Lust and Colour

What about sexual relationships between white persons and persons of color in post-apartheid South Africa? Do women in Brazil, which swelters with eroticism, move as freely as it seems? Dutch men, fantasizing about women of color - and the other way round. Kopano Matlwa, Edney Silvestre and Robert Vuijsje talk about the clichés surrounding sex in multicultural societies. Host: Wim Brands. In English.

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Information

Date and time Saturday 21 January 2012 20:00 tot 20:55 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - kleine zaal

What about sexual relationships between white persons and persons of color in post-apartheid South Africa? Do women in Brazil, which swelters with eroticism, move as freely as it seems? Dutch men, fantasizing about women of color - and the other way round. Kopano Matlwa, Edney Silvestre and Robert Vuijsje talk about the clichés surrounding sex in multicultural societies. Host: Wim Brands. In English.

Robert Vuijsje

(Amsterdam, 1970) is a Dutch journalist and writer. His debut, the novel Alleen maar nette mensen (Only Decent People, 2008) was a big success with some 200,000 copies sold. This twice awarded comedy of manners about a Jewish boy in search of an intellectual black girlfriend, is being adapted for the screen and will be released in the Netherlands in 2012. In the years that followed his debut Vuijsje travelled the world, from Paramaribo and Recife to Memphis and Frankfurt. He reported about his travels weekly in the newspaper Het Parool. Those columns were compiled in In het Wild, and complemented with other work, such as reports of his encounters with Desi Bouterse, Carice van Houten, Jesse Jackson, Bret Easton Ellis, Job Cohen and the cast of a Hungarian pornfilm. Vuijsje studied Sociology and American Studies at the University of Amsterdam. from 1997 to 2007 he worked as a journalist for Nieuwe Revu. In 2007 he started writing for the daily paper De Pers. Robert Vuijsje is the son of journalist Bert Vuijsje.
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Edney Silvestre

(Brazil, 1950) can be regarded as a Brazilian Adriaan van Dis. Coming from a poor family he left for Rio de Janeiro at age fourteen to study. He made a living out of doing translations from English and Spanish language books. He ended up in journalism and for years was a correspondent in New York. He was the first Brazilian journalist to make it to the scene of the 9/11 catastrophe. He also made a series of reports in Iraq. Since 2002 he has interviewed great writers like Mario Vargas Llosa, Nadine Gordimer en Orhan Pamuk for Globonews. Silvestre had written three non fiction books before making his debut in 2009 with the novel Se eu fechar os olhos agora (When I close my eyes), which won the prestigious Jabuti Prize for best novel, as well as the São Paulo Literary Award for Best Novel of the year. The novel appears in Dutch early 2012. In 2011 his second novel was published, A felicidade e fácil (Happiness is easy). Its launch was a happening in which writers, actresses and other fans were queueing in order to get hold of an autographed copy. In both novels Silvestre draws from his own experiences as a journalist. Recent Brazilian history plays an important role, sex and violence being recurring themes.


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Wim Brands

(Brummen, NL, 1959 - Amsterdam, 2016) was a poet, journalist, and media presenter. At a young age he debuted as a poet in the Dutch literary magazine Hollands Maandblad. Since then he has published books of poetry quite regularly, such as Neem me mee zei de hond (Take Me With You Said the Dog, 2010). After the publication of his first collection Inslag (Impact, 1985), he began working as an interviewer for the VPRO broadcasting company. Later he became head producer of the Radio 6 programme "De Avonden." Since 2005  he talked to writers on VPRO's book programme "Boeken" on both TV and radio. He put together Briefgeheimen (Postcard Secrets, 2007), a colourful compilation of postcards linked to a website where people can divulge their deepest secrets. Overkomst dringend gewenst (Return Voyage Urgently Requested), his anthology of the work of poet Jan Emmens, was published in 2012, and his most recent poetry collection, 's Middags zwem ik in de Noordzee (In the Afternoons I Swim in the North Sea) in 2014. Brands was one of the "Lonely Departure" poets who compose and present a final poetic tribute to people who pass away without friends or family.
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Kopano Matlwa

(South Africa, 1985) is the rising star of South African literature. Her first novel Coconut deals with the quest of black South Africans for their new identity in a post-apartheid society and was the recipient of the European Union Literary Award in 2007. It is also a set work and used as a teaching tool at many schools within South Africa, and universities in South Africa and abroad. Three years later she received the prestigious Wole Soyinka Prize for African Literature. Her second book, Spilt Milk, appeared in the Netherlands in 2011 entitled Gedane zaken. In this novel school principal Mohumagandi and father Bill meet up, years after their secret love affair. The enthusiastic black principal and the stiff, awkward father clash when the latter has to deal with the indecent behaviour of four pupils and solve it. Matlwa sees Toni Morrison as her great example. She is also a medical doctor and a Rhodes Scholar currently pursuing a masters in public health at Oxford University.
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