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If you are interested in this event, we invite you to also check out Watkins' Colloquium on May 19. In the 1960s and 1970s, East Germany aligned itself with the Global South against the capitalist West. Beyond programs with communist countries, East Germany also developed ties to African American freedom struggles. One such example is the “1 Million Roses for Angela [Davis]” solidarity campaign, which began during Davis’ arrest in 1970 and continued during the Angela Davis vs. People of California trial, 1971-1972. During the campaign, East Germans sent letters to Davis to show their solidarity. Following the letters from East Germany to California reading their contents, the letters cultivated emotion and intimacy while also providing support for the incarcerated “radical.” As objects full of emotion that travel, the letters become what Sara Ahmed calls “sticky objects.” In the allyship of Angela Davis, these letters of the archive confronted the judge and employees at the Santa Clara California courthouse with the reality of transnational solidarity. Beyond the Cold War divide, East German letters can tell us about agency, thoughts, and the passion and fervor East Germans had for “Dear Angela.” Jamele Watkins (German Studies, University of Minnesota Twin Cities) studies intersections of race and gender in Germany in the 20th and 21st Century. Her current book project, Roses for Angela, examines East German transnational solidarity with Angela Davis. She has recently written articles on Black hair, performing elegy, the productivity of silence, and the field of German Studies. Her upcoming articles cover rap and the pastors of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Eastern Europe. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
This is part of the colloquium lecture series on Transcultural Approaches to Europe. This colloquium series advances crucial conversations on world language and literature study on the UW Seattle campus through an interdisciplinary, multi-departmental speaker series focused on issues of race, identity, colonialism, and migration within a broad European context. These trans- or postnational, transcultural, and multilingual approaches to national literatures offer effective frameworks for undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty to grasp the intersectional complexity of power configurations in literary and visual cultures.
Accommodation requests related to a disability or health condition should be made by May 8 to the Simpson Center, 206.543.3920, schadmin@uw.edu. |
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