Past Events (2025)
Refugee Welcome Week 2025 brought Amsterdam 25 events led by refugees—sharing their art, resilience and practices rooted in radical hope, driven by solidarity, and fueled by imagination.People kept showing up every single day. We witnessed incredible energy—from the organizers, artists, cooks, contributors, and from the public.
More than a festival, RWW was a call to action: To practice hope in a time of imposed despair, to honor cultural resistance, and to actively imagine a future where everyone belongs. We danced, we grieved, we shared meals, we questioned, we listened, we created. Events ranged from exhibitions to performances, talks, critical workshops, film screenings, and a reciprocity ceremony connecting us to land, lineage, and liberation. To begin to build radically different futures, we must collectively envision them into reality.
Interval training with WERQ Run Club
Community Action
Wednesday, June 18, 2025
19:00
-
20:00
Bar Bario
Connect with fellow runners of WERQ Run Club and explore the outdoors with an easy long run. This running feature a mix of fast-paced intervals—ranging from 200m to 800m—with slow recovery runs in between.
Film Program 2: Everyday Resistance
Awareness & Critical Reflection
Sunday, June 22, 2025
14:45
-
16:40
Ventilator Cinema
Fremont | Burnt Milk | Nanitic
Amnesty International’s Human Rights Talk
Awareness & Critical Reflection
Tuesday, June 17, 2025
12:30
-
13:30
Amnesty International, Utrecht
Join Amnesty International for a powerful conversation about human rights—yours, mine, and ours all together. We believe everyone deserves the rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but many are under threat. That’s why we host Human Rights Talks: open, honest chats where people share stories, ideas, and different viewpoints. These aren’t debates—they’re about listening, understanding, and seeing human rights in a whole new way. Come be part of the conversation!
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Queer Unlimited
Cultural Celebration & Identity Reclamation
Thursday, June 19, 2025
17:00
-
22:00
Tilla Tec
We warmly invite you to Queer Unlimited an inspiring evening dedicated to the voices, talents, and
resilience of queer refugees, artists, and organizers. This special gathering takes place on the forth day of
the first Refugee Welcome Week in the Netherlands. It is initiated by Sajad Salmanpour, founder of Queer Work
and researcher, in close collaboration with the community and Refugee Academy at Vrije Universiteit
Amsterdam. Together, we aim to shine a powerful light on the experiences of LGBTQIA+ refugees through
storytelling, creative expression, and collective care. Join us for a vibrant celebration of art, identity, and
solidarity that reaches across borders.
Official After Party
Cultural Celebration & Identity Reclamation
Sunday, June 22, 2025
17:00
-
2:00
Radio Radio
Join us for the official After Party of Refugee Welcome Week at Radio Radio — a celebration of community, resilience, and radical joy. Not just in struggle, but in celebration. This evening is an invitation to recenter joy, togetherness, and love as acts of resistance.
Qigong + Taichi Workshop: Reflections Through Collective Conscientious Movement
Cultural Celebration & Identity Reclamation
Sunday, June 22, 2025
10:00
-
12:00
Vondelpark
In the midst of chaos, where do we find inner peace? How can we practice resistance in stillness? In this session we will create space for reflections through collective and conscientious movement, to exercise mental and physical resilience; to nourish radical hope. If you need a space or practice to reconnect, to find clarity, to sharpen your focus, to move forward in community action and collective care, we welcome you to join us.
WEAPONS, WOUNDS AND WHAT COMES AFTER.
Awareness & Critical Reflection
Friday, June 20, 2025
19:00
-
2:00
Bar Bario
Militarised Masculinities and Demilitarised Futures: Conspiring Conversations through Film, Dialogue and Music.
Decolonizing Community
Community Action
Friday, June 20, 2025
20:00
-
22:00
Pakhuis de Zwijger
QueerCity will be an interactive theaterprogram, where we will discuss about colonial and capitalist powerstrcuctures that plays a role inside and outside the community. We will ask questions and interact with the audience and take a deep dive on decolonizing community and center care and love.
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Workshop: Radical Futures from the Margins
Community Action
Friday, June 20, 2025
11:00
-
14:00
ALAB
How do we move beyond symbolic allyship and create real, lasting change, led by those directly impacted by displacement?
Unapologetically Queer
Cultural Celebration & Identity Reclamation
Friday, June 20, 2025
19:00
-
23:00
RAUM
Kickboxing: Strength & Conditioning
Community Action
Thursday, June 19, 2025
15:00
-
16:00
We Are Queer (location West)
A high-energy sweat sesh where kicks fly, fists pump, and your whole body gets in on the fun. We mix punchy combos, strength moves, and cardio bursts that’ll leave you feeling powerful. Think fierce footwork, vibey playlists, and a space where queer, trans, and allied bodies move loud, proud, and together.
Ripple Effect: The Yemen Crisis, a Role-Play Card Game
Awareness & Critical Reflection
Tuesday, June 17, 2025
16:00
-
17:00
ISSUE, The Living Room
This role-playing card game will reveal how global events, whether political decisions, international aid, or conflicts, ripple across the globe and shape your future.
Film Program 1: Lives in Transition
Awareness & Critical Reflection
Sunday, June 22, 2025
12:00
-
14:30
Ventilator Cinema
Life is Beautiful: A Letter to Gaza | The Scent of Geranium | Journey Mercies | Los Comandos
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Solidarity with Undocumented Amsterdammers
Cultural Celebration & Identity Reclamation
Saturday, June 21, 2025
17:30
-
22:00
Tolhuistuin
Voices and visions of undocumented Amsterdammers! Through film, art, and live music, we confront the systems that deny people status, safety, and uplift those building resistance in its place.
Navigating the Dutch Healthcare System: Queer & Trans Perspectives
Awareness & Critical Reflection
Saturday, June 21, 2025
13:30
-
16:30
Queer Gym
Many queer and trans refugees face huge barriers in accessing safe and affirming care. At this panel talk, we’ll talk about navigating the Dutch Healthcare System as/for queer and trans refugees.
The Future in Action (Kids Art Workshop)
Awareness & Critical Reflection
Saturday, June 21, 2025
13:00
-
16:00
GROND
Multilingual | Art materials and Sudanese food will be available for all participants
Fleeing (as an) Artist: Building a Life in Amsterdam
Awareness & Critical Reflection
Saturday, June 21, 2025
13:00
-
15:30
No Limits! Art Castle
What does it mean to be — and to become — a refugee artist in a city like Amsterdam? In this intimate and reflective afternoon, we invite visitors into the vibrant and urgent space of No Limits! Art Castle, a space for art, community, and resistance.
Abolitionist Assemblies #2: Borderline States
Radical Imagination & Future-Building
Friday, June 20, 2025
19:30
-
21:00
Felix Meritis
On the psychic and political violence of borders. Join us on the 20th of June at Felix Meritis for a critical interrogation of the sanctity of borders. We discuss how (neo)colonial ideology, biometric control, surveillance technologies, and global inequality all intersect at the border.
The Border Crossed Us - World Refugee Day
Radical Imagination & Future-Building
Friday, June 20, 2025
15:00
-
19:30
Felix Meritis
A powerful one-day experience of collective imagination, embodied storytelling, and radical futurism led by displaced communities. What if we could dream beyond borders, beyond displacement, beyond extraction?
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Radical hope and democratic engagement
Awareness & Critical Reflection
Thursday, June 19, 2025
19:15
-
20:30
VU Aurora
In her lecture, Ghorashi will draw on both her personal and academic experience to explore the importance of refugee narratives in reimagining democratic engagement.
Rise up! Speak up!
Community Action
Thursday, June 19, 2025
18:00
-
19:00
VU Forum 2
How do we speak up when we’ve been silenced? How do we reclaim our bodies, our voices, and our boundaries in a world that often denies us space?
Community-Built Media & Real-World Connection
Community Action
Thursday, June 19, 2025
16:00
-
17:30
VU Forum 2
This 90-minute session invites everyone — refugees, allies, and local community members — into an open and participatory conversation about community building.
Forward•Inc Festival - Community As A Superpower
Cultural Celebration & Identity Reclamation
Thursday, June 19, 2025
13:30
-
19:00
A Beautiful Mess
In a world full of borders and barriers, community is our superpower and our strategy for change.
At the Forward·Inc Festival, we celebrate the strength, creativity, and impact of newcomer entrepreneurs building new futures.
This year, the festival takes place during the first ever Refugee Welcome Week NL, both grounded in Radical Hope and the belief that real change starts when we come together.
We Dare to Dream: Dinner, Music, Film Premiere
Cultural Celebration & Identity Reclamation
Wednesday, June 18, 2025
19:30
-
22:00
Pakhuis De Zwijger
This special premiere of We Dare to Dream is part of the inaugural edition of Refugee Welcome Week in the Netherlands. The evening brings together community, cuisine, and cinema to honor resilience and the right to dream.
Exhibition Launch: Stories of Healing and Hope
Cultural Celebration & Identity Reclamation
Tuesday, June 17, 2025
14:00
-
17:00
ISSUE, The Living Room
As a community-based art therapy for Ukrainian refugees, this exhibition opens a window into their journeys through color, shape, and story. Created in art therapy sessions, these art pieces speak of healing, connection, and survival.
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Storytelling as Action and Archive
Awareness & Critical Reflection
Tuesday, June 17, 2025
19:30
-
21:30
Pakhuis De Zwijger
This evening explores the power of storytelling, not only as a personal act, but as a political tool, legal testimony, and collective memory.
The Black Archives Guided Tour
Awareness & Critical Reflection
Wednesday, June 18, 2025
13:00
-
14:30
The Black Archives
Discover the hidden stories you won't find in textbooks. On a tour of The Black Archives, you will be taken on a journey through a hushed history of Black emancipation and resistance using the unique collections in the archive.
UP Collective Testing Event: Refugee-Driven Entrepreneurship
Cultural Celebration & Identity Reclamation
Monday, June 16, 2025
12:00
-
13:00
Ben & Jerry's
Join us for the Up Collective Testing Event, where refugee entrepreneurs share their early-stage business ideas and invite your feedback.
Opening: Culture as Resistance and Radical Hope
Cultural Celebration & Identity Reclamation
Monday, June 16, 2025
17:30
-
23:00
Cinetol
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.