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As always, Read My World set the tone. That Friday, with the conversation between co-curator Maboula Soumahoro and Rokhaya Diallo, the standards for being ‘in conversation’ were lifted sky-high. Be sure to check Read My World.nl for impressions of it. For a great part, the warmth of their conversation springs from a decade-long Sisterhood. As hosts, moderators, interviewers, etc. we’ll speak to many people who we don’t share that connection with. But, what we can do… correction… what we must (continue to) do, is deep-dive and nerd-out and sit with the work of our guests in such a way that we match, or at least come real-real close to those levels of knowing. I’m excited to continue studying the works of Manyaku Mashilo and Larry Achiampong. And, I look forward to our two programs making me feel the way Soumahoro and Diallo’s conversation made me feel: Full. Inspired. And with a face warmed by laughter.

At Rest: A conversation with Manyaku Mashilo
Manyaku Mashilo is a Cape Town-based artist whose multidimensional practice encompasses mixed-media painting, drawing, and collage. Born in Limpopo in 1991, she addresses themes of spiritual identity, memory, ancestry, community and belonging. Mashilo draws on inspiration from photographic archives to build expansive scenes where imagined representatives of Blackness migrate through abstract liminal spaces. These scenes act as celestial cartographies, connecting the depicted Black figures through a felt mutuality of heritage, spirituality, shared ritual and intent.

The basics
Date and time: Wednesday October 22, 19.30u-21.00u.
Location: Theater Bellevue (Amsterdam, close to Leidseplein and Overtoom).
Tickets: €6,50, €9,50 and €15 via this Theater Bellevue-link.

GembertheeSessies with Larry Achiampong
Speaking of artists who make me dream of co-owning a gallery which also has a cinema and a theatre room: Larry Achiampong. I remember seeing only the stills of his film Wayfinder and thinking: “What a wonder to have your journey imagined by someone who loves in landscapes.” And, guessing that this film came from the mind of a person who loves videogames. Since then, I’ve followed his work with great excitement. His book “If It Don’t Exist, Build It” is a favourite on my bookshelves.

Larry Achiampong’s projects employ film, still imagery, aural and visual archives, live performance, objects, sound and game design to explore ideas surrounding class, gender, cross-cultural and digital identity. With works that examine his communal and personal heritage – in particular, the intersection between popular culture and the residues of colonisation, Achiampong crate-digs the vaults of history. These investigations examine constructions of ‘the self’ through the activity of splicing the audible and visual materials of personal and interpersonal archives,
offering multiple perspectives that reveal the deeply entrenched inequalities in contemporary society.

The basics
Date and time: Thursday November 13, 19.00u-21.00u.
Location: Bijlmer Parktheater, Amsterdam.
Tickets: €12,50 via BijlmerParktheater.nl 

Theatre recommendations
– Strange Fruit’s, by Sedrig Verwoert and Productiehuis Rotterdam. I was Blown. A-WAY. Please note: Theater De Schuur in Haarlem programmed a Q&A/conversation with Sedrig Verwoert after the play.
– Mimi’s Shebeen, by Alesandra Seutin and KVS. Two years ago, I went to Bruxelles twice to see it. And yes, I’m buying tickets to see it a third time. Excellent, just excellent.

Must watch
If you understand Dutch, be sure to watch Geen Surinamer in de straat (No Surinamese person in the street), the new episode of Andere Tijden featuring Bijlmer icons André Reeder and Ernestine Comvalius.