Crafting a Life: A Participatory Art Project on the Life and Legacy of Theodor Wonja Michael by Cheryl McIntosh and the Theodor Wonja Michael Library

Join us for a series of four participatory art workshops that invite you to engage, reflect, and create together. Inspired by the life of Theodor Wonja Michael (1925-2019)—a key figure in Afro-German history—this project weaves storytelling and textile art into a shared, collective experience.

Born during the Weimar Republic as the son of a Cameroonian father and an East Prussian mother, Michael’s life journey traversed some of the most violent and oppressive periods of German history. From being forced to perform in so called human zoos and appearing in Nazi propaganda films, to becoming a powerful voice after World War II as a journalist and author advocating for Black people in Germany—his story is one of resilience, resistance, and transformation. His autobiography, Deutsch Sein und Schwarz Sein (2015), remains a vital testimony and is part of our Library for Black Ecologies.

This project follows the Global Heritage Lab’s annual theme Ecologies of Memory and Practice. Together, we will trace how individual lives are shaped by —and shape in turn—the social, political, and economic environments around them.

Through collective making and storytelling, we invite you to engage with Afro-German history in an embodied, creative way, reflect on the interconnected “social ecologies” that shape lives, and contribute to a shared artistic process of remembrance and imagination.

The four workshops follow the seasons of life: Spring (Childhood), Summer (Coming of Age), Autumn (Adulthood), and Winter (Legacies) of Theodor Wonja Michael.

Dates:

• 21 June 2026, 15:00–17:00
• 12 July 2026, 15:00–17:00
• 13 September 2026, 15:00–17:00
• 25 October 2026, 15:00–17:00

Venue: Global Heritage Lab, P26, 1st Floor, Poststraße 26, 53111 Bonn

All workshop materials are provided. You are warmly invited to bring your own textiles, for example old clothes, to contribute to the collective artwork.

Entrance fee for P26: €4.50 / €2.50 (reduced)

Open to all, but registration required – please sign up a week before each event at ghlguide@uni-bonn.de.