FRIDAY NIGHT UNLIMITED

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The varied Friday night programme on 16 January (together with the Saturday night programme) forms the heart of the festival, with dozens of events on five stages.

Writers, poets and audience members come together for various programmes in a festive and informal atmosphere. The authors present work commissioned by the festival, read from their books, or discuss current issues.

There are programmes in English and in Dutch, making a "Language No Problem" enjoyment of the evening possible. You can see the programma schedule below, or download the pdf of the 'Language no Problem' route here.

English writer Karen Armstrong, known for her many books about world religions, delivers the opening lecture. Other guests include Muhammad Aladdin (Egypt), Abdelkader Benali, Cristina Branco (singing Remco Campert poems), Leela Corman (US), Jennifer Clement (US/Mexico), Maxim Februari, David Grossman (Israel), Cynthia McLeod (Suriname), Maaza Mengiste (US/Ethiopia), Dinar Rahayu (Indonesia), David Van Reybrouck (Belgium),Paul Scheffer, Mustafa Stitou, Niña Weijers, Tao Yue (NL/China), and many others. One ticket allows access to all events.

Programme is subject to change.

Information

Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 from 20:00 to 01:00 hrs
Location Theater aan het Spui & Filmhuis Den Haag

Tijdschema 16 January

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Time Location
20:00 - 21:20 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1 Violence and Religion - Opening Lecture by Karen Armstrong
20:00 - 20:30 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2 Fit In or Buzz Off
20:00 - 21:15 Filmhuis - zaal 1 Documentary: Misi met een missie - plus a talk with Cynthia McLeod and director Wilma Ligthart
20:10 - 21:00 Theater aan het Spui - foyer Friday Night Wintercafé: Who's Afraid of Youth
20:10 - 20:30 Filmhuis - Studio A The Text of My Life: Cristina Branco
20:30 - 20:50 Filmhuis - Studio A The Text of My Life: Niña Weijers
20:35 - 21:35 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2 Voices from the East
20:50 - 21:10 Filmhuis - Studio A The Text of My Life: Nii Ayikwei Parkes
21:00 - 23:50 Theater aan het Spui - foyer Friday Night Wintercafé
21:01 - 21:45 Filmhuis - Studio A The Text of My Life: Mustafa Stitou
21:01 - 22:10 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1 Home Is Where the Hell Is
21:01 - 22:01 Filmhuis - zaal 1 The Film Choices of Cynthia McLeod
21:40 - 22:01 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2 Tear Down the Wall
21:45 - 22:05 Filmhuis - Studio A The Text of My Life: Paul Scheffer
22:05 - 22:01 Filmhuis - Studio A The Text of My Life: Milena Michiko Flašar
22:15 - 23:00 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1 Writers Formerly Known as African
22:30 - 23:00 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2 We're Not Holding Our Breath for a Good Book
22:35 - 00:15 Filmhuis - zaal 1 Film: A Shtetl in the Caribbean (Sherman de Jesus, 2014)
22:40 - 23:00 Filmhuis - Studio A The Text of My Life: Ian Buruma
23:00 - 23:20 Filmhuis - Studio A The Text of My Life: Witold Szabłowski
23:05 - 23:50 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1 Ode to Remco's Coat
23:20 - 23:40 Filmhuis - Studio A The Text of My Life: Jennifer Clement
23:50 - 01:00 Theater aan het Spui - foyer Dancing into Friday Night

Line-up

Abdelkader Benali

(Morocco, 1975) is an award-winning writer, poet, playwright and curator. His 1996 debut, Bruiloft aan zee (Wedding By the Sea), was an immediate success. His second novel, De langverwachte (The Long-awaited) won him the prestigious 2003 Libris Literature Award. Benali's subjects vary, but sports and the migrant who never really feels at home are recurring themes. He has written novels about his great passion of running, about his travels, and about migrants' cultural identity (Bad Boy). His work has been published internationally. Recent books include the novel Paradijsvogel boven Hoge Woerd (Bird of Paradise over Hoge Woerd, 2022) and Het andere verhaal (The Other Story, 2022), an essay about his research into 75 years of modern Moroccan art.
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Simon(e) van Saarloos

is a writer, artistic collaborator and curator. They are the author of Against Ageism. A Queer Manifesto (2023); Take ‘Em Down. Scattered Monuments and Queer Forgetting (2021) and Playing Monogamy (2019) as well as several books in Dutch: Herdenken herdacht (2019); Enz. Het Wildersproces (2018); the novel De vrouw die (2016); the collection of columns Ik deug / deug niet ( 2015) and Het monogame drama (2015). . Van Saarloos works as an independent curator of public programming and artistic collaborations. A current PhD candidate in Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, they are interested in Black feminist engagements with quantum physics and focused on the rhetorical (im)possibility of existence without defense. Van Saarloos is currently writing a new book for AK Press, titled Trans Despair: Staying Unrelated and Insecure.

Go the website of Simon(e) van Saarloos
Instagram: @svansaarloos
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Violence and Religion - Opening Lecture by Karen Armstrong

Information

Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 20:00 tot 21:20 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
British author Karen Armstrong starts off the first evening of the festival with the 9th Winternachten Lecture. Her subject is violence and religion. What are the factors that lead to eruptions of violence and war? How can we live together peacefully despite religious and cultural differences? Is religion really a motive for the use of force, or are there other underlying factors? After the lecture, Sheila Sitalsing will have a conversation with Karen Armstrong. Dutch essayist Paul Scheffer and Egyptian writer Muhammad Aladdin will also take part in the discussion. In English. Meer details bekijken

Fit In or Buzz Off

Information

Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 20:00 tot 20:30 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2
Nuweira Youskine dons verbal boxing gloves and takes on Adriaan van Dis. Shall we drink tea together or beat each other up? Multiculturalism has failed! Fit in or buzz off! No, say the idealists, let's drink tea. It's all our own fault, now we must make the best of it! Build bridges! It won't work, say the segregationists. Back to the home country, or to another place where we can be amongst ourselves. Fit in or buzz off? Referee Abdelkader Benali is strict and maybe even fair. In Dutch. Meer details bekijken

Documentary: Misi met een missie - plus a talk with Cynthia McLeod and director Wilma Ligthart

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Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 20:00 tot 21:15 uur
Location Filmhuis - zaal 1
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In this documentary, director Wilma Ligthart accompanies the royally distinguished Surinamese writer Cynthia McLeod to places that play a role in her life and work. After the screening, film journalist Bert Jansma speaks with both women. The public will have the opportunity to ask questions as well. Meer details bekijken

Friday Night Wintercafé: Who's Afraid of Youth

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Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 20:10 tot 21:00 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - foyer
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During this first hour, MC Francis Broekhuijsen presents students from the Hague secondary schools reading their poems, the outcome of a series of school workshops. They perform with poet Ineke Riem. Meer details bekijken

The Text of My Life: Cristina Branco

Information

Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 20:10 tot 20:30 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
In the Filmhuis Studio the festival's guest writers and musicians present their favourite literary texts and Which memory, what feeling does this text call up for them? A continuous interview programme, in which the audience also talks with the writers. Hosted by Arjan Peters. In English. Meer details bekijken

The Text of My Life: Niña Weijers

Information

Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 20:30 tot 20:50 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
In the Filmhuis Studio the festival's guest writers present their favourite literary texts and explain why a particular poem, novel excerpt, or song lyric influenced their life and work. Which memory, what feeling does this text call up for them? A continuous interview programme, in which the audience also talks with the writers. Hosted by Arjan Peters and Nuweira Youskine. In Dutch. Meer details bekijken

Voices from the East

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Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 20:35 tot 21:35 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2
Indonesian author Dinar Rahayu wrote a novel about S&M and transsexuality; the dream debut of Austrian-Japanese writer Milena Michiko Flašar—titled I Called Him Necktie—was about friendship and humanity; and Tao Yue, a Chinese writer living in the Netherlands, wrote about family ties and changing Chinese society in Shanghai Nocturne. Three different voices from the East, each with their own style, talk with Remco Breuker about their work, their world, and their identity. In English. Meer details bekijken

The Text of My Life: Nii Ayikwei Parkes

Information

Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 20:50 tot 21:10 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
In the Filmhuis Studio the festival's guest writers present their favourite literary texts and explain why a particular poem, novel excerpt, or song lyric influenced their life and work. Which memory, what feeling does this text call up for them? A continuous interview programme, in which the audience also talks with the writers. Hosted by Arjan Peters and Nuweira Youskine. In English. Meer details bekijken

Friday Night Wintercafé

Information

Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 21:00 tot 23:50 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - foyer
The Wintercafé is the meeting point of the festival, where writers and the audience come together, welcomed by MC Francis Broekhuijsen. Also at the Wintercafé: refreshments, book sales and booksigning at the Paagman book stall, Ud-player Mohamed Ahaddaf plays in his living room, music by DJ Safri, and more.

Booksigning schedule:
21:30 – 21:45: Karen Armstrong & Paul Scheffer
21:45 – 22:00: Milena Michiko Flasar & Tao Yue
22:20 – 22:35: David Grossman & Jennifer Clement
22:45 – 23:00: Nina Weijers & Cynthia McLeod
23:10 – 23:25: Toef Jaeger & David van Reybrouck Meer details bekijken

The Text of My Life: Mustafa Stitou

Information

Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 21:01 tot 21:45 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
In the Filmhuis Studio the festival's guest writers present their favourite literary texts and explain why a particular poem, novel excerpt, or song lyric influenced their life and work. Which memory, what feeling does this text call up for them? A continuous interview programme, in which the audience also talks with the writers. Hosted by Arjan Peters and Nuweira Youskine. In Dutch. Meer details bekijken

Home Is Where the Hell Is

Information

Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 21:01 tot 22:10 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
"I deem it the duty of the writer to pick at sore spots, to find a new way, in language the reader has not yet learned how to block out, to describe how complicated the situation is," says well-known Israeli writer David Grossman. He prefers to look at the violent world of grown-ups through the eyes of a child. Jennifer Clement and Maaza Mengiste also write from the children's perspective about growing up in a violence-ravaged environment. Maaza wrote about the Egyptian revolution in De leeuw en de keizer (Beneath the Lion's Gaze); in her poetic Prayer for the Stolen, Clement described how deeply the drug drade interferes with the lives of young girls. Manon Uphoff moderates a conversation with these authors. In English.


Meer details bekijken

The Film Choices of Cynthia McLeod

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Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 21:01 tot 22:01 uur
Location Filmhuis - zaal 1
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Cynthia McLeod picks excerpts from her favorite movies and tells film journalist Bert Jansma why they are so important to her. With scenes from Gone With the Wind (1939), the story of spirited Scarlett O'Hara and the American Civil War—and the occasion for the first Oscar won by a black actress (Hattie McDaniel as Mammy), and To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), in which lawyer Gregory Peck defends a young black man in the segregated Alabama of the 1930s. Meer details bekijken

Tear Down the Wall

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Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 21:40 tot 22:01 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2
"If a man isn't willing to stand behind his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's no good," said poet Ezra Pound. Do art and literature create a safe environment for breaking taboos? Should artists and writers explore their personal boundaries, as well as those of politics and society? Arjan Visser ponders these and other questions with authors Muhammad Aladdin and Niña Weijers and graphic novelist Leela Corman, all three of whom touch on delicate issues in their work. In English. Meer details bekijken

The Text of My Life: Paul Scheffer

Information

Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 21:45 tot 22:05 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
In the Filmhuis Studio the festival's guest writers present their favourite literary texts and explain why a particular poem, novel excerpt, or song lyric influenced their life and work. Which memory, what feeling does this text call up for them? A continuous interview programme, in which the audience also talks with the writers. Hosted by Arjan Peters and Nuweira Youskine. In Dutch. Meer details bekijken

The Text of My Life: Milena Michiko Flašar

Information

Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 22:05 tot 22:01 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
In the Filmhuis Studio the festival's guest writers present their favourite literary texts and explain why a particular poem, novel excerpt, or song lyric influenced their life and work. Which memory, what feeling does this text call up for them? A continuous interview programme, in which the audience also talks with the writers. Hosted by Arjan Peters and Nuweira Youskine. In English. Meer details bekijken

Writers Formerly Known as African

Information

Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 22:15 tot 23:00 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
Maaza Mengiste comes from Ethiopia, but emigrated the US as a child and studied in New York. Nii Ayikwei Parkes was born in London to Ghanaian parents. The novels of both authors point to a strong bond with the land of their parents. What does this bond consist of, and how defining is it in their work and identity? Africaphile David von Reybrouck leads the discussion. Toef Jaeger, the biographer of the South Africa-raised Henk van Woerden, starts off the programme with a commentary about reverse emigration—from the Netherlands to Africa. In English. Meer details bekijken

We're Not Holding Our Breath for a Good Book

Information

Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 22:30 tot 23:00 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2
Philosopher Maxim Februari and writer Martijn Knol are passionate readers. In which novels do they feel at home, and in which ones would they absolutely not want to live? A playful and personal exchange. In Dutch. Meer details bekijken

Film: A Shtetl in the Caribbean (Sherman de Jesus, 2014)

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Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 22:35 tot 00:15 uur
Location Filmhuis - zaal 1
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Mark and Tsale, children of Eastern European Jews who fled to Curaçao, travel back to their ancestors’ native soil. During this road movie through Curaçao, the United States, Belorussia, Ukraine, and Israel, we see their discoveries, courage, and despair as they confront the sacrifices made by their parents to give the family a brighter future. The film is in English, Dutch, Papiamento, Belorussian, Ukrainian, Hebrew, and Yiddish. English subtitles. Meer details bekijken

The Text of My Life: Ian Buruma

Information

Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 22:40 tot 23:00 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
In the Filmhuis Studio the festival's guest writers present their favourite literary texts and explain why a particular poem, novel excerpt, or song lyric influenced their life and work. Which memory, what feeling does this text call up for them? A continuous interview programme, in which the audience also talks with the writers. Hosted by Arjan Peters and Nuweira Youskine. In Dutch. Meer details bekijken

The Text of My Life: Witold Szabłowski

Information

Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 23:00 tot 23:20 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
In the Filmhuis Studio the festival's guest writers present their favourite literary texts and explain why a particular poem, novel excerpt, or song lyric influenced their life and work. Which memory, what feeling does this text call up for them? A continuous interview programme, in which the audience also talks with the writers. Hosted by Wim Brands and Fidan Ekiz. In English. Meer details bekijken

Ode to Remco's Coat

Information

Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 23:05 tot 23:50 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
The spotlight shines on the poetry of Remco Campert in this festive programme. Portuguese fado singer Cristina Branco set Campert's Ode aan mijn jas (Ode to My Coat) to music especially for this event. She is accompanied by João Paulo. Mustafa Stitou, Hanneke van Eijken, and three poets nominated for the VSB Poetry Prize—Hester Knibbe, Alfred Schaffer, and Peter Verhelst—each dedicate a poem to Remco or write a poem inspired by his poetry. The Blue Moon choir concludes the programme with a song about a passage from Het leven is verrukkulluk (Life is Delightful). Hosted by Alma Mathijsen. A collaboration with Poetry International and the VSB Poetry Prize. In Dutch. Meer details bekijken

The Text of My Life: Jennifer Clement

Information

Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 23:20 tot 23:40 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
In the Filmhuis Studio the festival's guest writers present their favourite literary texts and explain why a particular poem, novel excerpt, or song lyric influenced their life and work. Which memory, what feeling does this text call up for them? A continuous interview programme, in which the audience also talks with the writers. Hosted by Arjan Peters and Nuweira Youskine. In English. Meer details bekijken

Dancing into Friday Night

Information

Date and time Friday 16 January 2015 23:50 tot 01:00 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - foyer
Dancing into the night with DJ Safri, who plays just about any kind of music that gets danced to around the world—mixed or unmixed—such as Latin, Afrobeat, Oriental, Balkan Beats, Bollywood, Tropical, Cumbia, Asian Underground, Chaâbi, Kwaito, and Baile Funk. Meer details bekijken

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