Category Archives: Programs / events

Speaking of ginger tea… – upcoming events

… come share some good spices at Bijlmer Parktheater in February and March. The first two guests of this year’s GembertheeSessies (Ginger tea sessions) are Romana Vrede (Thu. February 6) and Shehera Grot (Thu. April 10). Both sessions will be in Dutch. Same for the Anton de Kom Vandaag-program on Sat. February 1. Horror-fam and thriller-folks: My first English program of the year will be BPTUnpacks: Social Thrillers on Thu. March 6.

If you already know you’ll be there… I beg, get your tickets in our pre-sale. This gives our colleagues from our production, reception and bar teams the opportunity to properly prepare for each program. And since we’re working with fresh-fresh ginger tea… an indication of the number of visitors would be great. Ticket links are posted below:
Timeline
– Saturday Feb. 1, 15.00h: Anton de Kom Vandaag. With: Guno Jones, Sarah-Jane & Bijlmer Bookstore. This program is in collaboration with the Anton de Kom Chair (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam).
– Thursday Feb. 6, 19.30h: GembertheeSessies with actor, director and writer Romana Vrede.
– Thursday Mar. 6, 19.30h: BPTUnpacks Social Thrillers. Line up to be announced. This conversation will be in English.
– Thursday Apr. 10, 19.30h: GembertheeSessies with curator and photographer Shehera Grot.
These event will take place at Bijlmer Parktheater (Anton de Komplein 240, Amsterdam).

Anton de Kom Vandaag (Dutch)
Known for his sharp-sharp, critical mind and thorough research, professor Guno Jones is our national treasure. Jones studied the impact of the histories of the Netherlands’ political discourse on citizenship, post-colonial migration, national identities and the legislation associated with it. Since December 2023, he’s professor of the Anton de Kom chair. On Saturday Feb. 1, he’ll connect Anton de Kom’s work with some of today’s most colonial forms of terror.
This program also features Sarah-Jane and the Bijlmer Bookstore.

These gorgeous illustration by Grant Jurius
The illustrations for Anton de Kom Vandaag and the two upcoming GembertheeSessies were made by Grant Jurius. Jurius is a painter, illustrator and sound artist who was born and is based in Cape Town, South Africa. He co-founded the Burning Museum Collective and Future Nostalgia. Check @sunofamantis for more on him.

Romana, Shehera and Grant –notes in the making.
Starting this year’s GembertheeSessies with Romana Vrede and Shehera Grot is a decision that deserves its own love note. These are two dear-dear friends who I love deeply. As sisters + as craftspeople, experts, dreamers and thinkers. Their minds are deliciously exciting. Writing about them makes me emotional in a way that got my words stuck in my pen.

I also feel that my note about why I invited Grant Jurius for a collaboration needs to marinate a bit.

Soon!



Next event: BPTUnpacks (Thu. November 28)

The upcoming edition of BPTUnpacks will focus on sculptures and statues of Black people in the public spaces of The Netherlands, Curaçao, Bonaire and St. Maarten. Guest programmer: Xiarella Lewis.

Date and time: Thursday Nov. 28, 19.30h-21.00h.
Location: Bijlmer Parktheater, Amsterdam.
Panellists: Aïda Sium, Ernestine Comvalius, Nawal Mustafa, Xiarella Lewis, Lisandro Suriel, Wayne Modest and myself.
Language presentation and conversations: Dutch.
Tickets price: €12,50.
Tickets for this edition can be bought here.
Image on the left: ‘Birth of Osupa’ by Lisandro Suriel.

Please note: The presentations and conversations during this edition of BPTUnpacks will be in Dutch. The next English editions of BPTUnpacks are:
– Thursday March 6, theme: Blackity Black horror.
– Friday May 2, theme: Toni Morrison’s non-fiction.

Next week: Read My World

It’s almost time for my favourite living-room-vibe literary festival: Read My World , the coziest! From Thursday September 12 until Saturday September 14 it will be a reunion of readers and writers at Amsterdam’s Tolhuistuin. The theme of this edition is “… such a beautiful spell” and abigail Campos Leal is our guest curator.
I’m writing “our” because a few weeks ago, the Read My World fam invited me to be part of the programming team. Such an honour!

I put together two programs that feature Jeanine van Berkel, Kelechi Okafor, Ayra Kip and Sharona Lautoe as panelists. Adiam Tseggai will be the moderator for both conversations:
“… because we’re ours – a room for the settlin’ of spells” on Friday Sept. 13
and
“Translatory” on Saturday Sept. 14.

“… because we’re ours…” was inspired by Nina Simone’s I Put A Spell On You and the title “Translatory” was borrowed from one of my favourite poems by Mahogany L. Browne. She reads it during this poetry set; the poem starts around 18:17.