Mohamed Amjahid and Max Czollek will engage in a conversation with guests in the U.S. about strategies for a more open, diverse and just society in Germany and the U.S. Thomas Mann Fellow and author Mohamed Amjahid and poet and publicist Max Czollek talk about political activism and diversity. In their work, they discuss the politics of history in the discourse on integration in both countries and raise the question: How is social diversity expressed in politics and art in both countries? What are counter-concepts to white, hegemonic culture?]

The discussion series continues in 2021 with its first installment on February 17, 2021 in Washington, DC, where Mohamed Amjahid and Max Czollek speak with Dr. Imani Woody and Ruby Corado about LGBTQI+ / SGL housing and related issues for the community, such as homelessness, social isolation, economic insecurity, health issues, and age discrimination.

Participants

Dr. Imani Woody is a nationally recognized thought leader and an advocate of women, people of color, and LGBTQI/SGL people for more than 25 years. She has spoken out locally and nationally about the circumstances of elder LGBTQ+/SGL individuals and the specific jeopardies that LGBTQ+/SGL elders of color face as they age. She is the founder and CEO of Mary’s House for Older Adults, (MHFOA) with the vision and commitment to serve LGBTQ+/SGL elders, experiencing housing insecurity and isolation.

Ruby Jade Corado is the founder and president of Casa Ruby, and has devoted the last 25+ years to advocating for the inclusion of transgender, genderqueer, and gender-non-conforming gay, lesbian, and bisexual people in mainstream society. She has fought for LGBTQI human rights, transgender liberation, immigration equality, and access to healthcare, and fought against hate crimes/violence and many other disparities and issues facing the communities that she represents.

Mohamed Amjahid was born as the son of so-called guest workers in Frankfurt am Main. He studied political science in Berlin and Cairo and conducted research on various anthropological projects in North Africa. During his studies, he worked as a journalist for taz, Frankfurter Rundschau and Deutschlandfunk. He has worked as a political reporter for the weekly newspaper Die Zeit and the Zeit Magazin. Anthropologically and journalistically, he focuses on human rights, equality and upheaval in the US, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Mohamed Amjahid is a 2020 Thomas Mann fellow.

Dr. Max Czollek completed his doctorate studies at the Center for Research on Antisemitism at the Technical University Berlin. Since 2009, Czollek has been a member of poetry collective G13, which has published books and organized lectures. In 2018, his essay Desintegriert Euch! (Disintegrate!) was published at Carl Hanser. His second essay, Gegenwartsbewältigung (Coping with the Present), was published in August 2020.

Live online webinar on February 17, 2021, 9 a.m. (PT). Please register here.