Opening programme

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Information

Date and time Monday 6 March 2006 from 20:00 to 22:20 hrs
Location Fort Zeelandia - Paramaribo

Diana Ferrus

(Worcester, South-Africa, 1953) is a writer, poet and activist for marginalised African women. She works at the University of West Cape, where she also participates in a Women's Studies course. Ferrus is a member of WEAVE (Women’s Education & Artistic Voice Expression), an artist's collective in Capetown. She became well known with her poem Tribute to Sarah Baartman. The poem was translated and included in the French governmental documents that were necessary for the transportation of the remains of Sarah Baartman - in nineteen century Europe known as the Hottentot Venus. The remains left Paris and eventually arrived in South Africa in 2002 where they were buried. Ferrus published her first collection of poetry in the Afrikaans language called 'Ons Komvandaan' ('We come from') in 2006 and was the co-editor for a book about fathers and daughters called, Slaan vir my 'n masker, Vader (Forge Me a Mask, Father). She recently released a cd of poetry with music by the band Mamela, called "Never again", "Nooit weer nie".
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Erich Zielinski

(Bonaire, 1942) in 2003 made a convincing debut with De Engelenbron (The Angel Well), a novel that takes place in the colourful old district of Otrabanda on Curaçao. Zielinski is the son of a German father and a Curaçaon mother and grew up on Curaçao. After studying in the Netherlands Zielinski returned to the Netherlands Antilles, working as a teacher. On Curaçao he finished his law studies and became a lawyer. He was founder and editor of the critical magazine Vitó , which, in the 1960s campaigned against the Netherlands Antillean establishment. In the earky 1970s he was for a short while chief editor of the former daily paper Beurs- en Nieuwsberichten.
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Manon Uphoff

(The Netherlands, 1962) is a Dutch writer, screenwriter and visual artist. She made her debut in 1995 with the collection of short stories Begeerte (Desire), which was nominated for the AKO Literature Prize, the Anton Wachter Prize and the ECI Prize. The title story was awarded the Rabobank Spring Prize for Literature. Her first novel Gemis (1997) was nominated for the Libris Literature Prize. Her most recent book, Vallen is als vliegen (Falling is Like Flying, 2019), was shortlisted for both the 2019 Bookspot Literature Prize and the 2020 Libris Literature Prize. The novel was named the best Dutch-language novel of 2019 by NRC Handelsblad and Humo. Uphoff was editor of the literary magazine De Revisor and board member and president of PEN Netherlands. As a screenwriter, she wrote the feature film screenplay Een Groot Geweld (Topkapi Films).
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Tan Lioe Ie

was born in 1958 in Denpasar (Bali, Indonesia). He studied architecture at Jakarta university before completing his undergraduate in economics at Udayana University. His poetry anthology Kita Bersaudara has been translated and published under the title We Are All One. His latest poetry book is Malam Cahaya Lampion. He was invited to the Tasmanian Readers' and Writers' Festival and the Literary Festival Winternachten Overseas in Surinam (2006). He was Writer in Residence in Hobart, Tasmania. He enjoyed to create music of poetry. He is active with the Sanggar Mimum Kopi (SMK) community, Bali, and the guest editor of Coast Lines magazines and editor of CAK and Paradox.
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Celestine Raalte

(Paramaribo, 1948) is a poet, writer, reciter and does school theatre. She has published two volumes of poetry: Akwenda Streven en Ma Awitya. 'My biggest inspiration are the grandma's from the working-class area I used to live when I was a kid. Furthermore all the single mothers who have to work hard to raise their children.' She was honoured on several occasions, for instance when she got the Kwakoe Award for her contribution to Surinamese art. She gives workshops at primary and secondary schools. She is a contributor to the Studium Generale of the Hogeschool in Rotterdam. In Amsterdam she is busy with the workshop Life Lines. Here themes are: the power of women, apartheid, hope, love and everything that moves her.
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Alphons Levens

(Surinam, 1949) is a former social worker, ex journalist and now teacher of Dutch at a secondary school. He writes poems and short stories about social matters. About six of these he has published on his own. Work of Alphons has been included in several important Surinam anthologies. Alphons also writes regularly for magazines and newspapers.
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Ismene Krishnadath

(1956) in 1993 the first author to receive the State prize for Juvenile literature for her book entitled Nieuwe streken van koniman Anansi (New mischief by koniman Anansi). Initially Ismene Krishnadath is an educationalist. Her literary career began in 1989 with a collection of children's stories, entitled De flaporen van Amar (The big ears of Amar). Afterwards came Lees Mee (Read together), a reading series for beginners, and a juvenile novel Lijnen van Liefde (Lines of love). In 1995 her novel Satyem was published, the story of a Javanese immigrant, a woman with courage, ingenuity and magical talents.
Veren voor de piai (Feathers for the piai) (1992) and De opdracht van Fodewroko (Fodewroko's task ) (2001) are juvenile novels, from which young people can learn quite a lot about the history and cultures of Surinam. As well as an author Ismene Krishnadath is also a publisher of her own work and chairman of the Writers group '77.
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Norma Bouterse

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Tessa Leuwsha

(Netherlands, 1967) is a fiction and non-fiction author, documentarian and critic. In 1995 she emigrated to Surinam as a freelance journalist and in 1997 published Reishandboek Suriname, a cultural travel guide. Her first published short story Voor William (For William) won the incentive prize of the Kwakoe literary awards. In 2005 her novel debut de Parbo-blues appeared, followed in 2009 by the novel Solo, een liefde (Solo, a love) about the ambition of two lovers in colonial Surinam who desire a better life. Her non-fictional Fansi's stilte, een grootmoeder en de slavernij (Fansi's Silence, a Grandmother and Slavery, 2015) tells the life of her grandmother. In Plantage Wildlust (2020), she describes life on a Surinamese plantation in the early 20th century, during the period of contract labour, through various characters. De wilde vaart (Tramp Trade, 2022) recounts, in text and image, a boat journey in which Leuwsha and her husband travel Surinamese waters in search of their own core and the resilience of a people. Leuwsha is cultural attaché of the Dutch Embassy in Paramaribo, and writes columns, articles and reviews for various Surinamese media.
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Roué Hupsel

(Roué James Hupsel) is a well known name in the Surinams media world. He has years of experience in radio. He only started to write stories in the year 2001. He won the third prize with a short story, during the Kwakoe festival in the Netherlands. Stories of his appeared in De Ware Tijd and in the collection Considerations. During '1001 identities' he will appear as one Surinams promising writing talents.
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Guyz Nextdoor

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Ashna Phoelsingh

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Jit Narain

(Jidt Narainsingh Baldewsingh, Livorno, Surinam, 1948) Born in Suriname, Jit Narain is the grandson of Indian immigrants. In 1969 he went to the Netherlands to study medicine and became a doctor in The Hague. He returned to Suriname in 1991. Since then he has been heading the head of an outpatients clinic in Saramacca. He is a fervent defender of the emancipation of Sarnami, the Hindu-Surinamese language and for his efforts received the Rahman Khan prize. Narain writes poems which can be read and sung. The poems reflect the history and memories of Hindustan immigrants in Suriname. He writes in Sarnami and in Dutch, approaching the same secret history of immigrants from different perspectives. He made his debut in 1977 with the poetry collection in Sarnami Dal Bhat Chatni (Rice, yellow peas and chutney). His debut has been followed by six other collections of poetry.
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Robin Anoewarte

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Sombra

(ps. of Stanley Richard Slijngard, 1939) is a literary performer and a poet. Sombra was born in Totness, Coronie, Surinam. He is very much involved in social matters. In 1973, during the great teachers' strike, he went on hungerstrike twice, calling attention to the social misery. In 1975 Sombra also took part in the street theatre Fri Makandra. He is co-initiator of the Writers' group '77, and has been active on the board for 25 years. He published the poetry collection Tarta (1974), Dagwe (1976), Ten-Tijd (1989) and Griot (1992). Alongside this his stories have been included in Hoor die Tori (Listen to the Tori) (1990), Siroto (1993) and De Ware Tijd Literair. Sombra writes his poetry mainly in Sranan.
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Ifna Vrede

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Soecy Gummels

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Elly Purperhart

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Els Beerten

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