Author Archives: Zeefuik
Sonic Alignments 1: Cape Town jazz & kawina
From Leonor González Mina and Sathima Bea Benjamin to Ronald Snijders, Toumani Diabaté and Aziza Brahim to Peter Tosh… The idea for Sonic Alignments sparked between self-made playlists, the pages of theater scripts, telephone conversations, memories of concerts and tables with food… many tables with very good food. This first edition will be about Cape Town jazz and kawina.
Date, location: Thu. March 6, Bijlmer Parktheater (Amsterdam)
Speakers: Denise Jannah, Dylan Valley (Cape Town), Grant Jurius (Cape Town), Marlon ‘MrJetFly’ Francis and Wayne Modest.
Program schedule
19.00h-20.10h: Part 1, a conversation with Denise Jannah, Dylan Valley, Grant Jurius and MrJetFly.
20.10h-20.40h: Break, including iftar. At Bijlmer Parktheater, we’re offering spaces to do wudu and pray.
20.40h-21.45h: Part 2, listening session with Dylan Valley, Grant Jurius and Wayne Modest.
Location: Bijlmer Parktheater (address: Anton de Komplein 240, Amsterdam).
Tickets: Please use this link to buy your tickets in our pre-sale. Buying your tickets in advance gives our teams and the chefs who’ll make food for iftar enough time to prepare.
Sonic Alignments is a collaboration between Wereldmuseum Amsterdam, Research Center For Material Culture and BPTUnpacks, a Bijlmer Parktheater label. In this series, DJs, musicians and vocalists discuss the sonic works that form the soundtracks to their senses of belonging. During the first edition on Thursday, March 6 in Bijlmer Parktheater’s theatre hall, we’ll listen to the sonic conversations between South African jazz and kawina, traditional music from Suriname.
The first hour of the program consists of presentations on the histories and similarities between South African jazz and kawina. After a break where we’ll provide iftar and spaces to pray, Dylan Valley and Grant Jurius will host a listening session. During this session we’ll closely listen to the jazz songs discussed in the first part of the program. Wayne Modest will give his reflections on the work.
About the speakers
Denise Jannah , Singer, vocal coach, actor and jazz icon.
Dylan Valley , film maker, lecturer at the University of Cape Town and part of Future Nostalgia.
Grant Jurius , visual artist and part of Future Nostalgia.
Marlon ‘MrJetFly’ Francis , musician, producer and co-founder of both Future Kawina and 4TheCulture.
Initiators
– Carine Zaayman: Artist, curator, scholar whose work focuses on the afterlives of slavery and colonialism, particularly in the Cape.
– Wayne Modest: Director of Content of Wereldmuseum.
– and yours truly.
The illustration above was made by Grant Jurius. Jurius also made the illustrations for the Anton de Kom Vandaag program + the GembertheeSessies with Romana Vrede and Shehera Grot.
IFFR 2025 – recommendations
For me, IFFR (International Film Festival Rotterdam) is a festival I just want to live in. This year it’s taking place from Thursday January 30 until Sunday February 9/ Here are some of the films and programs I’m excited about. In random order. Except for my top 3… which consists of number 1s:
– RTM Talk: Imagine the City Otherwise, Fri. Jan 31, 15.00h-16.00h, LantarenVenster
– The film I almost hopped on a train to London for: Hard Truths
– Big Talk: Cheryl Dunye & Albertina Carri, Tue. Feb 4, 20.00h-21.30h, De Doelen.
Like Hard Truths, the films below have multiple screening dates. The programs are all happening on one day.
– Currency
– Program: Tiger Talk: Futurisms , Sun. Feb 2, 17.00h-18.00h, De Doelen.
– Program: Tiger Talk: Through Cinema We Shall Rise , Sun. Feb 2, 18.30h-19.30h, De Doelen
– Katja Raganelli meets Agnès Varda
– The Tobacconist
– Bubbling Baby
– Dawn of a New Day: The Man Behind VHS
– Freedom for Ghana
– Program: Archive Fever
– Hobi
– Ndar, Saga Waalo
– Our Father – The Last Days of a Dictator
Wishing you great times in Rotterdam’s cinema’s.
If you’re reading this and:
– you like to discusssss Blackity Black social thrillers and horror films
ànd
– you are in or can come to Amsterdam Bijlmer on the evening of Thursday March 6… save the date. Which… is Thursday March 6. I’m putting together the first BPTUnpacks of the new year. More info next week.
From Benjamin Clementine and Dakar to Rdam Zuid – Romana Vrede
(English translations below)
“Vrede weet van dimensies. Ze maakt ruimtes voor onze codes omdat ze niet alleen de klank maar ook de grammatica van onze visuele talen kent. En, spreekt. En, is. Vrede weet van diepte. Niet als dal. Maar, als standplaats vanaf waar ze bergen verzet.”
(Notitie uit een gedicht dat ik ooit las voor het meest stille gezelschap waar ik ooit ‘Goedenavond’ tegen zei.)
GembertheeSessies met Romana Vrede – info
Op donderdag 6 februari opent Romana Vrede de GembertheeSessies van 2025. Vrede schuift aan om haar decennia-dikke carrière, werkprocessen, referentiekaders en aankomend werk te bespreken. We gaan van Race, Benjamin Clementine en OustFaust naar The Story of Travis, van Den Haag en Dakar naar Rotterdam-Zuid. En, we blikken vooruit op haar komende projecten: het theaterstuk Sisterhood en de publicatie Tijd Zal Ons Leren, haar 3e boek.
Tijd: 19.30 uur-21.00 uur.
Locatie: Bijlmer Parktheater.
Gedurende het programma serveren we, in samenwerking met Labyrinth Amsterdam, verse gemberthee. Om er zeker van te zijn dat we iedereen meerdere rondes thee kunnen bieden, verzoeken we iedereen hun kaarten in de voorverkoop te halen. Tickets kunnen gekocht worden via deze link.
Grant Jurius en Shehera Grot
Deze GembertheeSessies-illustratie is gemaakt door Grant Jurius. De derde persoon op de illustratie, linksboven, is fotograaf en curator Shehera Grot. De GembertheeSessies met Grot vindt plaats op do. 10 april van 19.30 uur-21.00 uur. Tickets voor deze sessie zijn te koop via deze link. Taal: Nederlands.
Eind januari deel ik de notes over Shehera en Grant + de line-up voor de aankomende BPTUnpacks over social thrillers en horror bekend gemaakt. De presentaties en conversaties tijdens dit programma zullen in het Engels zijn.
Voor wie eens per drie weken per mail een stuk (note, essay, review, etc.) wil ontvangen, is er de mailinglist. Check de zwarte button rechts boven op de homepage. En, eerlijk… ik spam never!
— English translation —
Please note: The conversations during the GembertheeSessies (Ginger tea sessions) with Romana Vrede will be in Dutch. Unfortunately, we don’t yet have the means to offer live translations.
Romana Vrede
“Vrede does dimensions. She creates spaces for our codes because she the tone and the grammar of our visual languages is what she knows. And speaks. And is. Vrede knows depths. Not as pits. But, as a base from where she moves mountains.”
(Note from a poem I once read fort he most quiet group of folks I ever said ‘Good evening’ to.)
GembertheeSessies with Romana Vrede – info
On Thursday January 6, Romana Vrede kicks of the GembertheeSessies (Ginger tea sessions) of 2025. Vrede joins us to discuss her decades-thick career, work processes, frames of reference and upcoming work. We’ll go from Race, Benjamin Clementine and OustFaust to The Story of Travis, from The Hague and Dakar to South Rotterdam. And, we’ll talk about her upcoming projects: Sisterhood (play) and Tijd zal ons leren (book), for example.
Time: 19.30h-21.00h.
Location: Bijlmer Parktheater, Amsterdam.
During the program, and in collaboration with Labyrinth Amsterdam, we serve fresh ginger tea. To make sure we can offer folks multiple rounds of tea, we kindly ask people to buy their tickets in advance. Tickets can be bought here.
Grant Jurius en Shehera Grot
The GembertheeSessies-illustration (to be seen in the Dutch text above) is made by Grant Jurius. Top left we see curator and photographer Shehera Grot. Her GembertheeSessies takes place on Thursday April 10, from 19.30h-21.00h. Tickets for this session can be bought here. Language: Dutch.
Later this month, I’ll share the notes about Shehera and Grant. I’ll also announce the line-up for the upcoming BPTUnpacks about social thrillers/horror. The presentations and conversations during this program will be in English.
If you’d like to receive a 3-weekly e-mail with a piece (note, essay, review, etc.), be sure to join the mailing list. To do so, check the black button on the top right of the homepage. And, honestly… I never spam!
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