Category Archives: Afri-/Afrodiasporic communities in the Netherlands
Event: #BPTUnpacks – Black sculptures and statues in public spaces, September 7.
“I’m in need of our visibility to not depend on our physical presence. And, I long for a visibility that’s centered around a recognition that actually brings us joy. Or at least a soothing, a relief that doesn’t require or remind us of a wrecking.” – Simone Zeefuik in Operatic Stillness, the first part of her twofold piece about Thomas J Price’s sculpture Moments Contained.
Paris, London, Rotterdam and Amsterdam all have rather significant numbers of Black residents. But, what would be left of this Black presence if none of the Black folks are physically outside? For our September 7-edition of #BPTUnpacks we’ll focus on sculptures and statues that represent Black people ánd are made by Black artists. Through their presentations and a panel conversation, five speakers will discuss some of their favourite works and imagine what they’d like to see.
Date and time: Thursday September 7, 19.30h.
Location: Bijlmer Parktheater (address: Anton de Komplein 240, 1102 DR Amsterdam).
Tickets: Please use this link to buy your tickets in advance. Tickets: 13 euro in total.
Line up
We’ll start our program with UK based digital sculptor, writer, researcher and curator Rayvenn D’Clark (London) who’ll talk about the craft of sculpting and her current practice. Aruna Vermeulen (Rotterdam), Simone Lagrand (Paris), Sarah Ozo-Irabor (Books&Rhymes, London) and Simone Zeefuik (Bijlmer) will discuss the importance of sculptures and statues depicting both everydayness and legacies in their respective cities. Lashaaawn (Amsterdam) and Ernestine Comvalius (Bijlmer) will imagine the kind of sculptures and/or statues they’d like to see. After their individual presentations, they’ll join each other in a conversation about craft and Blackity Black (re)imaginations.
The need for Afro-Dutch reviewers: PaarsPaars and upcoming event
On Friday November 11 Romana Vrede, Ira Kip and I launched PaarsPaars (PurplePurple), the space where Blackity Black thinkers reflect, share and cultivate conversations about Black art in the Netherlands. We started with an open letter to our kinfolk: A note about the need for Black reviewers. During the #BPTUnpacks event at Bijlmer Parktheater on Friday December 2, we’ll gather to discusssss. We’ll unpack a variety of Dutch theatre reviews and (re)imagine the kind of conversations the work of Afro-Dutch theatre makers, choreographers and playwrights truly deserves. Please note: The presentations and conversations during this event will be in Dutch.
#BPTUnpacks event info
Date and location: Friday December 2, Bijlmer Parktheater (Amsterdam).
Time: Doors open at 19.10h, we start at 19.30h sharp-sharp.
Presentations by: Ernestine Comvalius, Emilie van Heydoorn, Ira Kip, Richard Kofi and yours truly.
For our panel we’ll be joined by: José Montoya.
Tickets: Click this link to buy tickets for #BPTUnpacks on Friday December 2 .
Excerpts from our note:
‘From Eurocentric expectations and a less than minimal knowledge of Black arts to the use of terms like “gorilla” to describe Black performers… In its current form, the world of Dutch reviews has nothing to offer creators like us. It’s horrendous to witness how, time and time again, various art editors try to suffocate this work that is so important to us by squeezing it into the narrowest forms of whiteness. Horrendous and beyond boring. (…) We need reviews and reflections that inspire Afro-Dutch makers to further strengthen, deepen and broaden their artistic signatures. We long for art criticism and other forms of reflections that don’t just fit our imagination, involvement and expertise, but that also emerge from them. (…) Our imagination, our joy, our rest, our worries, our commitment, our knowledge, our curiosity, our history, our now, our future, our spectacles and our everydayness deserve more in depth conversations. Our future makers deserve an archive in which they see us and themselves reflected in pieces that are written by us. We can’t trust anybody else with this responsibility. To remix Toni Morrison: “We are our own best thing.”’
Instah fam, be sure to follow @paarsispaars for all your updates. The note will soon be translated in English. Click here for the full version (in Dutch).
Afro-Nederlandse Studies at Bijlmer Parktheater
(This text is about the upcoming Afro-Dutch Studies event at Bijlmer Parktheater. The event will be in Dutch but I’ll write an English piece about this marvelous initiative by Zawdie Sandvliet later this month.)
Afro-Nederlandse Studies bij het Bijlmer Parktheater (Amsterdam) – Call for pitches
Zat. 18 januari organiseert Zawdie Sandvliet i.s.m. het Bijlmer Parktheater van 18.00 uur – 19.30 uur het Afro-Nederlandse Studies evenement. Locatie: Bijlmer Parktheater. Kaarten zijn via deze link te koop.
Het programma geldt als afsluiting van de tweede reeks lessen van het door Sandvliet geïnitieerde vak dat zich richt op de geschiedenissen en hedendaagse realiteiten van de Afro-Nederlandse gemeenschappen. In 2018 vonden de lessen plaats op de Universiteit van Amsterdam, in 2019 was het vak onderdeel van het curriculum op de Hogeschool van Amsterdam.
Als onderdeel van het aankomende event denken Sandvliet en zijn gastdocenten na over de uitbreiding van het vak. Wilt u/ wil je meedenken? In het programma hebben we ruimte voor drie korte presentaties/pitches van ieder max. twee minuten waarbij drie personen op basis van hun geleefde ervaringen vertellen welk onderwerp echt niet mag ontbreken bij het vak Afro-Nederlandse Studies.
Het insturen van een idee kan door het sturen van een e-mail naar afronlstudies@gmail.com. Vermeld in (jo)uw e-mail:
– Voor- en achternaam/namen
– Leeftijd
– Woonplaats
– De omschrijving van het onderwerp (minimaal 75, maximaal 125 woorden).
– Link naar (jo)uw persoonlijke Twitter, Instagram, Facebook of LinkedIn pagina zodat we een indruk hebben van wie we uitnodigen. Niemand heeft tijd voor trolls of problematische personen.
Ideeën kunnen tot maandag 13 januari 23:59 uur worden ingestuurd. Personen die een voorstel indienen, horen dinsdag in de ochtend van woensdag 15 januari of ze zijn geselecteerd om te presenteren.
laZeefuik 
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