A Free Mind, Caribbean Style!

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In the Ypenburg Public Library, we take you on a journey through music, dance and poetry from the Caribbean. A program to whirl you away, plus food for contemplation. The Curacaoan poets and thinkers Walter Palm and Guiselle Martha will appear; the band Tipiko Den Haag lets you experience just how addictive Caribbean rhythms are; and dancers such as Junadry Leocaria invite you onto the dance floor!

The theme of this edition of the Winternachten Festival is A Free Mind. Programme maker Julian Starink: "But what does that actually mean? Just how free are our thoughts? What can we learn from the Caribbean region?"

Via poems and spoken-word, Walter Palm and Guiselle Martha will introduce you to a region in which cultures have come into contact - both voluntarily and involuntarily. You'll be swept up in the incredible diversity of musical styles from Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, as played by Tipiko Den Haag. And Junadry Leocaria will show you that music isn't only meant to be listened to: the dance floor will beckon!

Information

Date and time Thursday 16 January 2020 from 20:00 to 22:00 hrs
Location Bibliotheek Ypenburg

Line-up

Tipiko Den Haag

is a collective of enthusiasts who share a love for traditional music of Aruba, Bonaire en Curaçao and who always find new ways to perform that music combined with theatre, storytelling and film. The collective, formed in 2009, is being lead by Julian Starink (1981), one of the founders and also the programme maker of A Free Mind, Caribbean Style! Julian, also a writer of short stories and theatre plays, performs on several string instruments within Tipiko Den Haag. Two further participants in this programme are singer Edmundu Adelaida (Curaçao, 1958) who's neverending and passionate love for music goes back to his childhood years, and singer and guitarist Alfonso Birginia (Curaçao, 1944), a member of beat group The Prevenders during the sixties and nowadays takes every opportunity to play music within Trio Los Tropicales and Tipiko Den Haag.
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Walter Palm

(Curaçao, 1951) is a poet, playwright and essayist. He published three Dutch-language poetry collections: Met lege handen ging ik slapen, met een gedicht werd ik wakker (I went to sleep with empty hands and woke up with a poem, 2002, reprint 2018), Sierlijke golven krullen van plezier (Graceful Waves Curl with Pleasure, 2009) and Een serenade  voor mijn Shéhérazade (A Serenade for My Sheherezade, 2014). In 2019 he published the essay Het sluipend gif van de islamofobie (The Creeping Venom of Islamophobia). He regularly performs with Tipiko Den Haag. In A Free Mind, Caribbean Style! he plays music of the Palm family and he will lift the veil in a poetic way from the music of his ancestors.
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Junadry Leocaria

(Curacao, 1985) is a notable figure in the urban dance theatre scene. The choreographer, coach and teacher is active as an urban dancer and was a member of companies such as the ISH Dance Collective and Don't Hit Mama. She returned to her Curacaoan roots with her solo performance Ta(m)bu and is specialized in "waacking" - a style that plays with personalities, emotions and self-expression. Leocaria is a key talent in Dutch urban dance theatre and excels in holding people's attention with her expressive and powerful movement.
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Guiselle Martha

(1978) was born on Curaçao and migrated to the Netherlands in 1999. As a postdoctoral researcher, she areas of interest were identity, transnationalism and belonging. She studied Latin-American LIterature at Leiden University and obtained her PhD at the Radboud University Nijmegen (Cultural Studies) on the transnational identity of the people of Curaçao  as expressed in contemporary music. Guiselle approaches these subjects not only from a academical perspective but assumes, as co-founder of Tipiko Den Haag, an active role as director and actress, among others. Guiselle likes writing short stories for a.o. the Caribbean Studies Association. Together with Julian Starink she wrote various stage plays and made the short film  Seú / de oogst. In the play De wedstrijd van Koning Shon Arei Guiselle can be seen as narrator of stories about the spider Kompa Nanzi.
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Vany Hooi

is panel host and an entrepreneur in the financial and fiscal areas. She works, on a voluntary basis, for five foundations as chair or treasurer. Vany is Chair of the Separate Past, Joint Future Tula Working Group, which organizes activities around Tula Day in Rotterdam. On 17 August 1795, the slave Tula and his fellow slaves stopped working on the Knip plantation and confronted their 'owner' Caspar Lodewijk. It was the start of the Curacao slave rebellion. Nowadays Tula Day - or Dia di Tula - is still celebrated, with the aim of inspiring young and old: "Come and listen to the story, know the story and the history and find the same strength as Tula, who demanded justice. Even though he did not succeed, the message behind the story is "get up, stand up" and do the right thing for yourself to get the most out of life."
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