«To speak of pride recalls, to me, a curious aspect of German cultural consciousness: that which is bound up with the ingrained and externalized shame for the wrongful aspects of the nation’s history. Learning of the word, Sündenstolz—a morally hubristic pride of one’s relation to their sins—evokes a sardonic humor in me. For what else do the many national monuments to imperial and fascist repentance represent, if not a self-awareness of wrongness made right, a self-congratulation?»

Logan February, born in Anambra, Nigeria, is a poet, essayist, songwriter and music critic, and the author of the volumes In the Nude (Ouida Poetry, 2019) and Mannequin in the Nude (PANK Books, 2020). They are a fellow of the DAAD artist’s program in 2023–4.

Unabridged version of Logan February’s Essay from Berlin Review Reader 1, Summer 2024, read by the author.
Length 30:16 minutes

Content

• 00:00  Introduction
• 00:51  Most of All I Feel Lonely
• 08:07  This Paradox of Common Ground
• 13:18  They No Longer Produce an Echo, They Are Lost
• 20:54  I Make My Way by Resounding Some Truth

Published in print in Berlin Review Reader 1, Summer 2024 and online in Berlin Review No 5. Please consider subscribing under blnreview.de/en/abo.

«Berlin Review Audio» is supported by the Berlin Senate Departement of Culture.