Rude Girl - A Reading and Conversation with Birgit Weyhe

Birgit Weyhe’s Rude Girl was inspired by the story of Priscilla Layne, an Afro-American German Studies professor with Caribbean roots. Layne inspired the character Crystal in this graphic novel, who decides to rebel against everyone and everything at once by joining the skinhead movement and becoming a “rude girl.” “But how is Birgit Weyhe supposed to tell a life story like this?,” asks the publisher’s website, “What mistakes should you avoid?” Rude Girl draws its power from asking questions rather than providing ready-made answers. In her book, Weyhe creates a multi-perspective narrative in which she—as a white author—traces the challenges and the process of creating a comic book about a person of color.

The reading will take place in German; conversation will be in English or in translation.

Author’s bio:

Birgit Weyhe was born in 1969 in South Germany and spent her childhood in East Africa. She studied German Literature, Art and History in Konstanz and Hamburg. Her Graphic Novels have been nominated for various prizes in Germany, France and Japan. In 2022, Weyhe was named best German-language comic artist at the International Comic Salon Erlangen and she also received the prestigious Hamburg Lessing Award.

You can find more information on her website: https://birgit-weyhe.de/

 

Co-sponsors: Goethe Institute Boston, College of Humanities and Fine Arts, German and Scandinavian Studies; Comparative Literatures; Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures; Five Colleges German Studies Faculty Seminar