Event: June 2017
Sun
18/6/17
06:30 PM
Poetry Talk: M. NourbeSe Philip exaqua
Talk
M. NourbeSe Philip TTO/CAN writer in conversation with Uljana Wolf DEU writer
These two writers talk about the work Zong! and an aesthetic process that attempts to render the unsayable sayable. In 1871 the captain of the slave ship Zong allowed 150 slaves to drown in the sea so that he could collect the insurance money. M. NourbeSe Philip has created a long poem based on the words of a legal report from that time. Philip dissects the material, compresses it and erases certain words. What emerges from this is a language that grunts and groans and stutters. A horrifying testimony to what people are capable to doing to other people. At the same time, Philip gives the dead their names back and, since there is no word for the salvaging of drowned people, she invents one herself – “exaqua”.
English-German interpreting will be available for this event.
Project leaders: Alexander Gumz | Matthias Kniep
The event Weltklang - Night of Poetry takes place on the 16th of June at 7 pm.
Akademie der Künste
Clubraum
Hanseatenweg 10, 10557 Berlin
Entrance fee:
6/4 €
Tickets online