This comedy-drama explores racial prejudice, friendship and the complex relationship between a 72-year-old Jewish woman and her black chauffeur. Daisy Werthan is a retired school teacher and doesn’t want to accept she needs help when she crashes her car into her neighbour’s yard. Her son hires Hoke Colburn as her new driver. And although opposed […]

This play continues the story of Elliot, who returns to Philadelphia as a veteran after serving in Iraq. He suffers from PTSD and feels adrift, not knowing where to find meaning in his life. His job at Subway keeps him afloat financially, but when his adoptive mother passes away, his mental health crumbles. Meanwhile, Elliot’s […]

This dystopian comedy movie explores the power of media, commercialism and simulated reality. Truman has the all-American life: A loving wife, kids, a house complete with a picket fence… Then he starts noticing the occasional oddity. Whether it be his wife sounding like an infomercial or the people around him doing everything in their power […]

This Gothic novel explores the duality of human nature, crime and prosecution and the importance of the Victorian standard of reputation. When a new villain terrorises London’s citizens and causes a great stir, lawyer Utterson faces a great riddle which keeps him awake at night. He discovers a connection between the violent misdeeds of the […]

Robinson Crusoe is the unreliable narrator of this travelogue from Restauration and Enlightenment referred to as the first English novel. The protagonist decides to go to sea against his father’s will and becoming quite a successful merchant in the colonies abroad. One day, he is shipwrecked and finds himself on a lonely island where he […]

This classic gothic crime story about murder and vindication, guilt, and insanity starts in medias res: The unnamed, unreliable narrator describes in retrospect that he was haunted by the idea of murdering his old landlord. After committing the murder, he cleverly hid the body underneath the floorboards, praising himself for committing the almost perfect crime […]

This heart-warming, illustrated story follows a lion who visits a library for the first time. Indeed, “there are rules about shouting. And rules about running. But there aren’t any rules about lions!” After struggling with proper behaviour in the library, the lion soon makes friends and perfectly adapts to the new surroundings – he even uses his […]

This film drama based on the Jodi Picoult novel of the same name approaches medical ethics, sisterhood, isolation and hope. The story follows the unusual life of Anna Fitzgerald. Anna’s older sister Kate has acute promyelocytic leukaemia and, before Anna was born, struggled to find a genetic match for various donations. Anna was conceived via […]

This beautifully illustrated picture book of Langston Hughes’s “Dream Variations” (a poem published in 1926) explores the speaker’s vision of a society without racism, discrimination, segregation, and racial prejudice. Dancing through the ‘white day‘, representing dominant white society, and ‘flinging his arms widely‘ the speaker, a young African-American boy dreaming of equality, freedom and ease, […]

This spoken word poem by Darryll Suliaman Amoako aka ‘Suli Breaks’ deconstructs idealised notions of the ‘American Dream’ and addresses those people striving for success or the ‘pursuit of happiness’ at any cost. Reflecting upon the danger of spending to much time on unsatisfactory jobs and losing oneself the ‘rat race’ from ‘rags to riches’, […]

This collection of poetry on depression, family, love, heartbreak, suffering and healing provides the reader with an authentic insight into the speaker’s struggle with a mental health issue. Sabrina Benaim’s poetry makes the reader aware of existing stigmata, stereotypes and discrimination of people with depression – also providing us with the notion that life and […]

In this poetry slam, three teenage voices tackle topics some would not even want to speak of – rape, racism, social stratification, education and equality. The spoken word poem offers perspectives on current affairs in the US from a teenage perspective and critically reflects the US school system. The empowering and passionate lines of Belissa […]

This action movie about tradition and change, African and African American representation, power structures and sovereignty marks the first film of the superhero genre with a predominantly black cast and reminds us, that “[…] in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers.” Set in Wakanda, a technologically advanced nation in East […]

Set in Germany during World War II, this historical novel follows the coming of age story of Liesel Meminger. Surrounded by hatred and destruction, Liesel struggles to maintain the innocence of childhood. Her foster parents take in a Jewish man, Hans, and hide him from the authorities. Hans teaches Liesel to read, and she goes […]

Based on the famous Spider-Man comic, this animated, adventure-action film on adversity, resilience, collectivity and empowerment follows Miles Morales, an everyday, regular, normal boy – until he gets bitten by a radioactive spider and gains superpowers. When Peter Parker aka ‘the real’ Spider-Man dies, it is on Miles to save the world from the devastating […]

A poem about responsibly shaping a future between diversity and unity, this optimistic work by 22-year-old Gorman took the world by storm when she presented it at US-President Biden’s inauguration ceremony. It is both an honest depiction of the challenges her country faces – racial injustice as well as threats to both health and democracy […]

This adventurous, young adult Sci-Fi novel about friendship, love, self-perspective and superpowers follows the almost ordinary life of Mikey how struggles to accept that he is ‘just’ an average kid in a small town. Mikey is unsure, whether his life is worth living because he has not done anything extraordinary or achieved something great in […]

Based on a true story, this novel explores paranoia, ideological obsession, the damaged American psyche and the Sovereign citizen movement – a militant group of people who regard US laws and law enforcement as illegitimate. Set in contemporary Northern California, the narration follows Adam, the son of Vietnam veteran Sten Stenson and his much older […]