Verhalen die verbinden (Connecting Stories)

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Dark, forgotten and forbidden pages: it is taking a long time for the colonial history of the Netherlands to penetrate our collective memory. But history has many forms of transmitting lore, of which stories are the most powerful. They are passed from one continent to another, from generation to generation. And then, with great imagination and creativity, they are recorded in literature, music and language. In this way, the stories come to belong to everyone. This event was in Dutch.

The Winternachten festival afternoon programme Verhalen die verbinden (Connecting Stories) explored Dutch colonial history in our literature, language and music. Prominent Surinamese authors Astrid H. Roemer and Tessa Leuwsha talked in conversations with respectively Maria Vlaar and Fiep van Bodegom about the significance of 150 years of abolition of slavery for them, their country, their relatives and their books. Both published new books in 2023: Astrid H. Roemer wrote the novel DealersDochter (Dealers' Daughter) and Tessa Leuwsha published her De wilde vaart: op zoek naar de veerkracht van Suriname (Tramp trade: the search for the resilience of Surinam).

Author Babs Gons performed spoken word. Authors Tessa Leuwsha and Daphne Huisden read from their contributions to Dat wij zongen (What we sang), the essay collection in which twenty leading writers of today make a case for a Caribbean author of the past who inspired them personally. Mariëlle Vavier, deputy Mayor and alderman of the City of The Hague for Poverty, Inclusion and Public Health, gave a speech.

Singer Angel ArunA performed her own work and poems by poet and singer-songwriter Raj Mohan in Sarnámi, the language of people with a Hindustan background in Suriname and The Netherlands. Furthermore soprano Lucretia Starke and countertenor Arturo den Hartog performed, accompanied by six musicians from ensemble Holland Baroque, with their version of Surinamese song Lolo mi boto, among others.

The talks and performances in Zaal 1 were followed in the theatre foyer by a short post-programme hosted by Sarita Bajnath with contributions and readings by Britney Lindo, writer and spoken word artist, and by Rabin Baldewsingh, writer and, since 2021, National Coordinator against Discrimination, among others.

Also the (English spoken ) evening programme All the World's Excuses on this Winternachten festival day 16 April, focused on the significance of 150 years abolition of slavery. All the World's Excuses took a wider perspective by inviting authors from various backgrounds to speak about the traces left by slavery, apartheid and colonialism in society, storytelling, language and literature: guests were Caleb Azumah Nelson (UK), David Diop (France), Chika Unigwe (USA), Astrid H. Roemer (Surinam), Neske Beks (Belgium) and Radna Fabias (Netherlands).

Bookstore De Vries van Stockum was present in the lobby with a stand offering books by participating authors of this programme, among others — including signing opportunities!

This programme was curated by Shantie Singh, author of a.o. the  novels Vervoering (2014) and De kier (2020).

With day ticket also to evening programme All the World's Excuses
Verhalen die verbinden was followed on Sunday 16 April as of 19:30h in Theater aan het Spui by the, English spoken, Winternachten festival evening programme All the World's Excuses.
A reduced price day ticket for both festival programmes on 16 April was available.

Information

Date and time Sunday 16 April 2023 from 14:30 to 17:00 hrs
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
Price €15
DenHaagPas €12,50
Up to 30 years / Ooievaarspas: €7,50.

Line-up

Astrid H. Roemer

(Suriname, 1947) made her mark with Over de gekte van een vrouw (About the Madness of a Woman), an experimental novel about the complexity of being a woman. In the 1990s she wrote three decolonisation novels that she called her "triplets": Gewaagd leven (Daring Life, 1996), Lijken op liefde (Resembling Love, 1997) and Was getekend (Signed, 1999), now collected as Onmogelijk moederland (Impossible Motherland). Roemer is praised in both Suriname and the Netherlands for her daring and willfulness in her now extensive oeuvre of poetry, prose and theatre texts. She was awarded the 2016 P.C. Hooft Prize, and in 2021, for her entire oeuvre, the Dutch Literary Prize. Her 2018 novel Gebroken wit (Broken White) is an impressive portrait of the Vanta family, in which Surinamese mores and norms leave a legacy. The anthology Ik ga strijden moeder: gekozen gedichten (I'm going to fight mother: chosen poems, 2021) includes work from her first collection from 1970 to poetry she published from 2015 to 2020. Around themes of identity and the contradictions between Suriname and the Netherlands, Roemer sophisticatedly interweaves the lives of five characters in her latest novel DealersDochter (Dealer's Daughter, 2023).
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Shantie Singh

(The Netherlands, 1982) is an author, program maker, and moderator. Themes such as identity, diversity, women's rights, and emancipation are often central to her work. Her background is layered and connected to three continents in the countries of India, Suriname, and The Netherlands. She wrote about this in her debut novel Vervoering. This was followed by the novel De kier. In 2024, her non-fiction book Na de komma – Hindostanen en de erfenis van het kolonialisme (After the Comma – Hindustani People and the Legacy of Colonialism) was published, her plea for greater recognition and visibility of the Hindustani story in the Netherlands. This book inspired her theatre production Her (s)tories (2024-2025), an ode to the women from Hindustani migration history. In her De Dolle Kavita Talkshow, Shantie welcomes trailblazers (women, men, or anything in between) with a story that needs to be heard. She is also a member of the feministic writers collective Fixdit.

Go to the website of Shantie Singh
Instagram: @shantie.singh1
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Maria Vlaar

(Netherlands, 1964) is a writer, publicist and interviewer. She is a reviewer for Belgian daily newspaper De Standaard, writes the biography of author Joost Zwagerman and was awarded the J.M.A. Biesheuvel Prize for her debut, the short stories collection Diepe aarde (Deep Earth). She previously wrote for De Groene Amsterdammer and served as editor of De Bezige Bij, deputy director of the Dutch Foundation for Literature and chairman of the Authors' Union, among other positions. In 2013, 2016 and 2017, she was involved as a programme maker and interviewer and in 2022 as interim director of the Winternachten International Literature Festival The Hague.
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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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Babs Gons

(1971) is a writer, performer, columnist and host, and was the Poet Laureate of the Netherlands from 2023 to 2025. She has been a driving force behind numerous poetry stage initiatives for decades. Gons made her debut in 2021 with her poetry collection Doe het toch maar (Just do it). In 2022, she won De Johnny, a lifetime achievement award for stage poetry, and in 2024 she was awarded the Gouden Ganzenveer. She presents various programmes and is the host of the musical-literary show Babs' Woordsalon.

Instagram: @babsgons
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Sarita Bajnath

is a moderator, trainer and presents the book talk show Leesoffensief which is broadcast on regional Dutch broadcaster AT5. Besides being a fan of books and sharing stories that bring in other perspectives, she has her own company through which she trains international organisations and companies on privilege, intersectionality, inclusion and safety.
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Angel ArunA

knows how to touch like no other with her voice and the songs of Bollywood. She is a well-known name in the Surinamese-Hindustani and Indian communities as a singer-songwriter, and did the soundtrack for Zoop in India, the feature film that screened in cinemas in 2006 with great success. As part of the Bidesia project, she performed in India during Kumbh Mela, the biggest religious festival in Hinduism. Because of her multilingual background, but with her heart in her mother tongue Sarnámi, she has had a major part in musical collaborations with Indian singer Asha Bhonsle, British rapper Apache Indian, the Metropole Orchestra, singer Kenny B, the Residentie Orkest and the Matangi Quartet, among others.
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Daphne Huisden

(Netherlands, 1988) made her debut as a writer in 2010 with the novel Alles is altijd fictie (Everything is Always Fiction), a strong story in which the protagonist leaves her parental home and moves into a room. No one really seems to notice her. She struggles to become an authentic person. In 2013, she published her second book, Dit blijft tussen ons (This Remains Between Us), about a neighbourhood community where tempers run high. Charlatans (2021) is an adventure novel with a gothic atmosphere, illusionism and haunting developments about city dwellers turning against rather radical laws and regulations.
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Rabin Baldewsingh

(Surinam, 1962) is the National Coordinator against Discrimination and Racism since 2021. Baldewsingh was alderman in The Hague for 12 years, from 2006 to 2018. Prior to that, he was a documentary editor and, from 1998, a Hague city councillor. As alderman, he held various policy areas in his portfolio, including social affairs and employment, neighbourhood approach, sports, city management and environmental policy, public health, integration, personnel and organisation and civic affairs. Besides his work as NCDR, he participates as a dual PhD student in the programme of Leiden University Dual PhD Centre The Hague. His dissertation will be on Sarnámi as a language in oppression.
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Holland Baroque

is an idiosyncratic orchestra that dares to sing, dance, cry and laugh on its instruments. All from tradition, innovation, surprise and a touch of entertainment. Since its foundation in 2006, the orchestra has worked with many soloists, composers, choirs and theatre-makers. For instance, the blending of Eric Vloeimans' velvety tone with the cornetto showed that baroque is a sound of today. Together with Vloeimans, Holland Baroque received an Edison for the album Carousel. The tours with piano virtuoso Leszek Możdżer showed that even in a Baroque orchestra, a score can constantly change when the composer finds himself among the musicians while improvising. Cellist Giovanni Sollima also composed several pieces for Holland Baroque. The musical encounter between Wu Wei, worldwide one of the most important sheng-players of this moment, and Holland Baroque resulted in the CD Silk Baroque on the renowned label Pentatone. Holland Baroque became Reinbert de Leeuw's friend during the joint search for his truth of Bach's St Matthew Passion. Both the documentary and the integral recording Cherry Duyns made of it played in cinemas for months.
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Arturo den Hartog

(Suriname, 1999) is a countertenor and prize- and audience award winner at the 2021 Princes Christina Concours. Arturo started solo singing at the age of 8 in the church in Suriname and was one of the first students of the Cathedral Choir School in Paramaribo. In 2017, he left for the Netherlands to continue his studies at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Arturo is a versatile performer with a big love for Opera, Baroque- and Contemporary music. He made his opera debut with the Dutch National Opera en LOD muziektheater with the newly written opera The Girl, the Hunter and the Wolf by Vasco Mendonça. Other engagements include a tour to Suriname with ensemble Holland Baroque, a performance during the O. Festival, the Koorbiënnale 2022 as soloist with Stargaze ensemble and a main role in two contemporary operas at the Opera Forward Festival in Amsterdam. Next to that, he often performs music of black composers with his piano duo. With this duo, he performed in the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam and on tv in Podium Witteman.
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Lucretia Starke

(Suriname, 2001) began her musical training when she was nine years old at the Cathedral Choir School Suriname. That is where her passion for classical music began. Three years ago, Lucretia got the chance to come to the Netherlands. Here she began her studies at the School for Young Talent. There she discovered her love for Baroque music. She is now studying early music at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Lucretia is also a member of the Nationaal Gemengd Jeugdkoor (National Mixed Youth Choir). She has taken master classes with Emma Kirkby, Michael Chance and Andrea Scholl. She travelled to Suriname with ensemble Holland Baroque to give a number of concerts with the children of the Cathedral Choir School.
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Fiep van Bodegom

(India, 1984) is a writer, critic and translator. She is editor of Extra Extra Magazine and teaches in the Creative Writing department at Artez University of the Arts. She writes regularly on literature (including for De Groene Amsterdammer, NRC and De Nederlandse Boekengids) and has published translations, essays and fiction.
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Mariëlle Vavier

(Waddinxveen) is deputy mayor and alderman for Poverty, Inclusion and Public Health in the municipality of The Hague. She worked as board secretary at Jeugdbescherming west, an institution for youth protection and youth probation. For GroenLinks, she was, among other things, support group member for the GroenLinks provincial parliamentary group from 2011 to 2015, representative for the GroenLinks municipal council group from 2016 to 2018, GroenLinks municipal group chair in 2021 and list leader for the 2022 municipal elections. Since September 2022, she has been alderman with the portfolios of poverty, emancipation and public health for GroenLinks.
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Britney Lindo

sees herself only as a writer. Whether one experiences her as a spoken word artist, storyteller or poet she leaves to the beholder. Her focus is mainly on putting her soul expression on paper. In her lyrics, she often expresses her relationship as a black woman to white society. Furthermore, in her works she tries to challenge people to think beyond the obvious.
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Nazrina Rodjan

is a Dutch-Surinamese visual artist of Hindustani (indentured Indian) descent. Rodjan was born and raised in Rotterdam and holds a BFA from St. Joost School of Art and Design. Rodjan primarily works in graphite and oil. Her work represents themes of migration, queerness and diaspora, and a significant part of her work focuses on portraiture: portraits of people of color, ancestral photographs and colonial postcards. She is committed to tell marginalized and invisible stories using traditional painting techniques. She spends her time painting between the Netherlands and the U.S. Her project KALA PANI: 1873 - 2023 is an ongoing series of oil paintings portraying indentured Indian women who were photographed as colonial objects in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries on plantations in the Caribbean throughout Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana.
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