Category Archives: Ginger Tea Sessions
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!
… makes me dream tall and feel in on things.
… speaking of great people with exciting mind: two notes.
1. Professor Guno Jones
Last Friday professor Guno Jones spoke of hope, protests, refusal and what he often refers to as citizenship violence. He did so for a most historic moment: his inaugural lecture as professor holding the Anton de Kom Chair of Amsterdam’s Vrije Universiteit (VU). The first professor to do so. Equally important: As someone who continuously gives proper credits to the activists and other radical thinkers whose work is fundamental for the critical knowledge production within Dutch academia. And, as someone who smashes these structural practices of erasing or under-crediting the work of Afro-Surinamese scholars of his generation and over.
As we speak, I’m trying to find the right words to properly describe the absolute amazingness of last week’s event. While searching, I’d like to share some of his articles and essays that can be read online. For free:
– Citizenship Violence and the Afterlives of Dutch Colonialism: Re-reading Anton de Kom, published in Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism.
– Plantation Logics, Citizenship Violence and the Necessity of Slowing Down.
And, if you were also at the VU last week… be sure to speak on it. Share some of your notes. Really, we are our own best thing.
2. Upcoming event: lynnée denise’s Sound System Ecologies with Anesu Chigariro (Zimbabwe), Torkwase Dyson (US) at Bijlmer Parktheater.
On Wednesday July 10, DJ lynnée denise is bringing Sound System Ecologies to the Bijlmer, a place where many of Amsterdam’s sharpest listeners have tuned their ears. In collaboration with Bijlmer Parktheater’s GembertheeSessies, denise is curating a program focused on intimate conversations and reflections on creative processes and practices.Sound System Ecologies is concerned with questions pertaining the intersections of music, enslavement, and Black spatiality.
The evening will feature frameworks and perspectives from visual artist Torkwase Dyson, with Anesu Chigariro as the moderator. Torkwase Dyson (Beacon, US) describes herself as a painter working across multiple mediums to explore the continuity between ecology, infrastructure, and architecture. Anesu Chigariro (Harare, Zimbabwe) is an editor in sexual and reproductive health education and a community and health psychology practitioner. She is an aspirant narrative medicine scholar with a focus on social and behaviour change communication, contemporary critical theory and visual culture.
Check the program page on Bijlmer Parktheater’s website for the full bio’s and the ticket link. The theatre’s productional team would very much appreciate it if people who’ll attend the program buy their tickets in advance.
The title of this note is from Toni Morrison’s novel Jazz: “I’m crazy about this City. Daylight slants like a razor cutting the buildings in half. In the top half I see looking faces and it’s not easy to tell which are people, which the work of stonemasons. Below is a shadow where any blasé thing takes place: clarinets and lovemaking, fists and the voices of sorrowful women. A city like this one makes me dream tall and feel in on things.”
Banel & Adama, HipHopHuis, Gember & Rooibos
Banel & Adama
“A new generation of film makers, strong-willed and with a superb mastery of technics is born. A relief troop.”
– Sembène Ousmane in ‘Cinema as evening school’, his preface in L’Afrique et le Centenaire du Cinema/Africa and the Centenary of Cinema.
Banel & Adama is a stereotype-free, stroll-paced unfolding of a love story disrupted by expectations. Its scenery centres around the steadiness of traditions and the rush of tragedies accelerated by capitalism. Or, more specifically: gender norms and the climate crisis. As an heir to Djibril Diop Mambèty’s infamous remixing of cinema’s grammar, director Ramata-Toulaye Sy masterfully takes us from a honey-sweet lovin’ to a magic-realist sobering.
Khady Mane, who plays Banel, is captivating in her portrayal of a new bride who’s trying her best to preserve a dream that’s close to being reality-checked to a halt. Mamadou Diallo is ever so gracious in his portrayal of Adama, a young husband figuring out how to not just carry but properly balance the inherited into its future.
Since attending its première at this year’s edition of International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s masterpiece has been on my mind. With its gorgeous cinematography plus its perfectly scored moments of quiet and consideration, Banel & Adama gives us the Tonimorrison-esque narration that matches our imagination. Truly, a relief.
HipHopHuis + Gember &… Rooibos – episode 1 of 7.
On Saturday March 9 (15.00h-17.00h), Adrian Van Wyk and I will join the Rotterdam fam for a conversation about the short documentary What the Soil Remembers. We’ll do so as part of the first HipHopHuis-based edition of the GembertheeSessies (Ginger tea sessions), co-hosted by HipHopHuis and Bijlmer Parktheater. HipHopHuis has been a home for a good 20 years. Their interest in co-hosting a GembertheeSessies is an absolute honour. Tickets for this gathering can be bought via this link.
After this event, Van Wyk and I will move our conversation back to my sofa and dinner table. From there, we’ll edit chunks of it into episode one of a 7-part podcast series: Gember &… . Episode 1 -Gember & Rooibos- will centre around the following:
– The Kitchen (film)
– Banel & Adama (film)
– The Mother of All Lies (film)
– Rye Lane (film)
– Cécile McLorin Salvant’s concert in Brussel
– The concert of the Asher Gamedze Quartet in Rotterdam
IFFR
Being part of the IFFR press crew this year was great. I was honoured and overjoyed to be part of a festival that’s so dear to me. Special mention to Lyse Ishimwe. (blows dancehall airhorn)
Picture 1: Still from Banel & Adama.
Picture 2: Still from the videoclip for Asher Gamedze‘s Wynter Time
laZeefuik 
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