ISS Storytelling afternoon

On 16 June 2022, the International Institute of Social Studies was once again host the International Storytelling Afternoon. During what has become a much-loved classic at Winternachten Festival, visitors, writers, students and teachers told each other stories.

For this edition, the stories focused around the theme Whose House Is This? Feel free to take "the house" as a metaphor and to explore it from different angles: the house of the family, the house of society, of democracy, of literature... The theme question Whose House is This? called for stories about feeling at home (or not), leaving your home, or finally finding it in an unexpected place.

Come and listen to stories from all over the world and, if you like, share your own story!
Maximum 5 minutes and in English only - no other rules.
On behalf of Winternachten Festival, authors Robin Block and Iman Mersal were present and share their stories too. Kees Biekart was the moderator of the afternoon. Lamin Kuyateh provided musical interludes.

Information

Date and time Thursday 16 June 2022 from 16:00 to 18:00 hrs
Location Institute of Social Studies
Price 10,-
5,- (CJP, Students, Ooievaarspas)

Line-up

Robin Block

(The Netherlands, 1980) is a poet and musician. His performances combine language, music and the bodily. Following his roots and family history, much of his work is related to the colonial past of the Netherlands and Indonesia, as well as the topics of belonging and displacement. His last poetry collection Handbook for the Displaced was awarded the Herman de Coninck prize and the J.C. Bloem poetry prize, and was translated into English and Indonesian. Several of his poems were screened in Manual for the Displaced, a poetry film project together with cinematographer Jeremy Flohr. Block also writes columns, teaches poetry and works as an editor for Dutch poetry magazine Awater.

Go to the website of Robin Block
Instagram: @robinblock
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Iman Mersal

(Egypt, 1966) studied at Mansura University and was co-founder and editor of the feminist magazine Bint al-Ard (Daughter of the Earth). She is one of Arab world's most acclaimed contemporary writers and a professor of Arabian literature in Canada. These Are Not Oranges, My Love (2008), is a selection of her English-language poems; her poetry has also been translated into other languages. In How to Mend: On motherhood and its ghosts (2016) she tells a new story of motherhood, switching between diary fragments, readings and photos in order to question old and new conceptions of motherhood and the unconditional love, guilt, personal goals and traditional expectations that come with it. These stories show that we are greater than our individual experiences, sorrows, worries and fears, and that they are hardly unique. She published Home, New Arabic Poems in 2020.
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Lamin Kuyateh

(Gambia, 1964) was raised on culture: as of his fifth birthday, he studied to become a kora player. He is a true "jalli" (griot), meaning someone who passes on history though song and music. The Fiscoband, which he founded in 1993, was one of the first groups to combine kora with Western instruments. Kutayeh has lived in the Netherlands since 1996, and has performed at many festivals and venues with his Jalliya Ensemble, such as at the Concertgebouw, Tivoli Vredenburg, Melkweg, Philips Cenrum and the Schiecentrale. Later, he also founded the successful ensembles Jalliyabaa and KoraFusion, in which he frequently collaborates with musicians from all kinds of disciplines. Since 2000 he has given kora lessons at the Amsterdam Conservatory.
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Kees Biekart

is a political scientist at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS, part of Erasmus University Rotterdam) in The Hague and interested in transformative change and social movements, Together with his international students, he looks for alternative ways to support political democracy at a grassroots level. He constantly seeks out new forms of research, including "storytelling", which has become an increasingly important research method.
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