Events | Foreign Correspondent Unplugged: "Pop and Protest" - Aida Baghernejad, August Brown & Annett Scheffel in Conversation
Goethe-Institut Los Angeles | August 22, 2024
7 p.m. (PT) | Goethe-Institut Los Angeles
2024 Thomas Mann Fellow Aida Baghernejad, LA Times staff writer August Brown, and journalist Annett Scheffel in conversation at the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles!
Join us, the Goethe-Institut, and the American Council on Germany (ACG Warburg Chapter) for a discussion between Thomas Mann Fellow, music journalists Aida Baghernejad (2024 Thomas Mann Fellow) and August Brown (LA Times) as they discuss the powerful interplay between pop culture and the politics of protest in a conversation moderated by Annett Scheffel. The panelists will explore how pop culture has become an indispensable arena for political expression and activism, examining the paradigm shifts in music journalism and the dynamic relationship between entertainment and social change. In this discussion the journalists will negotiate how pop culture can act as an agent of hope and its role as a tool for supporting democracies in peril.
The conversation will be recorded and published on the Foreign Correspondent Unplugged podcast and in the Goethe-Institut magazine GEGENÜBER.
Participants
Aida Baghernejad is a journalist who studied media studies in Berlin, Barcelona, and London. Her work focuses on how cultural products such as music, film, and social media content influence the socio-political state of the world. In addition to numerous contributions for Die Zeit, Der Tagesspiegel, Missy Magazine, and others, she also co-hosts the podcast 55 Voices for Democracy. During her residency in California, Aida Baghernejad will explore the intersection between pop culture and politics in times of multiple crises. She will engage with the history of the Thomas Mann House and of the émigrés in Southern California, and their lasting impact on German and American culture.
August Brown covers pop music, the music industry and nightlife policy at the Los Angeles Times.
Annett Scheffel is a culture writer, editor, speaker, and presenter based in Los Angeles and Berlin. She thinks, writes, and talks about music, film, feminism, and contemporary culture for the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Spiegel Online, Zeit Online Musikexpress, Dummy Magazin, and Deutschlandfunk — preferably at the intersection between identity, society, and politics.
The series Foreign Correspondent Unplugged is a collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles and the American Council on Germany (ACG Warburg Chapter)
