Opening: Culture as Resistance and Radical Hope

Cultural Celebration & Identity Reclamation

Jun 16, 2025

17:30

-

12:00

Cinetol

Sliding scale starting at €5 and education events are free, if you do not have means to purchase a ticket please email us.
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We’re so excited to kick it off with all of you! We will come together to explore Culture as Resistance and Radical Hope. From reflections on memory and identity to discussions about collective artistic work, the day invites us to listen, question, and allow ourselves to imagine new possibilities. The evening closes with sound and visual performances that embody resilience and the power of radical hope in motion.

17:30 – 18:50 | Welcome Bites & Community Dinner
دو دریا Dou Darya| pakistani and fusion dishes
19:00 – 19:10 | Opening – Why This Week Matters
What does it mean to resist with our stories, our languages, our everyday lives? In this keynote, our three speakers reflect on resistance in its many forms: memory, silence, and storytelling as subversion; poetry and protest as a reclaiming of identity, and the quiet power of performing belonging in everyday life.
19:10 – 20:00 | Keynote: Jerry Afriyie – On poetry and protest, reclaiming Dutch identity from grassroots
What does it mean to resist with our stories, our languages, our everyday lives? In this keynote, Jerry Afriyie reflects on resistance in its many forms: memory, silence, and storytelling as subversion; poetry and protest as a reclaiming of identity, and the quiet power of performing belonging in everyday life.
20:00 – 20:10 | Voices from the RWW Coalition: Migrate Inc., Refugee Academy, Syrian Volunteers of The Netherlands, and Queer Work
In this short session, four refugee-led and grassroots groups share what it means to resist through culture, and why Refugee Welcome Week must become louder, bolder, and bigger.
20:15 – 21:15 | Screening & Discussion: Introspective: Modes of Artistic Expression and Cultural Engagement
What stories do walls tell? We’ll start with a short screening that documents statements written across Libya after Gaddafi’s fall. From there, the conversation opens: art as collective practice, representation, funding, and resistance to cultural monopolies. Facilitated by an artist, producer, and researcher, this session invites you to reflect, share, and reimagine how we create and sustain radical cultural work.
20:15 – 21:15 | Screening & Discussion: Introspective: Modes of Artistic Expression and Cultural Engagement
Explore graffiti, memory, and collective art post-Gaddafi. Featuring Tewa Barnosa, Zinoun Abou Saleh, and Zaydoun Hajjar.
21:20 - 00:00 | Resistance in Rhythm
Culture survives because we carry it; in our voices, our bodies, our stories.
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Jerry King Luther Afriyie is a poet and human rights activist. Born in Bechem, Ghana, Jerry Afriyie has lived in the Netherlands since the age of 11 and in the Bijlmer for almost 30 years. He co-founded the movement Nederland Wordt Beter and the Soul Rebel Movement foundation. In 2011, he and other artists launched the awareness campaign Zwarte Piet is Racisme and co-founded Kick Out Zwarte Piet and the Black Manifesto.
Zinoun Abou Saleh is a music event producer and founder of Stichting RAqS, a platform supporting interdisciplinary artistic collaboration. With a background in Business Administration and experience in project management, he focuses on inclusive, cross-cultural programming and creative community-building.
Tewa Barnosa is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural producer, whose practice spans visual arts, time-based media, performance, and curatorial collaborations. Her work examines historical events and political realities rooted in the context of Libya, with an interest in language, heritage and anti-colonial modes of communication. Working with images, sounds, objects, archives, and oral literature to interweave narratives around human alienation and socio-ecological turbulence, contemporary warfare and the violations of cognitive and cultural means of resistance.
Zaydoun Hajjar is a researcher and Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam while working at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS). With a background in Migration Studies and Sociology, my research focuses on cultural production, music and migration within the context of neocolonialism, colonial structure relations and capitalist markets. Current PhD research is on Levantine musicians in Berlin and how they are impacted by current cultural structures.
Shaza Hayek is a Syrian singer who studied classical Arabic singing at the Damascus Conservatory. As a celebrated soloist with the Syrian Opera, she has captivated audiences across the Arab world and Europe, lighting up stages with her powerful voice and emotional depth. What sets her apart is her gift for blending diverse Arabic singing styles into a sound that is truly her own.
Modar Salama is a Syrian percussionist based in Amsterdam, trained in classical and Oriental percussion. He has performed with major groups like the Syrian National Orchestra and toured internationally. In the Netherlands, Modar deepens his focus on Arabic percussion, collaborating with jazz, world music, and theatre projects. His work bridges cultures and genres, bringing rich rhythm and deep musicality to every stage.