – Permeable Thinking in African/-diasporic Literatures and Art,« together with guest editor Dzekashu MacViban.
The Schlosspost Membrane Issue amplifies the questions and conversations that occurred at the festival. These include »Who defines ›African‹ identity?,« »What are the ways of ›Africa‹,?« »What are the other ways of ›Africa‹?« The issue also opens up new conversations by fostering and challenging the concept of »Africanity,« Afro-European and Afropolitanism, and by reflecting on questions of race, borders, colonialism, temporal disruptors, and existing vocabularies. With a widely varied pool of contributions ranging from multimedia content to more experimental forms, this issue will include contemplative and analytical writing in French and English, as well as other media.
On June 13, 2019, at 5 pm, Denise Helene Sumi will give an introduction to the Schlosspost issue »Membrane – Permeable Thinking in African/-diasporic Literatures and Art« at project space Römerstraße 2A.
Current Akademie Schloss Solitude fellow Enos Nyamor will continue by reading from his contribution »Afropolitanism – On Identity as an Unfinished Game« to the Membrane Special edition on Schlosspost. In his explorative essay, Enos explores the complexity of identity among people of African descent in the Diaspora, specifically in relation to aspects of near and far. The essay also examines the integration of the concept of disidentification, which is associated with gender deconstruction, in cultural heritage.
ENOS NYAMOR lives and works in Nairobi/Kenya. In his junior year in college, while specializing in applications development and engineering, Enos developed an interest in cultural journalism – as a reaction to and interpretation of narratives in the physical and virtual environment. His passion for expression was discovered and nurtured at the Nation Media Group. From 2013 to 2014, he was a weekly columnist for the Daily Nation, East Africa’s leading newspaper in circulation. Since 2015, he has been practicing as a freelance journalist and writer. Some of his reports, reviews, and essays have appeared in C&, Business Daily Africa, Sunday Nation, nachtkritik.de, and Africanah. Enos Nyamors fellowship for cultural journalism is financed by the Carl Zeiss Foundation.
DENISE HELENE SUMI is an art historian, curator, author and editor. In 2018, she was a fellow for art coordination at Akademie Schloss Solitude. Subsequently she has been the coordinator of the Digital Solitude program and editor of the digital platform Schlosspost since June 2019. Previously she worked as curatorial assistant at Künstlerhaus – Halle für Kunst und Medien in Graz, and residency coordinator and assistant to the program director for Performing Arts in Hellerau – Europäisches Zentrum der Künste, Dresden. Amongst others, her texts were published in the specialist journals Eikon, Camera Austria, Spike Art Quarterly, and Medienimpulse. Denise is co-founder and co-director of the Vienna-based Kunstverein Kevin Space.
