The play "Also By Mail" by spoken word artist and author Olumide Popoola will be presented on Friday, March 29th in Hamburg as part of the Homestory Deutschland programme of events.
Homestory Deutschland is an exhibition of 27 portraits of Black people, including Black Germans, which collectively span 300 years of (Black) German history.
Olumide is one of the people portrayed in the exhibition and she will be present at the book presentation this Friday. Also participating in the reading are Moses Adekunle, Dela Gakpo, T. Vicky Germain, Noah Hofmann, Asad Schwarz-Msesilamba and Thabo Thindi.
The second reading of "Also By Mail" will be in Berlin this Friday. It takes place as part of the Expat Expo programme of events organised by the English Theatre Berlin.
Special thanks to:
Moses Adekunle, Clementine Burnley, T.Vicky Germain, Noah Hofmann, Philipp Khabo Koepsell, Asad Schwarz-Msesilamba and Mirjam Nuenning for their support.
Friday, March 1st 2013
20:00
English Theatre Berlin, Fidicinstr. 40, Berlin-Kreuzberg
Entrance: 5,00 €
"Also By Mail" by Olumide Popoola
Series: Witnessed Edition 2
Publisher: Edition Assemblage
Paperback, 142×205 mm
96 pages, 9.80 EUR [D]
ISBN 978-3-942885-38-6
Out now!
The premiere book presentation of "Also By Mail" by Olumide Popoola on Saturday, February 16th was a great success. Well attended (over 80 people) and well received, this was the second of the Black History Month 2013 series of events in Frankfurt, which opened on Saturday, February 2nd with a launch party in Circus.
For the entire BHM 2013 programme visit the ISD website.
Further book presentations are planned in Berlin (Friday, March 1st) and in Hamburg (Friday, March 29th). For more information watch this space!
The second publication in the Witnessed series will be launched this month in Frankfurt!
"Also By Mail" is a modern family comedy-drama by author and poet Olumide Popoola. It follows the experiences of Nigerian German siblings Funke and Wale who fly to Nigeria to bury their suddenly deceased father. Their upbringing clashes with their uncle’s expectations and initial misunderstandings soon come to an éclat. When Wale returns to Germany, frustrated, he is bitterly reminded of how little his father acknowledged and prepared them for racist encounters there.
Loss and racism, sibling rivalry and cross-cultural etiquette, the play incorporates and subverses it’s urban, neo-African elements of story-telling to give a contemporary picture of a family that struggles not only with the legacy of its patriarch but with being racialized within the German context as well. Where does each stand in a circle of relations and needs? Where does each want to end up? And who is willing to help? It takes an inside-outside job to lighten the mood and the surprise startles them all.
Following the successful crowdfunding campaign for "The Little Book of Big Visions," we are now raising money for the second book in the Witnessed Series.
"Also By Mail" is the story of two AfroGerman sibiling who travel to Nigeria to attend their father's funeral. It is a theatre play written spoken word artist and author Olumide Popoola.
Please check out the Startnext website for more information about the project (in English and German) and please support it!
"Also By Mail" is a play by Olumide Popoola. It is due out in February 2013...watch this space!
Praise for Also by Mail
“Also by Mail is a pioneering play by the London-based Nigerian-German novelist, poet and playwright Olumide Popoola – poignantly and authentically representing the lives, the diversity, the struggles and aspirations of people in the Black diaspora, their quest for identity and justice. Generation conflicts, the clash of cultures and language barriers are depicted with warmth and humor whereas racist experiences in Germany are resolutely and realistically conveyed, as well as results of determined resistance, not leading to reconciliation but at least to legal justice. Also by Mail is a powerful play, entertaining and thought-provoking. Having read it with joy, one wishes to see it performed on stage soon.”
Marion Kraft Author of The African Continuum and African American Women Writers
