After a long hibernation, we are slowly coming out of our shells again, thrilled to announce that we’ll be returning to our beloved ACUD for a live show on Monday, May 2!
Join our guest presenters, writer STEFANIE DE VELASCO and translator LAURA RADOSH, along with your beloved co-host KATY DERBYSHIRE, to learn about three women who did big things in their lifetimes. All held together by your other beloved co-host, FLORIAN DUIJSENS.
All three of the ladies presented were writers in their own ways: a Black science-fiction originator, an influential modernist who created a classic of lesbian fiction, and an actor and singer who put her own version of her life into bestselling books. We’ll be rocking the ACUD Studio as the night sets in, celebrating lives lived to great effect.
Presented in a messy mixture of English and German. €7 or €4 reduced entry. Generously supported by the Berliner Senat. Doors open 7.30 pm – come on time to get a good seat!
We have limited space, so please book in advance via Eventbrite. 2G entry only – geimpft or genesen. Please bring a mask to use when you’re not at your seat.
OCTAVIA E. BUTLER grew up in a racially integrated community, surrounded by segregation in 1940s and 50s America. She begged for her first typewriter at ten, and never looked back, submitting stories to science fiction magazines and eventually becoming a beloved creator of multiple fictional worlds. She was proud to have three loyal audiences: Black readers, science-fiction fans, and feminists.
DJUNA BARNES had an unconventional childhood in New York before becoming a journalist. She is best known for her time in 1920s Paris, where she chronicled lesbian life. Friends with all the cool modernist writers, she eventually managed to publish her influential avant-garde novel Nightwood in 1936. She also gave us poems, stage plays, other novels, and her Book of Repulsive Women.
HILDEGARD KNEF was a postwar German actress who learned all the wrong things from Marlene Dietrich. She acted in over 50 films and had a leading role on Broadway. After her screen and stage career stalled in the 1960s, she started writing songs and became a hugely popular entertainer. Her next move was into books, chronicling her life as she wanted people to see it rather than accurately.