Relations between the US and Europe are currently under considerable strain. In response to this, the USA is launching a campaign called “Among Friends — Unter Freunden,” which aims to encourage .
The program kicks off with a reading tour by two young authors who’ll be traveling across the US for four weeks, from New York to Texas, sometimes venturing beyond the Goethe-Institut’s offices to more quirky locations.
In Washington, for example, Sonali Beher and Iven Yorick Fenker will be appearing in a pizzeria, while in West Chester, Pennsylvania, they’ll be reading in a huge antique bookshop in a former barn.
Beher, born in 1997, and Fenker, born in 1994, both studied at the German Institute for Literature in Leipzig. The project is being conducted under the patronage of one of the institute’s professors, the writer Ulrike Draesner.
The two young authors, who’ve already spent time the US before this project, are looking forward to some lively debate and exchange of ideas. They’re also relishing the opportunity to write new material to be published on the Goethe-Institut website.
Representatives of a youthful, diverse Germany
Sonali Beher, originally from Giessen, writes prose, essays, poetry and plays, alongside her political activism. As a writer, she considers it a privilege to be able to simply observe and draw her own conclusions from what she sees.
After studying in the US city of Seattle in 2017, she’s curious to see how much the country’s changed during President Trump’s second term. But over the next four weeks, she also sees a role for herself as representative of a youthful, diverse Germany — thereby sending a powerful message.
Iven Yorick Fenker grew up in the Harz, a border region between eastern and western Europe. The landscape of this area shapes his writing, says Fenker, although he now lives as a journalist and filmmaker in Berlin.
Fenker says he’s a huge fan of US literature, but also of the open communication style he’s experienced in the country. He’s hoping for an intensive exchange on the issue of social developments in both nations and recognizes parallels between them.
Now is the optimal time to strengthen friendship with the US
The two authors will be traveling by bus and train through Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida, to Houston in Texas. They’re also hoping for some illuminating encounters on public transport.
Over the next four weeks, they plan to publish some of their own work, along with texts written jointly and videos created during their trip, in a literary column on the Goethe-Institut website.
“With ‘Among Friends — Unter Freunden’ we’re reaching new target groups that had little contact with Germany before,” explains Klaus Krischok, the Goethe-Institut’s Regional Director for North America.
Tatjana Brode, who’s supervising the project with the two young writers, adds: “It’s particularly exciting for us right now to see how a new generation views this relationship.”
The final stop on the reading tour is October 7 in Houston — and not by chance. A new Goethe-Institut is set to open in the city in the fall, the seventh in the US.
This article was originally written in German.
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