* *

Hurston’s statement has been played out on he
big screen by Serena and Venus: they win sometimes (…)
and through it all and evident to all were those
people who are enraged they are there at all –
graphite against a sharp white background.

Claudia Rankine, Citizen, 2014, S. 26.

In any case, it is difficult not to think that if Serena lost context by abandoning all rules of civility, it could be because her body, trapped in racial imaginary, trapped in disbelief –code for being black in America– is being governed not by the tennis match she is participating in but by a collapsed relationship that had promised to play by the rules.

Claudia Rankine, Citizen, 2014, S. 30.

The orgasm, the paradigmatic effect of heteronormative production– repression that fragments the body and localizes pleasure, shall be systematically parodied thanks to diverse disciplines of simulation and serial repetitions of the effects traditionally associated with sexual pleasure (see chapter 2, “Countersexual Reversal Practices”).

Paul B. Preciado, Countersexual Manifesto, 2018, S. 34.

The children remain

like blades of grass over the earth and

al the children are singing

louder than mourning

Audre Lorde, Die Quelle unserer Macht, 2020, S. 92.

I speak without concern for the accusations

that I am too much or too little woman

that I am too Black or too white

or too much myself

Audre Lorde, Die Quelle unserer Macht, 2020, S. 88.

All countersexual relationships shall be the product of a consensual contract signed by all participants.

Paul B. Preciado, Countersexual Manifesto, 2018, S. 35.

… Serena is informed by [the Brit Piers] Morgan [after her 2012 Olympic victory] that he was planing on calling her victory dance „the Serena Shuffle“; however, he has learned from the American press that it is a Crip Walk, a gangster dance.

Claudia Rankine, Citizen, 2014, S. 34.

Und dass wir ungestört sind und dass die Männer oder Frauen auch mal küssen konnten. Auf der Straße ging das ja nicht, die Männer und Frauen, die sich geküsst haben auf der Tanzfläche, die wurden auseinandergetrieben. Und die Frauen auch. Weil es nicht gestattet war, das war “unnormal”, es passte nicht in die Norm der DDR.

Christiane Seefeld, Sie nennen mich die Kiezmutter, 00:05:46.

We might need to use guerrilla tactics, and we have a feminist and queer histories to draw upon; write names of harassers on books or on walls.

Sara Ahmed, Queer Use (lecture), 2018.

Die Hitze verlangsamt alle Vorgänge. Sie verstärkt Eindrücke und trübt, macht appetitlos und gelangweilt. Sie provoziert Reizbarkeit und Feindseligkeit.

Mia Göhring, Flirren, 2020, S. 166.

[...] [E]s gab ja nicht so einen großen Raum für Menschen, die nicht anerkannt waren in der DDR als Künstler oder so.

Christiane Seefeld, Sie nennen mich die Kiezmutter, 00:03:09.

Article 1

Countersexual society insists upon the removal of the designations masculine and feminine, corresponding to what are supposed to be biological categories (male/woman, man/female), from identification cards as well as from all administrative and legal state forms. The codes of masculinity and femininity shall become open and copyleft registers available to speaking, living bodies within the framework of mutually agreed- upon impermanent contracts.

Paul B. Preciado, Countersexual Manifesto, 2018, S. 32.

begging to be ridden asleep

for the price of a midnight train

free from desire.

Audre Lorde, Die Quelle unserer Macht, 2020, S. 108.

Das feministische Dojo ist ein Raum, der in den 1970er Jahren gegründet wurde, um Frauen die Möglichkeit zu geben, feministischen Kampfsport zu erlernen.

Stefania, Wir wollen die Nacht zurück. Den öffentlichen Raum und unseren Körper, 00:00:54.

Queer: a word with a history; a word that has been flung like a stone; picked up and hurled at us, a word we can claim for us. Queer: odd, strange, unseemly, disturbed, disturbing. Queer: a feeling, a sick feeling; feeling queer as feeling nauseous.

Sara Ahmed, Queer Use (lecture), 2018.

Wir wollten die Nacht zurück. Wir wollten Räume erobern, die bis dato als für Frauen unzugänglich galten.

Veronika, Wir wollen die Nacht zurück. Den öffentlichen Raum und unseren Körper, 00:06:58.

It was about bringing a sense of African-American heritage in community and a queer expression to Germany, to Berlin. community and a queer expression to Germany, to Berlin. Just to be able to present culturally being queer and black and in the world to a space like Berlin of an authentic truth, you know. But it was also about bashing gender norms.It was also about bashing gender norms, being non-binary, bringing down any form of hierarchy and really embracing subculture.

Krylon Superstar, Punks dancing to Marvin Gaye, 00:01:34.

What does a victorious or defeated black woman’s body in a historically white space look like? Serena and her big sister Venus Williams brought to mind Zora Neale Hurston’s „I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background.“ This appropriated line (…) seemed to be ad copy for some aspect of life for all black bodies.

Claudia Rankine, Citizen, 2014, S. 25.

Again Serena’s frustrations,
her disappointments,
exist within a system you
understand not to try to
understand in any fair-minded
way because to do so is to
understand the erasure if the
self as systemic, as ordinary.

Claudia Rankine, Citizen, 2014, S. 32.

*

Perhaps this is how racism feels no matter the context –randomly the rules everyone else gets to play by no longer apply to you, and to call this out by calling out „I swear to God!“ is to be called insane, crass, crazy. Bad sportsmanship.

Claudia Rankine, Citizen, 2014, S. 30.

In this darkness I call Krylon Superstar, this Blackness I call Life. I accept everybody for who they are.

Krylon Superstar, Punks dancing to Marvin Gaye, 00:06:49.

Jede Straße, die ich nehme, ist etwas schmaler als die vorige und außer einigen Blumenkästen mit verdorrten Geranien darin gibt es kaum noch Bepflanzung, nur zufällig Gewachsenes. Ich nähere mich der Peripherie.

Mia Göhring, Flirren, 2020, S. 168.

And the grasses will still be

Singing.

Audre Lorde, Die Quelle unserer Macht, 2020, S. 92.

Am Ende der Straße steht das Ufo.

Mia Göhring, Flirren, 2020, S. 169.

I think by the very idea that we are drag queens and Friedrichshain in East Berlin, it's a statement in it of itself. The idea was to have a place initially, an organization that could help foreigners and people living alternative lifestyles.

Paisley Dalton, Punks dancing to Marvin Gaye, 00:00:54.

if we are measured by dreams we avoid

then you are the nightmare

Audre Lorde, Die Quelle unserer Macht, 2020, S. 108.

That potential: not being selected is not to be checked; to have more room to roam, to vary, to deviate; to proliferate.

Sara Ahmed, Queer Use (lecture), 2018.

diese ddr ist so ein stück bauchnabel vom bauch

ein stück haut vom körper der sich bewegen nehmen lernt

endrevolution mutintus in erdrotation

Gabriele Stötzer, ich unter euch, 2014, S. 67.

*
*
*

*
For Serena, the daily diminishment is a low flame, a constant drip.
Every look, every comment, every bad call blossoms out of history,
through her, onto you. To understand is to see Serena as hemmed
in as any other black body thrown against our American background.

Claudia Rankine, Citizen, 2014, S. 32.

When you arrive in your driveway and turn off the car,
you remain behind the wheel another ten minutes.
You fear the night is being locked in and coded on a cellular
level and want time to function as a power wash.
Sitting there staring at the closed garage door you are
reminded that a friend once told you there exists the
medical term –John Henryism– for people exposed to stresses
stemming from racism.
(…)
You hope by sitting in silence you are bucking the trend.

Claudia Rankine, Citizen, 2014, S. 11.

I DJing at BGC several times, but it was just a really open, queer space that was open to everybody. And the majority of the people that came to the BGC were misfits, were punks. [...] but it was strictly put on by BIPoC people that were running the BGC.

Krylon Superstar,Punks dancing to Marvin Gaye, 00:02:28.

Also solche Sachen sind organisiert worden, dass man einfach zusammen sein konnte und sich nicht alleine gefühlt hat.

Christiane Seefeld, Sie nennen mich die Kiezmutter, 00:05:46.