Michael Küppers-Adebisi
AFROTAK cyberNomads
Born in Krefeld in 1965 and grew up in North Rhine-Westphalia and Minnesota/USA. He studied literature and philosophy at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf from 1988 to 1995, postmodern literature and African-American literature in the USA in 1989, and poetry and performance at the Düsseldorf Art Academy from 1993 to 1996. In 1996, he was the first Afro-German poet to represent the Federal Republic of Germany as a literary ambassador at the Goethe-Institut New York at the Deutsch Nuorican Poetry Festival. In 1996 and 2002 he completed training as a multimedia, interactive video and DVD producer.
For the Federal Agency for Civic Education and the Initiative Black People in Germany he realized as project manager three international, African media congresses in cooperation with Goethe Institute (2002), Heinrich Böll Foundation (2003) and House of World Cultures (2004). With the May-Ayim-Award he initiated the "First Black German International Literature Award" in Berlin in 2004 under the patronage of UNESCO Germany.
In 2005 he received the ADLER Entrepreneurship Award of the African Youth Foundation in the category Best NGO and an honorable mention at the Bremen Peace Prize 2006. With Lost Tribes of Afrika (1995), THEBLACKBOOK (2004) and May Ayim Award (2004) he has repeatedly published on Black Culture in Germany and was responsible editor for the online dossier African Diaspora in Germany of the Federal Agency for Civic Education.
In 2006, Black Heritage magazine honored him as one of the 50 most important Afro-Germans. At the multi-media competition of Haus der Kulturen der Welt and RBB Berlin on the topic of culinary collisions, he received the audience award in 2011 for the video contribution of AFROTAK TV cyberNomads "If the people have nothing to eat, let them eat cake".
Michael Küppers-Adebisi has spent many years abroad in search of a basis for his work and has returned home. So it is time for him to take stock of what is currently possible in exchange with like-minded people.