Zaïre Krieger
(1995) is a poet, spoken word artist, activist, journalist and translator. In 2019, she received a SPOKEN Award as 'one of the most inspiring Dutch word artists of the moment'. Krieger's work expresses a call for justice and love. In 2020, she co-organised a Black Lives Matter protest in Rotterdam. Her performances are layered, rhythmic and sincere. She translated the poem The Hill We Climb recited by Amanda Gorman during Joe Biden's inauguration into Dutch. The bilingual edition was released in 2022. In 2023, also bilingual, Gorman's collection Call Us What We Carry was published in Krieger and Tirsa With's translation. In 2024, Krieger's bilingual poetry collection Chameleon will be published, about creating your own place to feel at home, allowing yourself to be multidimensional, about the opposition between activism and aesthetics, queerness and religion, loving and hating, about being Black in a white world.
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Playing with Fire: jubilee show 30 years Writers Unlimited
With: Abdelkader Benali, Babs Gons, Claudia Karapanou Flamenco Trio, Eli Wing, Joost Oomen, Koninklijk Conservatorium Dans, Rosabelle Illes, Saartje Van Camp, Shirma Rouse, Spinvis, XILLAN, Zaïre Krieger
Be warmed by the fire of writers, dancers and musical artists! Writers Unlimited presents Playing with Fire in Amare Den Haag, a show full of literature, music and dance in which words, rhythm, melody and movement meet.
For thirty years, Writers Unlimited has offered a stage to passionate and groundbreaking writers, poets, thinkers, musicians and other performers from the Netherlands and abroad during the International Literature Festival The Hague in January.
In honour of this anniversary, enjoy a unique line-up of artists and writers this wintery Sunday afternoon in the beautiful Danstheater auditorium of Amare Den Haag (a five-minute walk from The Hague Central Station).
Writers Unlimited asked well-known artists and authors to perform work in which fire in all its (concrete and abstract) guises - as the germ of artistry and source of inspiration, as a terrifying phenomenon or scorching love, as a symbol of revolution and struggle - takes centre stage.
And so, during Playing with Fire you will hear, see and experience existing and new material by a host of artists such as Spinvis (Erik de Jong) and cellist and singer Saartje Van Camp, and a performance by forty-five young dancers from the Royal Conservatoire Dance in Festina Lente by choreographer Tessa Cooke.
Writer and theatre-maker Joost Oomen will recite on the committed Spanish poet Federico García Lorca, pn being an artist in turbulent times and on 'duende' - a term from flamenco, one of the most passionate, fiery dance forms there is, of which you will see a beautiful sample by the Claudia Karapanou Flamenco Trio (i.c.w. Flamenco Biënnale Nederland). The trio is formed by Claudia Karapanou (dance), Lucas Arango (guitar) and Erminia Fernandez Cordoba (vocals).
Dutch pop artist and Queen of Soul Shirma Rouse performs warming songs from her repertoire and alternative R&B singer-songwriter XILLAN, singing and playing the piano, tells something about the fire under his yet-to-be-published novel. Poet Laureate of The Netherlands Babs Gons, spoken word artist Zaïre Krieger and Aruban artist, poet and performer Rosabelle Illes recite texts written especially for this show about what playing with fire means to them.
The programme will be closed by Pulse conducted by Eli Wing, a percussion formation that will not leave anyone sitting still. Pulse members are Mees Siderius (surdos and other percussion instruments), Remco Menting (cowbell and other percussion instruments), Ruben de Ruiter (conga's) and Mark Ooman (shakers). Writer Abdelkader Benali will guide you through the show and introduce the artists.
Festival motto: On Fire
The 30th festival edition's motto is On Fire. "Fire represents love, desire and passion, but also burning issues such as war, migration and climate," says Judith Uyterlinde, director of Writers Unlimited. "Fire is the source of inspiration for talks and readings on issues including freedom of expression, war and remembrance, gender and eroticism, and a host of other issues that ignite writers, poets and audiences."Festival tip: for the full festival experience, join us for the grand festival events Friday Night Unlimited (24 January) and Saturday Night Unlimited (25 January)! Both nights you choose your own route along some 20 performances, readings and conversations on five stages in Theater aan het Spui and Filmhuis Den Haag. English and Dutch spoken.
From 23 to 26 January 2025, Writers Unlimited International Literature Festival The Hague is to be found in theatres, libraries and schools throughout the city: from Theater aan het Spui, Filmhuis Den Haag, Amare and Paard to Theater Dakota, Theater De Vaillant, the Nieuw Waldeck, Schilderswijk and Ypenburg libraries and De Haagse Hogeschool. With over 120 writers, poets and spoken-word artists and musicians from the Netherlands and abroad. With readings, prose, poetry, storytelling, spoken word, author interviews, topical talks, films and music.
Playing with Fire is curated for Writers Unlimited Festival 2025 by Jet Steinz and is realised in cooperation with Amare, with contributions from the City of The Hague and the Dutch Foundation for Literature. -
Trans, Writing, Joy
Challenge your perception of Femininity and Masculinity and join us! This program is a celebration of Gender, Literature and Creative Energy.
Alvina Chamberland and Alara Adilow will read from their work and speak with Alejandra Ortiz about in what way these concepts define their work and their lives. After the conversation (in English) the venue will be turned into a Room of Joy, with music, dance and celebration of everyone's uniqueness featuring poet and spoken word-artist Zaïre Krieger, performer Patri Roa Johansen and DJ Shari Jae. Feel free to dance along!
Alara Adilow is a Somali poet and writer living in the Netherlands. Her poetry collection Mythen en stoplichten (Myths and Traffic Lights, 2022) was one of the most striking debuts of recent years. She has published poetry in Dutch literary publications, and works on her first novel Kijk es naar al dit licht (Look at all this light), to be published in 2025.
Alvina Chamberland is a Swedish-American author of predominantly literary autofiction novels, residing between Athens and Berlin. Through poetic prose, sharp social commentary and self-deprecating gallows humor her novel and English language debut Love the World or Get Killed Trying (2024) dives into the mind of Alvina, a trans woman on the eve of turning 30.
Zaïre Krieger is a poet, spoken word artist, activist, journalist and translator. Her performances are layered, rhythmic and sincere. She translated the poem The Hill We Climb recited by Amanda Gorman during Joe Biden's inauguration into Dutch. In 2025, Krieger's bilingual poetry collection Chameleon will be published, about creating your own place to feel at home and allowing yourself to be multidimensional.
Alejandra Ortiz is a trans woman refugee from Mexico who fled transphobia and violence. In The Netherlands she works toward a better life for trans persons, and especially for trans persons of colour -- with or without papers. Ortiz wrote the autobiographical De waarheid zal me bevrijden (The Truth Will Free Me, 2022) about her youth, her life as a transgender woman, and her quest for a safe place to be herself.
Patri Roa Johansen is a Colombian-Danish classically trained musician, a performance artist, and a trans community builder. Currently, he lives in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He is a member of Papaya Kuir, an intersectional feminist organization for and by Trans, Lesbian & Queer Latinx asylum seekers/migrants in The Netherlands. He is also a founding member of the award winning House of Løstbois, an Amsterdam-based drag king collective. Since 2019, Patri aka LatinX Charm, has done creative research on gender expression through realness drag.
Shari Jae has been the driving force of the T-Huis (Transhuis) in Amsterdam, a safe space for trans people in Amsterdam's Red Light District, since its inception. In 2024, she took a festive leave as coordinator. She remains committed to the target group. As a baby, she arrived in the Netherlands in the late 1960s from Biafra (now Nigeria), where a civil war was raging at the time. Growing up with foster parents, she never saw the effects of polio as an obstacle. When she was in her 40s, she made her gender transition. She has been an ambassador for Pride Amsterdam since 2021.
Trans, Writing, Joy is curated for Writers Unlimited Festival 2025 by Alejandra Ortiz and Shantie Singh.
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Language sparks - inspiring duos with poetry, music, dance and images
Writers Unlimited likes to make new connections between artists from different disciplines who then create something new together. In this unique, one-off programme Taalvonken, poetry, music and dance enter into dialogue with each other. Three duos present new work they created especially for this festival night at the request of Writers Unlimited. Note: Dutch spoken.
Witness how sparks fly between language and music, and between spoken word and dance. Singer-song poet on guitar Mirte Hartland interacts with poet Benzokarim.Poet and spoken word artist Rosabelle Illes enters into a dialogue with a new song by cellist, singer and theatre-maker Saartje Van Camp, taken from her new album In De Naam Van, to be released on 24 January.
Poet and spoken-word artist ZaÏre Krieger and dancer Shaquille George find each other in the movements of dance.
Taalvonken is curated for Writers Unlimited Festival 2025 by Ilonka Reintjens.
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Spotlight Festival: free sneak peek Writers Unlimited 2025 with spoken word and music in Amare
With: Francis Broekhuijsen, XILLAN, Zaïre Krieger
At the Spotlight Festival, on Saturday afternoon September 7 2024, from 14:00 to 14:30 at Amare in The Hague (free admission), Zaïre Krieger (spoken word) and XILLAN (music) will perform a sneak peek of the 30th Writers Unlimited International Literature Festival The Hague (January 23-26, 2025)! Francis Broekhuijsen will talk about the festival and introduce both artists, who will return in January for performances during the literature festival.
On Friday, September 6, and Saturday, September 7, in honor of the Spotlight Festival, you can purchase tickets for 15 euros each for the major Writers Unlimited Festival evenings Friday and Saturday Night Unlimited. Note that from 8 September, these tickets cost 25 Euro!Zaïre Krieger (1995) is a poet, spoken word artist, activist, journalist and translator. In 2019, she received a SPOKEN Award as 'one of the most inspiring Dutch word artists of the moment'. Krieger's work expresses a call for justice and love. In 2020, she co-organised a Black Lives Matter protest in Rotterdam.
Her performances are layered, rhythmic and sincere. She translated the poem The Hill We Climb recited by Amanda Gorman during Joe Biden's inauguration into Dutch. The bilingual edition was released in 2022. In 2023, also bilingual English and Dutch, Gorman's collection Call Us What We Carry was published in Krieger and Tirsa With's translation.
In 2024, Krieger's bilingual poetry collection Chameleon will be published, about creating your own place to feel at home, allowing yourself to be multidimensional, about the opposition between activism and aesthetics, queerness and religion, loving and hating, about being Black in a white world.
XILLAN (1993) grew up with his twin brother Jeangu in Suriname. He moved to the Netherlands in his early twenties to study at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and developed into a successful singer-songwriter of personal, alternative R&B. At the Writers Unlimited Festival in January 2025, XILLAN will be featured as a musician and writer.
In early 2025, his first novel Mensen als zonnen en mensen als manen (People as Suns and People as Moons) will be published. The novel is part of a project that also includes a theater performance and a music album. The project is about growing up as a Black queer boy in Suriname and how notions of masculinity influence an individual's life. It is a remarkable literary coming-of-age debut from an important new voice. Very few books have appeared in Surinamese-Dutch literature that openly testify to queerness.Francis Broekhuijsen is a presenter, program maker, actor, and voice-over artist specializing in music, literature, art, and culture. He also narrates audiobooks. On the national radio station Sublime, he presented, among others, the daily morning show Sublime Sunrise, the Instagram poetry program Sublime Smooth, and the most relaxed evening show in the Netherlands, The Sublime Experience. Francis is associated with Writers Unlimited as an editor, program maker, and presenter of the festival.
