Friday the 13th – No unlucky day at the ilb: The second to last day of the 24th ilb defied the gloomy fall weather with numerous premieres, an evening-long program at the Documentation Center Flight, Expulsion, Reconciliation, and international panels.
With the premieres of Hiroko Oyamada’s unique novel “The Hole” (German translation by Nora Bierich) and Andrew O’Hagan’s “Caledonian Road” (German translation by Manfred Allié, Gabriele Kempf-Allié), the ilb once again brought international writers and their works to the stage in Germany for the first time.
The book launch of Elif Shafak’s new novel “Am Himmel die Flüsse” (There Are Rivers in the Sky, German translation: Michaela Grabinger), presented by Thomas Böhm and read in German by Angela Winkler, was filled to capacity and resulted in the longest autograph queue of the 24th ilb to date, with fans of the British-Turkish author standing until well into the evening.
Three representatives of African Futurism came together for the first time in a highlight panel by curator in residence Helon Habila. Nnedi Okorafor, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma and Okwiri Oduor challenged classical narrative styles on stage.
The evening of September 13 at the Documentation Center Flight, Expulsion, Reconciliation was all about dealing with collective experiences of violence. For “Shared Trauma”, Tahir Hamut Izgil, Joshua Freeman, Ronya Othmann, Sasha Marianna Salzmann, Ofer Waldman, Olga Bubich, Helon Habila and Branwen Okpako came together in a “Night of Memories” to give space to their art in dealing with collective experiences of violence in wall readings, panel discussions and a film screening.
