Ika Hügel-Marshall reading from her autobiography, Daheim Unterwegs: Ein deutsches Leben (Invisible Woman: Growing Up Black in Germany)
September 29, 2012, Castro Theater, San Francisco

As part of the 17th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival, which is presented by the Goethe-Institut San Francisco,  this bilingual reading is cosponsored by the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG), the Foreign Language Association of Northern California (FLANC), and the Gerlind Institute for Cultural Studies.

Ika Hügel-Marshall was born in Germany in 1947 to a white German mother and an African-American father. Initially, she grew up with her mother, but from her sixth to her fifteenth year of life she was raised—as many Afro-German children of her generation—in a children's home. Only at the age of 39 did she meet other Afro-Germans and was then involved in setting up the “Initiative of Black Germans” (ISD). In 1993, she found her father in Chicago and met him and his family—a most profound experience.

In 1996, Ika Hügel-Marshall received the Audre Lorde Literary Award for the completion of Invisible Woman. She has given numerous readings in Germany, Austria, and the USA.

Followed by Dr. Dagmar Schultz’s documentary. Filmmaker will be present.
Audre Lorde - The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992

“[This film] documents Audre Lorde's influence on the German political and cultural scene during a decade of profound social change, a decade that brought about the fall of the Berlin Wall and the re-unification of East and West Germany. This chronicles an untold chapter of Lorde’s life: her empowerment of Afro-German women, as she challenged white women to acknowledge the significance of their white privilege and to deal with difference in constructive ways.

…This documentary contains previously unreleased audiovisual material from director Dagmar Schultz’s personal archive, including stunning images of Audre Lorde off stage. With testimony from Lorde’s colleagues, students and friends, this film documents Lorde’s lasting legacy in Germany.” (Dr. Dagmar Schultz, from Audre Lorde - the Berlin Years 1984 to 1992 web site, http://www.audrelorde-theberlinyears.com)