Rap & Spoken Word with HemelBesem, Raj Mohan and Djani

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Telling their stories via spoken word, rap, beats and songs -- this is what HemelBesem, Raj Mohan and Djani do better than anyone. For young and old, Winternachten and the Schilderswijk Library staged an encounter between three very musical word artists. HemelBesem is from South Africa, a famous performer, artist and MC who has four self-produced hiphop albums to his name. He often performs with other artists, hosts a radio show, and stands up for the binding force of the Afrikaans language. Raj Mohan translates his own Surinamese-Hindustani music and sung poetry from the original. He has released five albums and two poetry collections. The young Hague rapper Djani founded the group FDG with two friends in 2015, for which he composes songs, beats and a portion of the texts. He also works solo. His favourite styles are trap, dancehall, afro and old-school hiphop.

Information

Date and time Saturday 19 January 2019 from 14:00 to 15:15 hrs
Location Bibliotheek Schilderswijk

Raj Mohan

(Suriname, 1962) published his first volume of poetry, Bapauti/Erfenis (Bapauti/Heritage) in 2008an elaboration of the songs on his album Kantráki/Contract Labourer. The collection Tihá/Troost (Tihá/Comfort) followed in 2011 with lyrics from his pop album Daayra. The singer, poet and composer -- with parental roots in India, born in Suriname, and living in The Netherlands -- deals with societal themes and with subjects that are taboo within Hindustani and Indian circles. Mohan writes in Sarnámi, the mother tongue of the Hindustani in Suriname and the Netherlands. He is founder and artistic director of musical groups like the Raj Mohan Ensemble, Vistar and Shai'rana, with which he tours at home and abroad. He plays and sings compositions based on his own lyrics and on poems by contemporary Urdu poets in the (lightly) classical tradition of Northern India.
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HemelBesem

(South Africa) os the stage name/nom de plume of rapper, writer, poet, actor and activist Simon Witbooi. He grew up impoverished in Capetown, where rap and hiphop became his outlet for the social inequality he saw all around. Although he began in English, Afrikaans quickly took over as his chosen langauge. HemelBesem (Heaven's Broom) calls himself an edutainer or educator because he wants to build bridges between communities and address African social issues. In his 2017 book God praat Afrikaans (God Speaks Afrikaans), he passionately defends the Afrikaans language. He is an ambassador for the Afrikaans Language and Culture Society (ATKV) and visits schools on a yearly basis in collaboration with the University of Stellenbosch for the Woorde Open Wêrelde (WOW) project. He is a descendant of Hendrik Witbooi, one of the greatest 19th-century resistance heroes during the genocide by the German colonizers in Southwestern Africa, now Namibia.


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Djani

(2002) founded the rap group FDG in 2015 with two friends and writes most of the songs, beats and a portion of the texts. He also works solo. His favourite styles are trap, dancehall, afro and old-school hiphop. Djani is the stage name of Ajani Ántoni Teunis, who has a Surinamese father and a Portuguese mother. He has been singing since he could speak. He drummed on anything in his immediate environment and taught himself to play the piano. After living in Portugal for three years, he returned to the Netherlands in 2013 and has lived in The Hague since then. Djani hopes to be accepted into the musician/producer programme at Albed College in Rhoon for the next academic year.
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Cansu Eroğlu

(The Hague, 1992) is a The Hague-based vocalist with Turkish roots. Her interest in cultural diversity does not only reflect in her studies (Cultural Anthropology, Religious Sciences and World music) and her work, but also in the choice of songs she performs and the languages in which she sings.
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