Moving into Space

What if the Earth can no longer provide our home? A literary exploration of the future, here on our familiar planet and far beyond.

Information

Date and time Thursday 16 June 2022 22:30 tot 23:45 uur
Location Paard Grote zaal
Price 29,50
15,- (CJP, Students, Ooievaarspas)

Despite their popularity with readers, fantasy and science fiction remain on the margins, even though these imaginative and expressive genres enrich and elevate literature. Usually, little attention is paid to speculative fiction at literary festivals. Time for change! During this Winternachten Festival (theme: Whose House is This?) we not only approached the idea of "house" in a traditional sense, but also made room for stories in which Earth no longer suffices as house or home. 

In today's world, we could easily picture a house, or an inhabitant. We recognized our forms of cohabitation and communication. But how will we live together in 2060? What does a house look like in another dimension, and how would people speak to each other there? And what if Earth no longer provides a "home" - where will we find a new one? And what if someone else is already living there? For Moving into Space, we talked to authors who think outside the borders of our current ideas of what constitutes a house. We celebrated the diversity and creativity of speculative fiction. And in the process we encountered a new world where we can feel at home.

"Anthropologist of the future" Roanne van Vorst took on the house of the future, while poet and performer Robin Block, a great science-fiction fan, offered an ode to the genre. In his beautiful and poignant work, American author Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah reminds us that the future can be a whimsical place. Moving into Space showed why speculative fiction is also eminently political, and why precisely this genre is so important for the future of literature. We explored the present and the past but especially the future - we followed dimensional paths and interplanetary avenues...

The evening was concluded by the great band N3RDISTAN, known for their mythical electronic tunes, N3rdistan created a compelling poetic fusion that was serene and unsual. We danced into the future!

English spoken.

Reading tips to get in the mood (by event authors): 

  • Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
  • In Between, Di Antara by Robin Block
  • Met zijn zessen in bed by Roanne van Voorst


Want to read more? These speculative works inspired our event programmers Fleur Jeras and Nisrine Mbarki:
  • The Djinn Falls in Love & Other Stories by Amal El-Mothar et al.
  • Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
  • Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
  • Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
  • Lilith’s Brood by Octavia Butler
  • Popisho by Leone Ross

Roanne van Voorst

(Utrecht, 1983) is a dr. in anthropology, writer, investigative journalist, (TEDx) speaker and university lecturer. She has written seven books, both fiction and non-fiction. Her latest book, Six in Bed, explores the future of love and friendship. Her work has been translated into several languages ​​and some of her books are published internationally. As an 'anthropologist of the future', her research focuses on what a sustainable and desirable future of our world could be. She mainly thinks about what she calls 'sustainable humanity': how do we keep hope in an era characterized by climate change and 'fake news'? What keeps us human, in times of robotization? Will we soon fall in love with robots, dine with avatars, and leave our work tasks to algorithms? What is the effect of this on our society, and on our individual happiness and well-being? And which skills do we need to teach ourselves in order to remain successful, both humanly and professionally, in a high-tech future?
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Robin Block

(The Netherlands, 1980) is a poet and musician. His performances combine language, music and the bodily. Following his roots and family history, much of his work is related to the colonial past of the Netherlands and Indonesia, as well as the topics of belonging and displacement. His last poetry collection Handbook for the Displaced was awarded the Herman de Coninck prize and the J.C. Bloem poetry prize, and was translated into English and Indonesian. Several of his poems were screened in Manual for the Displaced, a poetry film project together with cinematographer Jeremy Flohr. Block also writes columns, teaches poetry and works as an editor for Dutch poetry magazine Awater.

Go to the website of Robin Block
Instagram: @robinblock
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Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

(USA, 1991) is seen as an important new voice in American literature: that of new black surrealism. His debut  collection Friday Black won many prizes and is a raw, surrealist and partly satirical book with twelve short stories that denounce the excesses of racism and today's consumer society. Five unarmed black teenagers are murdered in cold blood by a white family man who feels "threatened" by them - and who is acquitted; an amusement park employee does his makeup for yet another day as scapegoat and target of the racist fantasies of the mostly white visitors; and a salesperson in a shopping mall prepares for the Black Friday sales and the expected hordes of zombie-like, violent bargain hunters. Adjei-Brenyah's stories are extreme and disturbing, but at the same time sketch a nearly-here future and show how people desperately want to belong to a society, but that this society is not ready to accept just anyone. A Dutch translation with the same title was published in 2019.
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Sherida Kuffour

is a graphic designer, art director and writer. She has a BA in Graphic Design (Ravensbourne University London) and an MA in Design for Visual Strategies (Sandberg Institute Amsterdam), and lives and works in Zurich. She often seeks out collaborations with other creatives from the fashion, fine art, culture and media sectors. She was art director and editor of various issues of New African Woman magazine. Besides working for her design studio, she keeps busy writing about issues of race, feminism and design. Kuffour appears in the multimedia exhibit Facing Blackness of The Black Archives in Amsterdam, which deals with the underexposed history of the Dutch image formation about black people from the colonial period to contemporary society.


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N3rdistan

is a French/Moroccon musical collective, formed by rappers/singers/poets/musicians Walid Ben Salim and Widad Broco. Inspired by everything from (ancient) Arabic poetry to Massive Attack and Portishead, this republic of nerds offers a wonderful mix of sometimes unsettling texts in English and Arabic, rap, electro, mysterious song and compelling rythms. These pioneers of Moroccan hiphop and alternative music have performed in Morocco, France, Lebanon, Cape Verde, Dubai, Canada and Estonia.
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