Patrisse Cullors van Black Lives Matter
Cullors, die de hashtag #blacklivesmatter in het leven riep, stond samen met Alicia Garza en Opal Tometi aan de wieg van de gelijknamige beweging. Black Lives Matter verzet zich tegen het (politie)geweld en racisme tegen de zwarte gemeenschap in de VS en komt op voor de meest gemarginaliseerde groepen in de samenleving. Het is een echte grassroots beweging, zonder hiërarchische structuur, de organisatie kent dan ook geen echte leiders. Black Lives Matter werd in drie jaar tijd een beweging met aanhangers over de hele wereld en inspireert en ‘empowert’ een nieuwe generatie jonge, zwarte activisten in hun strijd voor rechtvaardigheid, gelijke kansen en respect.
Na de lezing gaat Cullors in gesprek met Nawal Mustafa, Amal Alhaag en Che Brandes Tuka over de relatie tussen het antiracisme debat in de VS en in Nederland. De muzikale omlijsting zal verzorgd worden door Gery Mendes.
De gespreksleiding is in handen van schrijver en kunstenaar Malique Mohamud.
Panelleden:
- Nawal Mustafa
Nawal Mustafa was born in Somalia and moved to the Netherlands at the age of 8. After witnessing her family’s long asylum procedure, that spread over a period of ten years, Nawal became fascinated by law and decided to study law. After completing an undergraduate degree in International & European Law Nawal studied a LLM Master in International law & the Law of International Organizations with a specializations in Human Rights Law from the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (The Netherlands). Currently Nawal is working at Amnesty International Netherlands and focuses on discrimination and racial profiling. - Amal Alhaag
Amal Alhaag is an Amsterdam based independent curator, cultural programmer and radio host with an interest in counter-culture, oral histories and global social issues. Her work explores these themes through short- and long-term collaborations with artists, institutions and audiences.Since 2008, her projects infuse music and art with current affairs, post-coloniality, digital anthropology and everyday anecdotes to invite, stage or examine ‘uncomfortable‘ issues, unknown stories and unwelcome audiences to write, share or compose narratives in impermanent settings.
Previously she worked as cultural programmer at the Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam (2009-2012), and as the curator for public programming at the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam (2013/2014). Together with artist Maria Guggenbichler, Alhaag cofounded the Side Room, a discursive platform for art & intersectional theory in Amsterdam. In addition, she is currently the artistic director of contemporary urban culture platform Metro54 and curator public programming at the Research Center for Material Culture at the National Museum of World Cultures. - Che Brandes Tuka
Che is a journalist, researcher, human rights activist and grassroots organizer. He studied at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, where he committed himself to the self-organization of multicultural students as well as was politically active and organized campaigns against racism and war. After working as a staff member for the Socialist Party in the city council he moved to New York City, where he got involved with Black Lives Matter and helped to organize one of the larger protests after the non-indictment of the police officers involved in the killings of Mike Brown and Eric Garner. After New York he worked with refugees in Greece during the refugee crisis, where he organized international solidarity campaigns. He recently came back from a trip through Latin America, where he researched social movements and worked for the progressive news outlet, teleSUR.
Over de Vrijheidslezing
Voor het vierde jaar maakt De Balie de Vrijheidslezing. In de Vrijheidslezing staat altijd het verhaal van een vrijheidsdenker centraal. Eerdere sprekers waren o.a. de Egyptische feminist Nawal el Saadawi, de Brits- Pakistaanse radicaliseringsdeskundige Maajid Nawaz, internetactivist Esra’a al Shafei uit Bahrein en de Russische journalist en activist Zhanna Nemtsova. Naast het programma in De Balie vindt de Vrijheidslezing doorgaans ook plaats op een andere locatie in Nederland. De Vrijheidslezing wordt mogelijk gemaakt door het VFonds en Stichting Democratie & Media.
Voertaal: Engels
Dit programma wordt gemaakt in samenwerking met De Balie en Studio Narrative.