MLK Workshop: May Ayim and the Black German Movement

May Ayim and the Black German Movement will provide an opportunity for the Denison community to engage in learning about Black German Activism and the Black German Movement of the 1980s and 1990s. The first part of the workshop will serve as an introduction to the history of the movement and the role of Black German women, in particular, in it. We will then dedicate part of the time to a collective reading and discussion of a poem written by Black German intellectual and poet May Ayim in remembrance of Martin Luther King Jr. Ayim was one of the prominent figures of the Black German Movement, and her poem serves as a testament to the reach of King’s work and advocacy across both time and space. Despite her own significant role in shifting German discourses on race, racism, and German colonialism, as well as her impact made through activism, she remains a much lesser known figure than King and other Black diasporic figures from the United States. Notably, King visited both sides of the Berlin Wall in 1964, and he championed a freedom that transcended constructed borders. Ayim, too, traversed countless borders and envisioned a freedom akin to, and perhaps more expansive, than King’s.