World Storytelling at the ISS

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There's nothing better than telling one another stories. Stories from
near and far by students of the International Institute of Social Studies, by foreign writes, and by the public. The theme of this English-language afternoon of storytelling is "At Home," about feeling at home. The ISS students and the writers have prepared their stories. Do you have a story you'd like to tell. Join us!

The ISS students come from Africa, Latin America, and Asia. They live in The Hague for a year and a half, and bring many stories from their home countries. Foreign writers like Ethiopia's Maaza Mengiste, a festival guest, will also participate. Kees Biekhart hosts, and there will be music.

This programme is in English. Do you have a story that fits the bill? Register at the ISS. You have five minutes to tell your story about "At Home."

Information

Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 from 14:00 to 16:00 hrs
Location Institute of Social Studies

Line-up

Nii Ayikwei Parkes

(Great Britain, 1974) grew up in Ghana. During his studies in Manchester he joined Commonword, a group of visible-minority writers who discuss one another's work. He writes prose, poetry, articles, and the occasional rap, and regularly performs at literary festivals. The Dutch translation of his first novel, Tail of the Blue Bird (De Blauwe Vogel), was published in 2010, a crime novel about a Ghanaian village where a hunk of flesh is found and the police must figure out what exactly it is. Gorgeous descriptions of Ghanaian nature alternate with sharp passages about Ghanaian police corruption. The book was nominated for the Commonwealth Prize. Recurring themes in Parkes' writing include power, cultural conflict, love, family, and the friction between capitalism and humanism. He performs at poetry festivals around the world and is a regular commentator on BBC radio. He has recorded two CDs of poems: Incredible Blues and Nocture of Phrase.  In 2011 he published The Parade, a children's book about the spider Anansi, under the pen name K.P. Kojo.
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Maaza Mengiste

(Ethiopia, 1971) debuted in 2010 with the heartbreaking Beneath the Lion’s Gaze. This novel was hailed by The Guardian as one of the ten best recent African books. The story is set in the 1970s and begins with the last days of Emperor Haile Selassie. Mengiste continues with the cruel regime of the socialist Derg, who is etimated to have caused 100,000 deaths: "I wanted to show the humanity and the destruction of the people who suffered under this regime." Central themes of Mengiste's fiction and non-fiction are migration, the Ethiopian revolution, and the life of black African immigrants in Europe. She currently works for various orgranisations that support displaced people and human rights. Several Amerian celebrities like Meryl Streep and Alicia Keys worked on her film project Girl Rising, about the situation of girls around the world. Mengiste lives and works in New York City.
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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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