Identity is often a fluid construct as a person of color. How does high visibility affect the personas that we adopt in our daily lives? In what ways are these personas real and imagined, chosen and imposed?

In the June salon we’ll examine transnational constructs of people of color, identity policing and the ways we question, amplify and diminish our identities.

Due to the limited space, capacity is limited to 50.
Please RSVP to jessicalaurenelizabethtaylor@gmail.com if you wish to join the conversation.

In 2012, Jessica Lauren Elizabeth Taylor began the salon series “Black in Berlin” as a reaction to the appropriation of Afropean culture by the German, English-language mainstream media.

The experience of being Black in Berlin can oftentimes be polarizing. The lingering effects of African colonization that are ever present in the city mixed with the inherent alienation of “representing” the other creates a complex day to day existence. This paradox does not have to be internalized. The Black in Berlin Salon is an opportunity to dialogue issues, foster community and generate conversation with the willing to listen. The salon encourages people of all races and backgrounds to participate in the discussion. Each participant is given time and space ask questions, voice frustrations, tell stories and commiserate in the hopes that by engaging in a dialogue we can help alleviate the very real stresses that come with the trauma of existing in marginalized communities. Each session of the Black in Berlin Salon operates loosely around a different theme.

The Black in Berlin salon doesn’t focus on a singular oppressive institution like racism but will take an intersectional stance to see how the oppressive institutions of racism, sexism, homophobia, classism are interconnected.

The title Black in Berlin is a reference to the double entendre of the German word “schwarz,” often used to describe something negative, e.g. “schwarzfahren.” The Black in the title refers to black and brown people and all people of color who have felt on the outside in Berlin.

The event will be in English in the café of the Schwules Museum*. It also marks the end of the exhibition “Transformers”: six collages by Isaiah Wolf. There will be no entry fees.