The art and practice of experiencing/Becoming our space_05

The fifth meeting of Issue 4 will take place on March 2, led by guest curator Glenn Helberg.

Performers Eva Croes, Lenny Hendrixx, Edwina Hodge, Tatiana Nicolaas, Karpachii and Imelda Lynch each tell and show from their own strengths about divide and rule as a systemic colonization mechanism in, on and between the islands and the Netherlands. We experience the wind, the water, the ocean as connecting elements. We ask ourselves and each other: why is it that when I turn to you, you turn away from me?

During the first meeting of The art & practice of experiencing /Becoming our space we contrasted the story of the Africans left behind and the enslaved Africans. By bringing out the mechanism of divide and rule used by the colonizer, it became clear that this is a system and that the descendants have not sold each other.

The subsequent meeting focused on the stories of the Maroons and Surinamese Indigenous people. We heard about the meetings, helping each other and resilience. At the same time, each group waged its own frantic struggle against the colonizer. The peace treaties that the colonizer had entered into with the various groups due to the persistent resistance continued to be systems of oppression, perpetuating the division between the various Maroons and Surinamese Indigenous groups.

During the meeting of December 9, we heard and felt how various Surinamese communities who, among other things, were induced into contract labor through kidnapping and deception, know little about each other and so many generations later about themselves. With the realization of uprooting and the conversations about the prejudices about each other, that is where the steps towards healing lie.

The fourth meeting took place on January 26. This evening we made the move from Suriname to Curaçao. We heard that language has been used as a tool to perpetuate division systemically, and how this affects access to social positions.

In collaboration with: Alydia Wever, Fré Calmes, Raul Balai and Kimberley Smit.

Register via: info@shebangamsterdam.nl