February 2023

Join the Goethe-Institut Chicago and Northwestern University for a series of talks about Thomas Mann’s advocacy of democracy during the Nazi period, held on the occasion of the exhibition 'Thomas Mann: Democracy Will Win!,' currently on view at the University Library.

The exhibition commemorates the series of lecture tours that the Nobel Laureate conducted throughout the Unites States from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s. The first of these tours began at Northwestern University, where more than 4000 people came to hear him speak about the fundamental reasons for liberal democracy. “It is a terrible spectacle when the irrational becomes popular,” Mann said in a speech at the Library of Congress in 1943, and he drew on his considerable powers of thought and expression to counter the sources of this spectacle through his confident motto: “Democracy will win.”

The like-named exhibit, located on the ground floor of the University Library, is divided into two parts: the first charts the changes in Mann’s political views, while the second connects Mann’s lectures tours to current political situations in both Europe and the United States.

The library and the exhibit is open to the public Monday – Saturday, 8am – 6pm with photo ID.

Frieze Projects: Against the Edge creates multiple parallels between the political and social practices of the Moroccan-born French artist Nicola L. and German author Thomas Mann. Spread throughout the living room and study of Thomas Mann’s home in Pacific Palisades, Nicola L.’s functional sculptures and Penetrables reveal a profound purpose while joshing with the legacy of modernist architecture.

For Both Nicola L. and Thomas Mann, the home was political. It was from his study that Mann would complete his novel Doctor Faustus as well as record his monthly anti-Nazi messages to the German people, broadcast by the BBC to Germany. Nicola, upon returning home to Paris in 1967, took to the streets with students and factory workers in the May 68 demonstrations, making a series of Penetrable protest banners. These banners were punctuated with entries for five to ten heads, with slogans such as WE WANT TO TOUCH, WE WANT TO SEE, WE WANT TO FEEL, WE WANT TO LOVE, and WE WANT TO BE LOVED stenciled across them. On view at the Thomas Mann House is an example of one of these banners with nine head-Penetrables and the phrase NOUS VOULONS ENTENDRE, or, WE WANT TO HEAR, this work resounds with Mann’s broadcasts, each of which began with the words “Germans, Listen!”

In addition to the exhibition at the Thomas Mann House, the Frieze Projects: Against the Edge also includes installations by Tony Cokes at Beyond Baroque in Venice, Kelly Akashi at the Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades, and Julie Becker at Del Vaz Projects in Santa Monica.

Alice Haster's autobiographical book Was weiße Menschen nicht über Rassismus hören wollen, "What White People Don't Want to Hear About Racism", published by Hanser Verlag, interrogates the structural racism which is present in German society and permeates every aspect of private life. The entrenchment of racism in social structures is often invisible to white subjects but has profound effects on BIPoC, who must contend with cultural intolerance, discrimination, and the pressure to assimilate on a daily basis. Racism does not merely belong to the right-wing fringes of society.

This discussion will explore Black feminism in a transatlantic context, examining the lived experiences of Black women in the USA and Europe, including the commonalities and differences, as well as constructing ways of overturning structures of racism and oppression.

Alice Hasters is a journalist, author and podcaster. She studied at the German School of Journalism in Munich and after graduating worked for the ''Tagesschau'' and Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, among others. Since 2016, Hasters has been producing the podcast ''Feuer & Brot'' (tr: Fire & Bread) about politics and pop culture together with Maximiliane Häcke. In her publications, she deals with the topics of Afro-German identity, racism and intersectionality. Hasters was named culture journalist of the year in 2020 by medium magazine. She is the author of Was weiße Menschen nicht über Rassismus hören wollen, published by Hanser Verlag, and is currently a 2023 Fellow at the Thomas Mann House Los Angeles.

Morgan Jerkins is the author of the New York Times bestseller This Will Be My Undoing as well as the critically acclaimed books, Wandering In Strange Lands and Caul Baby. She holds a Bachelor’s in Comparative Literature from Princeton University and an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. A Forbes 30 Under 30 Leader in Media alumna and ASME Next award-winning journalist, Jerkins has been an editor at Medium, ESPN, and New York Magazine, among others. Her short-form work has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, ELLE, Vogue and The Atlantic, among many other publications. She’s held professorships at Pacific University, Leipzig University in Germany, Columbia University and the New School. She’s currently based in Harlem.

Under the self-designation as Black, Alice Hasters writes and publishes in particular about Afro-German identity, racism, feminism and intersectionality, and in 2019 she published her autobiographical debut book What white people don’t want to hear about racism, but should know. Hasters was named cultural journalist of the year 2020 by Medium Magazine.

Alice Hasters is a journalist, author and podcaster. She studied at the German School of Journalism in Munich and after graduating worked for the ''Tagesschau'' and Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, among others. Since 2016, Hasters has been producing the podcast ''Feuer & Brot'' (tr: Fire & Bread) about politics and pop culture together with Maximiliane Häcke. In her publications, she deals with the topics of Afro-German identity, racism and intersectionality. Hasters was named culture journalist of the year in 2020 by medium magazine. She is the author of Was weiße Menschen nicht über Rassismus hören wollen, published by Hanser Verlag, and is currently a 2023 Fellow at the Thomas Mann House Los Angeles.

Who dances and how, what we see as culturally and artistically relevant, is strongly influenced by racism – an assumption Alice Hasters is researching in her fellowship at the Thomas Mann House in LA. The notion that "Black people can dance, white people can't" is particularly strong in multi-ethnic societies. In Western societies, dance seems to be something that is incompatible with power. The rich, the white, the male, the heterosexual, the old - they don't dance - unless they have a stage or are not sober.

This conversation will explore some of the following questions:
To what extent does dance as a lived or as a non-lived practice shape black, white and other identities? Can dance be an instrument to dismantle and challenge positions of power? What does diversity in dance really mean? Is dance universal –can everybody dance? Or is dance an expression of your own specific identity?

Alice Hasters is a journalist, author and podcaster. She studied at the German School of Journalism in Munich and after graduating worked for the ''Tagesschau'' and Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, among others. Since 2016, Hasters has been producing the podcast ''Feuer & Brot'' (tr: Fire & Bread) about politics and pop culture together with Maximiliane Häcke. In her publications, she deals with the topics of Afro-German identity, racism and intersectionality. Hasters was named culture journalist of the year in 2020 by medium magazine. She is the author of Was weiße Menschen nicht über Rassismus hören wollen, published by Hanser Verlag, and is currently a 2023 Fellow at the Thomas Mann House Los Angeles.

Kurt A. Douglas is Associate Professor of Dance at Boston Conservatory. Originally from Guyana, South America, Douglas earned a B.F.A. in dance from Boston Conservatory and an M.F.A. in dance from Hollins University. After graduating from the Conservatory, Kurt joined the Limón Dance Company, where he performed in many of Limón’s most influential works. Kurt Douglas joined the Boston Conservatory at Berklee faculty in 2015 where he is an instructor of technique, repertory, critical theory, and pedagogy for modern dance.

The freedom of art is one of the imperatives of every democracy. But does this freedom make art inconsequential? Does art have a role in addressing social issues, promoting social justice, or in defending democracy when it comes under pressure? In short: does art have a political mandate and what is the role of art in weakened democracies?

The Student Council consists of a team of highly engaged, talented, and diverse high school, undergraduate and graduate students who invite prominent guest speakers to discuss topics relating to art, culture, politics and society.

In conversation with visual artists, musicians, dancers, writers, theater and filmmakers, cultural critics, curators and others, the students will explore how the arts can make a difference in times of social and political crisis; on what social issues they can give new impulses; how they can help shape local communities; and how the alleged freedom and autonomy of the arts might impede or help the arts in terms of social and political significance.

The guest speaker for the second episode of the series is Berlin-based German rapper of Kurdish descent Ebow (real name Ebru Düzgün). She first attracted attention through guerrilla performances in laundromats, supermarkets and on streetcars. Today, Ebow performs on more conventional stages, but her message remains provocative and political. Solo, but also as a member of the Berlin-based music collective Gaddafi Gals, she raps against sexism, racism, and homophobia, for an open, caring, and equal society. Ebow is currently a 2023 Villa Aurora Fellow in Los Angeles.