About this Event
Join us for the vinyl release of 3 Lieder für Marie Nejar, performed by Ahya Simone – concept and production by James Gregory Atkinson. This release event will feature a panel discussion with James Gregory Atkinson, Ahya Simone, and Alexander Ghedi Weheliye.
3 Lieder für Marie Nejar investigates music as a space of memory. Artist James Gregory Atkinson’s work addresses the absence of Afro-German experiences within established narratives. Marie Nejar, born in 1930 in Mühlheim an der Ruhr, began performing as Leila Negra in the early 1950s. Her life and music were shaped by the racial exclusions of Nazi Germany and their continuities in post-war Germany.
On April 28, 2023, Detroit based harpist Ahya Simone, invited by Atkinson, reinterpreted and rearranged three songs originally recorded by Nejar between 1952 and 1955 in a live, open-air performance at Klosterruine Berlin, curated by Juliane Bischoff. These reinterpretations offer a contemporary re-engagement with Nejar’s work, understanding places, bodies, and performative practices as active carriers of history and memory.
Marie Nejar, who passed away in May 2025 at the age of 95, was, as far as the Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland (ISD) is aware, the last Black survivor of Nazi Germany.
Now released on vinyl, this recording honors Nejar’s legacy, while offering a transatlantic perspective on the intertwined histories of Black life and the diasporas in Germany and the U.S. through the reinterpretation of her music by Ahya Simone.
Kindly supported by Hessische Kulturstiftung and the Goethe-Institut New York. Distribution by Bierke Verlag, Berlin. Apparent Extent AE41, 2026.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Goethe-Institut New York, 30 Irving Place, New York, United States
USD 0.00
