Alongside the exhibition Beverly Buchanan. Weathering with Ima-Abasi Okon, this special reading features Jamaica Kincaid revisiting one of her earliest texts, My Mother — a formative piece in which she began to shape the voice and rhythm that would later define her writing. “It was one of those pieces,” she recalls, “in which I was developing something that would later become a style of mine. In a way, it was like teaching myself to walk.”

In this reading and conversation, Kincaid reflects on the intimate and complex relationship between writing, motherhood, and gardening — a connection first cultivated through her mother, whose garden became both a source of wonder and a site of instruction. Over the years, this relationship grew into a central metaphor in Kincaid’s work, where gardens appear as spaces of beauty and care, but also of domination and erasure — microcosms of colonial history.

Kincaid will speak about the generative and destructive qualities of gardening, the act of cultivation as an expression of both love and control, and the ways in which tending to the land can become an act of resistance and reparation.

Jamaica Kincaid is currently in Berlin as part of her fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin.

Hopscotch Reading Room, a bookshop in Berlin specialising in literature, theory and other offerings from the Global South, will accompany the event with a book table.

Tickets include admission to the exhibition. The café and bar are open until 8 pm.

Jamaica Kincaid is a writer and Professor Emerita of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. She holds honorary degrees from Amherst College, Tufts University, Middlebury College, and the University of the West Indies, among others. Celebrated for her evocative reflections on family, memory, gender, colonialism, her native Antigua, and gardening, Kincaid is the author of numerous award-winning and widely translated essays, short stories, and novels, including At the Bottom of the River (1983), Annie John (1985), Lucy (1990), A Small Place (1988), The Autobiography of My Mother (1996), My Brother (1997), Mr. Potter (2002), Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalayas (2005), See Now Then (2013), and most recently An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children (with Kara Walker, 2024). Her “Talk of the Town” columns for The New Yorker appeared in Talk Stories (2001). She is the winner of the 2022 Paris Review Hadada Prize for Lifetime Achievement, the 2017 Dan David Prize, a 2014 American Book Award, and the 2000 Prix Femina Étranger, among many other honors. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2004 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009.

Pia-Marie Remmers, Curatorial Assistant, will guide visitors through the current exhibition Beverly Buchanan. Weathering, with Ima-Abasi Okon. The tour will be held in German. Participation is included in the exhibition ticket.

In preparation for and parallel to the exhibition Beverly Buchanan Weathering. With Ima-Abasi Okon, a seminar was jointly organised in the summer semester of 2025 by Menzel-Dach (Humboldt University of Berlin) and Kunst im Kontext (Berlin University of the Arts), under the direction of Jakob Schillinger and Karina Griffith. The seminar focused on exploring Buchanan’s work in relation to the history and present of Black diasporic art in Germany. Conceived as a practice-oriented course, it provided students with a platform to develop proposals for a public programme to accompany the exhibition at Haus am Waldsee. The outcomes will be presented at Haus am Waldsee from December 12 to 14.

We would like to thank all students: Adi Levy Astrhan, Nahed Awwad, Sophie Beck, Jenny Contreras, Layla Gysin, Pascale Espinosa, Selda Haferkamp, Derek Kacirek, Elia Keinprecht, Montika Kham-on, Sena Tabea Nehme, Betty Ndoye, Débora Caro Reyes , Valerie Sinreich, Cecilia Tosh and Patricio Trim.

Languages: German / English / other
The exhibition and the café are open till 7 pm.
Admission to the event is included in the exhibition ticket.

* Unfortunately, access to the studio is not barrier-free.

Leaving Traces is a screening event curated by Nahed Awwad, Montika Kham-on, and Patricio Trim held as part of the exhibition Beverly Buchanan Weathering with Ima Abasi Okon. The event presents four short films that reflect on how histories of power, displacement, and resistance are inscribed in the landscape. Much like Buchanan’s exploration of shacks and ruins as quiet monuments to survival, these works trace the material and emotional residues left by colonialism, revealing how land, architecture, and memory are continuously shaped and reshaped by acts of erasure and reclamation.

Followed by a conversation with artist-curator Joud Al Tamimi

Programme:
Nii Kwate Owoo, You Hide Me, 1970, 16 min.
Razan Al Salah, Canada Park, 2020, 8 min
Nnenna Onuoha, The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for Mabel Dove, 2024, 15 min
Tebogo Chologi, The Shack, 2020, 7min

Languages: German / English / others
Admission to the event is included in the exhibition ticket.

*Note: Unfortunately, access to the studio is not barrier-free.

About the programme:
In preparation for and parallel to the exhibition Beverly Buchanan Weathering. With Ima-Abasi Okon, a seminar in the summer semester of 2025 was jointly organised by Menzel-Dach (Humboldt University of Berlin) and Kunst im Kontext (Berlin University of the Arts), under the direction of Jakob Schillinger and Karina Griffith. The seminar focused on exploring Buchanan’s work in relation to the history and present of Black diasporic art in Germany. Conceived as a practice-oriented course, it provided students with a platform to develop proposals for a public programme to accompany the exhibition at Haus am Waldsee. The outcomes will be presented at Haus am Waldsee from December 12 to 14.

We would like to thank all students: Adi Levy Astrhan, Nahed Awwad, Sophie Beck, Jenny Contreras, Layla Gysin, Pascale Espinosa, Selda Haferkamp, Derek Kacirek, Elia Keinprecht, Montika Kham-on, Sena Tabea Nehme, Betty Ndoye, Débora Caro Reyes , Valerie Sinreich, Cecilia Tosh and Patricio Trim.

Imagining Buchanan explores the multiplicity, presence, and simultaneous invisibility of Black lived realities in Berlin, placing them in dialogue with the exhibition of Beverly Buchanan’s works at Haus am Waldsee. The project brings together voices from the city‘s Afro-diasporic communities with an installation inspired by Buchanan’s sculptural practice and an accompanying publication. By tracing connections between Buchanan’s reflections on Black architecture in the U.S. and the spatial and social structures that shape Black life in contemporary Berlin, the work invites the audience to listen.

Sound installation: Cecilia Tosh, Sena Tabea Nehme, Elia Keinprecht, Pascale Espinosa and Jenny Contreras

Languages: German / English / others
Admission to the event is included in the exhibition ticket.

About the programme:
In preparation for and parallel to the exhibition Beverly Buchanan Weathering. With Ima-Abasi Okon, a seminar was jointly organised in the summer semester of 2025 by Menzel-Dach (Humboldt University of Berlin) and Kunst im Kontext (Berlin University of the Arts), under the direction of Jakob Schillinger and Karina Griffith. The seminar focused on exploring Buchanan’s work in relation to the history and present of Black diasporic art in Germany. Conceived as a practice-oriented course, it provided students with a platform to develop proposals for a public programme to accompany the exhibition at Haus am Waldsee. The outcomes will be presented at Haus am Waldsee from December 12 to 14.

We would like to thank all students: Adi Levy Astrhan, Nahed Awwad, Sophie Beck, Jenny Contreras, Layla Gysin, Pascale Espinosa, Selda Haferkamp, Derek Kacirek, Elia Keinprecht, Montika Kham-on, Sena Tabea Nehme, Betty Ndoye, Débora Caro Reyes , Valerie Sinreich, Cecilia Tosh and Patricio Trim.

During the workshop, participants will explore two groups of works by Beverly Buchanan – the Frustula Series and the environmental sculptures. During a dialogue-based tour of the exhibition, we will reflect on Buchanan’s interest in buildings and ruins. We will focus our joint observations on the significance of temporality and materiality, referring to the historical and political contexts of her works.

Participants will then carry out their own artistic experiments. First, we will discuss our own attributions of meaning to materials – these can be personal associations or social or political meanings. Participants then cast geometric shapes out of plaster and concrete. Inspired by Beverly Buchanan’s working methods, they experiment with mixing different materials and their effects: sand, stones, apple seeds, colour pigments and leaves create different colours and surface structures. Their own works also convey meaning through form, colour and surface, as well as the connotations of the material and the arrangement of the forms in relation to each other.

Participants are invited to bring their own materials, which they can pour into individual or collective forms during the workshop.

Languages: German, English

Maximum number of participants: 15 people. Ages 14 and up.

Ticket price: regular €20, reduced €15 (reduced)** Tickets can be booked via our ticket website or purchased at the box office on the day of the event.

Concept and workshop guidance: Betty Ndoye, Débora Caro Reyes, Luise Bichler

* Access to the studio is unfortunately not barrier-free.

** Individuals who are unable to pay the regular fee may participate in the workshop at a reduced rate upon consultation. Just write to us and we will find a solution: vermittlung@hausamwaldsee.de

About the programme:
In preparation for and parallel to the exhibition Beverly Buchanan Weathering. With Ima-Abasi Okon, a seminar was jointly organised in the summer semester of 2025 by Menzel-Dach (Humboldt University of Berlin) and Kunst im Kontext (Berlin University of the Arts), under the direction of Jakob Schillinger and Karina Griffith. The seminar focused on exploring Buchanan’s work in relation to the history and present of Black diasporic art in Germany. Conceived as a practice-oriented course, it provided students with a platform to develop proposals for a public programme to accompany the exhibition at Haus am Waldsee. The outcomes will be presented at Haus am Waldsee from December 12 to 14.

We would like to thank all students: Adi Levy Astrhan, Nahed Awwad, Sophie Beck, Jenny Contreras, Layla Gysin, Pascale Espinosa, Selda Haferkamp, Derek Kacirek, Elia Keinprecht, Montika Kham-on, Sena Tabea Nehme, Betty Ndoye, Débora Caro Reyes , Valerie Sinreich, Cecilia Tosh and Patricio Trim.

Beatrice Hilke, Curator, will guide visitors through the current exhibition Beverly Buchanan. Weathering, with Ima-Abasi Okon. The tour will be held in German. Participation is included in the exhibition ticket.

As part of Family Sunday at Haus am Waldsee, we will walk through the exhibition Beverly Buchanan. Weathering, with Ima-Abasi Okon together and explore the colourful drawings and wooden sculptures by artist Beverly Buchanan. Her small huts tell the story of how people use their strength and imagination to shape their homes and lives, and at the same time, the obstacles they encounter in doing so. Inspired by her work, you will then design your own huts. Who lives in your little house?

Max. 20 people. Ages 4 and up, accompanied by parents.

*Free ticket for children under 18. The ticket includes admission to the exhibition.
Booking information: A maximum of 2 tickets for adults and 4 tickets for children can be booked per transaction. For larger groups, we kindly ask you to make multiple bookings.

In German.
Facilitated by: Luise Bichler

Note on accessibility

Dear visitors,
Haus am Waldsee has limited accessibility. If you have any questions about accessibility on Family Sunday, please email us at: vermittlung@hausamwaldsee.de. We will do our best to find solutions for your visit!

Anna Gritz, Director, will guide visitors through the current exhibition Beverly Buchanan. Weathering, with Ima-Abasi Okon. The tour will be held in German. Participation is included in the exhibition ticket.

Karina Griffith, Professor of Intersectional Visual and Media Theory (Berlin University of the Arts), will guide visitors through the current exhibition Beverly Buchanan. Weathering. With Ima-Abasi Okon. The tour will be conducted in German. Participation is included in the exhibition ticket.