photo credit: Pascal Bünning

Malick Bauer can currently be seen worldwide in the titular role of the first German Disney+ series “Sam – A Saxon”. (Disney+ worldwide on HULU in the US)
This entrance on the global stage also lead to “best actor” nominations at the DEUTSCHER FERNSEHPREIS & JUPITER AWARDS on a national level. In 2023 he also took on a dubbing role in the film TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES – MUTANT MAYHEM.
Bauer was born and resides in Germany.
He gained his first acting experience in Hamburg before completing his acting studies at the “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” University of Music and Theater in Leipzig. Meanwhile he played at the “neues Theater” in Halle. This was followed by 2 years at the prestigious Volksbühne Berlin and collaborations with directors such as Pınar Karabulut, Claudia Bauer and Susanne Kennedy. In the 2022/2023 season he moved to the Berliner Ensemble. In addition to his theater work, he can also be seen on German television, including: in “Frau Jordan stellt gleich” and “Wir.” For MDR Kultur he was the speaker for the contributions “Trauma Injustice” and “The Forbidden Rainbow”.

In his most recent work, “The Physician II” (Der Medicus 2 – 2025): Malick Bauer plays the character Abu in this film. The film was released in cinemas in December 2025.

“Alice Hasters is an author and cultural critic. In 2019, she published the long-selling book “What White People Don’t Want to Hear About Racism, But Should Know” (hanserblau). The major (identity) crises of our present and society are the focus of her second non-fiction book, “Identity Crisis” (hanserblau), published in October 2023. She worked as an editor for “Tagesschau” and “Jetzt mal konkret” (rbb) until 2021 and as host of “Einhundert – Storys mit Alice Hasters” (Dlf Nova) until 2022. Since 2016, she has been producing and presenting the podcast Feuer&Brot with her friend Maxi Häcke, in which the two examine current topics from pop culture, politics, and society every two weeks.

In April 2026, her new nonfiction book Anti Opfer – Gegen die neue Verachtung von Verletzlichkeit – (Anti Victim – Against the New Contempt for Vulnerability) will be published by Ullstein.”

Alice’s Earlier Books include:

Identitaetskrise

&

Was weiße Menschen nicht über Rassismus hören wollen, aber wissen sollten

“Racial Solidarity in the Aftermath of War: The Transnational Adoption of Afro-German Children to Black American Families.“

In the aftermath of the Second World War, thousands of children were born in Germany to white German women and Black American soldiers. While most grew up in postwar Germany, a small but significant number were adopted by Black American families and migrated to the United States. This keynote examines these early instances of transnational adoption as a deeply political practice situated at the intersection of race, citizenship, family, and Cold War geopolitics. Focusing on debates in West Germany, activism in the Black American press, and the controversial adoption initiatives led by figures such as Mabel Grammer, the talk reveals how Afro-German children became charged symbols in struggles over post-fascist German identity and U.S. civil rights. By centering Black Americans as key actors in the history of international adoption, the keynote reframes adoption as an expression of racial solidarity, humanitarian internationalism, and contested belonging in the postwar transatlantic world.”Racial Solidarity in the Aftermath of War: The Transnational Adoption of Afro-German Children to Black American Families.“

Sheri Hagen is a German-Nigerian filmmaker and actress. Born in Lagos, Nigeria, and raised in Hamburg, Sheri completed her training at the Stage School of Dance and Drama in Hamburg and at the Studio Theater an der Wien in Austria. In addition to numerous film and television roles (including “Das Leben der Anderen,” “Baal,” “Tatort,” “Sperling,” and “On The Inside”), she has appeared in various theater productions.

She first attracted attention as a screenwriter and director in 2007 with the short film STELLA AND THE STORKS. The children’s short film was successfully shown at international festivals (including mo&friese KinderKurzfilmFestival Hamburg and Chicago Int. Children’s Film Festival).

In 2012, Sheri was awarded the special prize “Ein Schreibtisch am Meer” (A Desk by the Sea) at the 23rd International Film Festival Emden-Norderney for her debut feature film AT SECOND GLANCE. In 2013, AT SECOND GLANCE won the 4th Kirchen Filmfestival Recklinghausen. In fall 2013, Barnsteiner-Film released the feature film in German cinemas.

In 2015, Sheri founded the production company Equality Film GmbH.

In her feature film BLUE WINDOW (2016), Sheri adapted the play Muttermale Fenster Blau by author Sasha Marianna Salzmann.

In 2023, she and her company Equality Film were honored by the BKM as a Cultural and Creative Pilot. In 2024, her next film MOTHERHOOD was part of the program of the 74th Berlinale EFM Fiction Toolbox thanks to a continuing education grant from the Austrian Film Institute (ÖFI). She also received the Digital Female Leader Award -DFLX24 in 2024.

In 2025, Sheri completed her third feature film, BILLIE. BILLIE is scheduled to be released in German cinemas in 2026. She is also currently developing the episodic film MOTHERHOOD and the series KEHINDE, which has received funding from Hessenfilm & Medien.

Lara-Sophie Milagro was born in Berlin, grew up in Bremen, and studied acting and singing in London, New York, and Berlin. She has collaborated with Frank Patrick Steckl, Antoine Uitdehaag, Matthias Fontheim, and Anta Recke, among others. As a director and producer, she has developed her own aesthetic signature with her first feature film, “Emmett, German History X” (Label Noir / Achtung Panda!), which is characterized by ancestral storytelling and multi-perspective narrative levels.

Lara-Sophie regularly appears in theater, cinema, and television productions, most recently as Ma in “Dreaming Emmett” at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts, as well as in the television film “Fang mich doch!” (ZDF / Network Movie) and the bestseller adaptation “Woodwalkers 2”. She has directed at numerous theaters, including the Staatstheater Mainz, HAU Berlin, and Gorki Theater Berlin. As a freelance writer and producer, she developed the performative talk format “Declonized Glamour Talks,” which combines current cultural-political debates with performances and was most recently shown at the Berlin Volksbühne in November 2025.

Lena Whooo is a dedicated Berlin based artist focused on amplifying the voices and experiences of the black queer community in Germany and worldwide, using their work to explore reflection, processing, emotional awareness and healing within the QTIBIPOC community.
Their art is an expressive release, mirroring their emotions and offering others the same opportunity for introspection. With a distinctive style that includes elements like their gendernonconforming cubedudes and the signature hashtag #whooomadethis, they are a versatile and passionate creator who spans various artistic genres, from TV and camera acting to poetry, sketching, and multimedia content creation such as soundscapes, cover artworks and animated lyric videos.

More at Lena’s WEBSITE

SPECIAL SCREENING!

Unwilling gangsters: A tragi-comic, fast-moving chamber piece in which two friends take their fates into their own hands. Nina (Ruby Commey) and Angie (Thelma Buabeng) are best friends, fighting their way through life. When Angie’s pubescent daughter Rahel needs €300 for a class trip, on an impulse she goes to the bank where Nina’s husband Marc (Timo Jacobs) works to ask for a small loan. But when Marc harshly turns the request down, Angie loses her temper. Things get out of control– and suddenly the tw

Official announcement on Label Noir: 
Inspired by a true incident in Coligny, South Africa, the film tells the story of the attempt to solve the murder of a young black man who was killed by the son of a white farmer. At the heart of the story is a justice system deeply rooted in colonial structures, with references to German colonial history.

Elisabeth Clarke-Hasters, BGHRA Consultant: Arts & Culture studied classical ballet and modern dance in Philadelphia, in North Carolina and at the School of American Ballet in New York She began her acting studies at age 13, and was a member of the Children’s Repertory Theatre in Philadelphia and the Poor People’s Theatre in New York. She was also a member of the Dance Theater of Harlem. She came to Europe in 1971to study at the Mudra school of Maurice Béjart, and danced with the Ballet du XXème Siècle. Before turning to choreography and teaching she worked extensively with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pina Bausch, and performed as an actress in the municipal theaters of Köln, Düsseldorf and Koblenz.
Clarke-Hasters has been a choreographer for the Salzburg Festival, the Burgtheater Wien, the Maggio Musi-cale in Florence, the Oper Leipzig, among others. She was assistant school director at the Arturo Schauspielschule in Köln, and school director at Die Etage in Berlin, where she also led the dance department until 2018. She has also developed several programs for dance in schools, specifically combining dance composition and STEM curriculum. In 2010 she completed her training as a per-sonal development coach and is presently developing several new programs, including a coaching program specifically for People of Color.

Sonya Donaldson, BGHRA Executive Director of Media & Archive is Assistant Professor of African American Studies at Colby College. She is currently completing her book manuscript, Irreconcilable Differences?: Memory, History, and the Echoes of Diaspora. She has also launched a digital humanities project, “Singing the Nation into Being: Anthems and the Politics of Black Performance,” which focuses on “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” (also known as The Black National Anthem). She received her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, where her research focused on Afro-German autobiographical narratives. Dr. Donaldson’s academic research centers on the intersections of race, gender, class, sexual identity, and technologies

Emily Frazier-Rath is an educator and researcher rooted in the fields of German Studies, Migration Studies, and Feminist Studies. In addition to her work for the BGHRA, she is also currently Visiting Assistant Professor of German Studies at Davidson College in Davidson, NC. She earned her PhD in German Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder in May 2019, and her MA in Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies from the University of Cincinnati in 2013. Emily’s most recent publication entitled To Be Seen and to Be Whole: Black German FLINTA* on Community, Identity, and Connection appeared in The German Quarterly in fall 2022.

Emily taught the inaugural Beginning German I class for Black German adoptees and their families in May 2022, which was made possible through the generous support of the Anderson Language and Technology Center (ALTEC) at the University of Colorado Boulder. Emily’s current research centers on the pedagogical effects of engaging in transnational and transcultural dialog to build mutual understanding through deep, community-based learning in the humanities classroom. This work is informed by her collaboration with Dr. Rosemarie Peña in two courses they have introduced to the Davidson College curriculum: Black German Art & Resistance and Race, Gender, Migration.

Keith Green is Associate Professor of English and Director of the Africana Studies Program at Rutgers–Camden. Dr. Green’s main research and teaching interests lie in African American literature, with more specific investments in the study of the antebellum era, self-referential writing, African-Native American literature, and slave narratives. He has delivered papers on Nat Turner, Harriet Jacobs, Henry Bibb, and William Wells Brown. His current book project, Not Just Slavery: African Americans Write Captivity Narratives, Too: 1816-1879, explores the various kinds of bondage and confinement–specifically Indian slavery, Barbary captivity, and state imprisonment–African Americans experienced and recounted in the nineteenth century.

BGHRA Executive Director of International Relations

Silke Hackenesch is an assistant professor at the Institute for North American History at the University of Cologne. She specializes in 20thcentury Childhood and Adoption Studies, African American History, Commodity History, and Black Diaspora Studies.
Silke is the author of Chocolate and Blackness: A Cultural History (Campus, 2017). Other publications include “’Hergestellt unter ausschließlicher Verwendung von Kakaobohnen deutscher Kolonien’–On Representations of Chocolate Consumption as a Colonial Endeavor,“ in Tiffany N. Florvil, Vanessa Plumly (eds.). Rethinking Black German Studies (Peter Lang, 2018); “’I identify primarily as a Black German in America:’ Race, Bürgerrechte und Adoptionen in den USA der 1950er Jahre,“ in Kinder des Zweiten Weltkrieges (Campus, 2016); and the co-edited volume of the Black Diaspora and Germany Network (ed). The Black Diaspora and Germany/ Die Schwarze Diaspora in Deutschland (Edition Assemblage, 2018).
Currently, Silke also edited the volume Making Families Across Race and Nation: The Histories and Politics of Transracial and Transnational Adoption (forthcoming with Ohio State University Press in 2021); and working on a manuscript tentatively titled ’My Faith in Americans is Renewed with every Adoption’: Transnational and Transracial Adoptions in Postwar America“ which looks at discourses of racial identity and national belonging in relation to intercountry adoptions to the United States.
Silke’s work has been supported, among others, by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Thyssen Foundation, the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Society for the History of Children and Youth (SHCY), the Alliance for the Study of Adoption and Culture (ASAC), and the German Historical Institute in Washington, DC.

Rosemarie Peña is the founder and president of the Black German Heritage and Research Association (BGHRA). In this role, she has co-produced and hosted five international academic conferences on Black European Studies.Rosemarie earned bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and German and both her M.A. and Ph.D. in Childhood Studies at Rutgers University in Camden, NJ. Her research explores displaced childhoods with a special focus on the historical and contemporary intersections of transnational adoption and child migration. Her dissertation, The Rekinning: Portraying Postwar Black German Transnational Adoption, is a discourse analysis of two historical documentary films.

Rosemarie has presented at numerous conferences and is a frequently invited keynote speaker internationally. She is a contributing author in several edited volumes published in both German and English. Her peer reviewed articles have appeared in The Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood, Genealogy Journal, and the Journal of Adoption and Culture. Rosemarie’s most recent essay, “Black Germans: Reunifying in Diaspora” appears in Silke Hackenesch’s editid volume Adopting Children across Race and Nations: Histories and Legacies (Nov. 2023).

Amazon Author Link

Digital Artist Resoding in Berlin.