Der Black Atlantic is the first ever compilation of texts and visual materials from various genres and disciplines examining the idea of the Black Atlantic to be published in the German-speaking world.

In addition to original essays by the curators (Paul Gilroy, Tina Campt, and Fatima El-Tayeb) and interviews with the artists (Isaac Julien, Keith Piper, Lisl Ponger, Tim Sharp, Jean-Paul Bourelly, and Ismael Ivo), it contains scholarly and poetic texts by internationally renowned thinkers and poets who are concerned with black history and histories in Europe and across the globe, while reflecting their impact on the rest of the world on different levels. Some of the topics addressed within this context are the significance and form of Caribbean historiography, Cuban music, the origins of jazz, the importance of the Haitian Revolution for Hegel’s philosophy, or how German postcards from the 1850s to 1930s reflect views of black culture. The publication seeks to read the history of the Black Atlantic against the grain, to trace the landscapes of sound and music, to examine the role of improvisation, and to analyze life in the Diaspora. The release of the book coincided with the interdisciplinary Black Atlantic project at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of World Cultures), which presented cultures in motion, highlighted networked identities, and told counter-histories. The Black Atlantic project takes as its historical starting point both the slave trade and the history of the modern African Diaspora in the Western world.

Berlin, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, 2004