A Celebration of Life
In collaboration with Dr. Dagmar Schultz, Ika’s life partner, JB and I created videos about Ika’s life. Ika was an activist, co-author of several books, author of Daheim unterwegs: Ein deutsches Leben (Invisible Woman: Growing Up Black in Germany), artist, social counselor, anti-racism consultant, martial artist, and friend…
Roots of Violence
Melody Ermachild Chavis has spent her long career looking deeply at the causes and conditions that underlie violence. A private investigator for capital offence defense teams, Melody specialized in the research and presentation of evidence of mitigating circumstances. Traumatic events lie behind many violent acts. The social histories Melody compiled were not excuses for crime, but attempts to understand what circumstances could cause people to offend.
Daheim Unterwegs: Ein deutsches Leben
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.