Tipp Talk
with Dennis Chiponda

© Goethe-Institut

”I'd love to be your super hero”

His mother comes from Poland, his father is from Mozambique, and he grew up in Brandenburg. Dennis Chiponda describes himself as an "East German, Black, gay Afropole". Today he lives in Leipzig and is involved in anti-racism work. He is vice-chairman of the SPDqueer in Saxony. In the latest episode of Tipp Talk, he talks to Rumbie about his commitment to young migrants and queer people in East Germany, and about the importance of role models for one's own identity.

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Our tipps from the Onleihe

All media in the Onleihe

Medientipp

Onleihe media tipp
Olivia Wenzel: 1000 Serpentinen Angst

The theme of identity and living in different worlds also preoccupies the author Olivia Wenzel. Her novel "1000 Serpentinen Angst" revolves around the life of a young black woman born in the GDR. Her travels take her - in leaps between time, places and generations - to Vietnam, Berlin, Morocco, the USA, Poland and Thuringia. How much actually fits into a single life? And how can one talk about all the things that make up and shape one's life – whilst still being caught in the middle of it?

Verwirrnis

Onleihe media tipp
Christoph Hein: Verwirrnis (audiobook)

If you want to delve deeper into the topic of queer identity, we recommend "Verwirrnis" by Christoph Hein. It's about LGBT people in East Germany in the 1950s, breaking away from home, intellectual circles, and love - which has to remain a secret. You can find the book as an e-book and audiobook in Goethe-Institut's Onleihe.

Identitti

Onleihe media tipp
Mithu Sanyal: Identitti (Book available in Onleihe)

A very funny novel about identities, sensitivities and hypersensitivities in German academia and the humanities. "What a scandal: Prof. Dr. Saraswati is WHITE! It couldn't be worse, because just a moment ago the professor of Postcolonial Studies in Düsseldorf was the über-goddess of all debates on identity - and described herself as a person of colour. As if Sally Rooney, Beyoncé and Frantz Fanon were watching an episode of Sex Education together, a hunt for "real" belonging begins. While the internet is hounding Saraswati and protests are calling for her release, her student Nivedita is asking her the most intimate of questions.

Was weiße Menschen nicht über Rassismus hören wollen

Onleihe media tipp
Alice Hasters: Was weiße Menschen nicht über Rassismus hören wollen aber wissen sollte (Book available in Onleihe)

"Can I touch your hair?", "Can you get a sunburn?", "Where are you from?". People who ask such questions usually don't mean any harm. But still: these questions are racist. White people often don't want to hear why. Alice Hasters explains it anyway. Urgently and patiently, she describes how racism shapes her everyday life as a Black woman in Germany. It becomes clear that racism is not only a problem of right-wing politics. And confronting one's own racism is painful at first, but the only way to overcome it.

Wessen Erinnerung zählt?

Onleihe media tipp
Mark Terkessidis: Wessen Erinnerung zählt? (Book available in Onleihe)

Great non-fiction book about structural racism and the little-known colonial history of Germany. Did you know that the Venezuelan city of Maracaibo was founded in 1529 under the name of Neu-Nürnberg?

Medientipp

Onleihe media tipp
Fatma Aydemir, Hengameh Yaghoobifarah u.a.: Eure Heimat ist unser Albtraum (Book available in Onleihe)

A versatile collection of texts by the most important young German authors who reflect on the concept of "Heimat", re-imagining it from a post-migrant perspective and exposing racist structures.

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