I am honored to have been elected the „Head of the Year for 2022“ in the category Culture and I would like to thank you for your vote. Many of you were voting for me from Congo, Graz, Vienna, and the USA. I started my debut as a curator and mediator at the Poesiefestival Berlin — thanks to its former director, Thomas Wohlfahrt — before flying on my own wings. My leitmotif is simple: To publish, document and archive black and African literature (in German-speaking areas).
I would like to thank the many people and institutions that accompany me in this dream, this poet’s utopia. Particularly I would like to thank the literary journals Lichtungen and Manuskripte; Forum Stadtpark, the association ISOP, Kulturvermittlung Steiermark as well as the Afro-Asian Institute for the organization of the Weltwortreisende Festival, which I curate. It will be held again in October, as usually. As a counterpoint to the festival, I am already preparing for “Frühling”, an event dedicated to unpublished texts from 23 young Austrian writers. In August, I will publish an anthology of short stories about the city by 12 african writers by InterKontinental Verlag. I am currently writing my new novel and am delighted with the premieres of my plays this year. They include “In den Alpen / Après les Alpes” (a double performance with Elfriede Jelinek) at the Volkstheater Vienna at February 17th. Furthermore I am glad to have written the libretto for “Justice”, Milo Rau’s opera (composition by Hector Parra).