Blackness and Identity-Making in Popular Music: Film Screening of Milli Vanilli and Conversation with Alexander Ghedi Weheliye and Matthew D. Morrison (off-site)

This event does not require registration; see further details below.

Note that this event is organized by and takes place at the Goethe-Institut Boston, an off-site location in Boston. For questions regarding the event, please contact the Goethe-Institut Boston directly (contact information below).

We encourage visitors to our special exhibition Made in Germany? Art and Identity in a Global Nation to attend a special screening of the film Milli Vanilli followed by a conversation at the Goethe-Institut Boston.

The documentary Milli Vanilli (MRC and Keep on Running Pictures) tells the story of the popular musical duo Robert “Rob” Pilatus and Fabrice “Fab” Morvan. Pilatus and Morvan became fast friends during their youth in Germany, and they shared a similar upbringing and future goal: to become famous superstars. In a few short years, their dreams came true.

In 1989, their first album went platinum six times in the United States, and the hit song “Girl You Know It’s True” sold more than 30 million singles worldwide. However, their ascension to success came with a devastating price, which ultimately led to their infamous undoing.

Following the film screening, a conversation will take place between professor Alexander Ghedi Weheliye (Brown University) and professor Matthew D. Morrison (New York University). Taking the 2023 documentary as the starting point, their discussion will focus on the role of Blackness and identity-making in the history of German popular music. Milli Vanilli’s late 1980s racialized performance fits into a longer tradition of the performance of Blackness and Blackface in Germany during 1970s and 1980s Eurodisco. In this context, Blackness forms an integral part of how Germany imagines itself in relation to the rest of the world. With the help of sound samples, Weheliye and Morrison will offer insight into issues of cultural appropriation that have plagued popular music in Germany and the United States for decades.

Speakers:
Alexander Ghedi Weheliye is the Malcolm S. Forbes Professor in the Department of Modern Culture and Media and the Brown Arts Institute at Brown University, where he teaches critical theory, Black literature and culture, gender and sexuality studies, social technologies, and popular culture.

Matthew D. Morrison, a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, is an associate professor in the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

About the film:
Milli Vanilli, 2023 (dir. Luke Korem; MRC and Keep on Running Pictures; English; 106 min.)

Admission to this film at the Goethe-Institut Boston is free, but seating is limited. Registration is encouraged but not required. Please visit the Goethe Institut Boston website for more information. For any questions, contact Karin Oehlenschlaeger at Karin.Oehlenschlaeger@goethe.de at the Goethe-Institut Boston.

Made in Germany? Art and Identity in a Global Nation is on view at the Harvard Art Museums from September 13, 2024 through January 5, 2025.

The Harvard Art Museums are committed to accessibility for all visitors. For anyone requiring accessibility accommodations for our programs, please contact us at am_register@harvard.edu at least 48 hours in advance.