Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse opens the 24th ilb with her speech »Strange New World«.
2024 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. The world has not
become a more peaceful place since then. In her fiction and non-fiction, Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse, who fled from Rwanda to France in 1994,
has powerfully written about the enduring impact of personal
and collective traumas. In her opening speech of the 24th ilb she explores the »Strange New World«
we find ourselves in right now and asks how past, present, and future are connected and if
literature can help us understand the strange delta on whose shores we stand.
Welcoming Address: Lavinia Frey (Festival Director ilb), Matthias Pees (Director of Berliner Festspiele)
Greetings: Joe Chialo (Berlin’s State Minister for Culture and Social Cohesion and Patron of the Festival)
Introduction into the Program 2024 Curator in Residence Helon Habila
The event will be held in German and English with simultaneous interpretation.
