in my hands I carry

“You may talk about permanent peace till doomsday, but the world will never have it until the dark races in the world are given a square deal.” – Mary Church Terrell, 1919.

The Afro-American women’s and civil rights activist Mary Church Terrell was the only Black participant at the International Women’s Conference in Berlin in 1904 and at the second Women’s Peace Congress in Zurich in 1919. The daughter of freed slaves, she thus attended the same conferences as the Munich lawyer Anita Augspurg and her partner, the pacifist Lida Gustava Heymann. At the height of colonisation and in the presence of all the white middle-class suffragettes, Mary Church Terrell stood up for the rights of Black people and PoC around the world. At the same time, her biography, speeches and writings can be read as detailed accounts of how racism works.

Over a century later, we are still working to decolonise public spaces. In response to Mary Church Terrell, “in my hands I carry” presents gestures and attitudes of an occupation and disruption of a white space: the foyer of a municipal theatre built in 1901.

“in my hands I carry” can be visited independently or in combination with “Anti War Women”. “in my hands I carry” will be enacted before select performances of “Anti War Women” in repertory.
The performative intervention takes place predominantly in the foyers of the Schauspielhaus and can be visited with free admission and without prior registration. The last part at the Schauspielhaus is addressed to the audience of “Anti War Women” and can only be visited with a ticket for the performance.

Photo: Judith Buss

Photo: Judith Buss

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