Cover of Slavery in the Cultural Imagination: Debates, Silences, and Dissent in the Neerlandophone Space (2025). Artwork on cover: Dion Rosina - Is it a Dream? (2023) 6 Nov 2025
19:00 - 21:00
Symposium: Cultural Imagination and the Legacy of Colonialism
On Thursday 6 November, Framer Framed hosts an evening organised by historian Karwan Fatah-Black and literary scholar Marrigje Paijmans, addressing the following questions: How do we imagine the past of colonialism and slavery today? Which artists, genres, media and languages are speaking out about these legacies – and which remain silent? Is the topic of colonialism open to dialogue, empathy and change? How can language and creativity drive the process of transformation?
Join this evening symposium to celebrate the publication of the co-edited volume Slavery in the Cultural Imagination: Debates, Silences, and Dissent in the Neerlandophone Space (2025), edited by Karwan Fatah-Black and Marrigje Paijmans. This event features creative and scholarly work that engages with the legacies of colonialism and push for social and cultural change. The focus is on the Neerlandophone space: the complex linguistic space spanning both the Netherlands and former Dutch colonies.
The evening includes presentations by media and culture scholar Arnoud Arps, artist Buhlebezwe Siwani and poet Bernice Vreedzaam, whose work actively contributes to rethinking the colonial past and reimagining the future. Following their individual presentations, they engage in a panel discussion with the audience on the role of creativity and language in decolonial efforts. The discussion is moderated by the editors of the Slavery in the Cultural Imagination volume Karwan Fatah-Black and Marrigje Paijmans.
Join for an evening of inspiration and dialogue, wherein the roles of art, language and creativity in confronting the legacies of colonialism are explored. Register here.
Note: The program is conducted in English, though some elements may be presented in Bahasa Indonesian, isiXhosa, Sranan, or Dutch.
About
Arnoud Arps is a media and culture scholar at the University of Amsterdam, specialising in contemporary representations of Indonesia’s colonial past in Indonesian and Dutch popular culture. Arps will demonstrate how short films by young film makers from the Indonesian-Dutch nexus exemplify what the postcolonial Neerlandophone memory of colonial Indonesia has become and where it is headed.
Buhlebezwe Siwani is a visual artist that lives and works between Cape Town and Amsterdam. She works with performance, photography, sculpture, and installation to touch social and political topics, such as the female body, Black communities, histories of colonisation and the paradoxes of our contemporary society. She is shortlisted for the Prix de Rome (2025), the pre-eminent incentive award for talented visual artists from the Netherlands. Siwani will screen her choreography Ulwela Amaza (created in collaboration with Rozenstraat, A rose is a rose is a rose), which uses dance as a method for communication about a history that is always lived and in motion.
Bernice Vreedzaam is a writer of poetry, audio stories, cinepoetry, among many other genres. Whether it concerns Surinamese polyphonic loudness or meditative silence, language in her work is a medium for making connections. Vreedzaam reads poetry from her recently published debute De vogelgrens oversteken.
Karwan Fatah-Black is a historian at Leiden University, specialising in Dutch Colonial History. The early modern Atlantic world is the context for his study of the transformational effects of globalization on society. Fatah-Black organised the event and moderates the panel discussion.
Marrigje Paijmans is a literary scholar at the University of Amsterdam focusing on the intersection of colonialism and ecology through the lens of water. Paijmans organised the event and moderates the panel discussion.
This event is in English. Admission is free.
Do you also think art should be free and accessible? Please consider supporting us with a donation when registering or by becoming a Framer Framed Friend!
This event may be photographed and filmed. Kindly let us know in advance if you prefer not to have your picture taken. For seated programmes, places are always made available for wheelchair users. Please speak to the host before the programme begins.
Framer Framed is supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science; Amsterdam Fund for the Arts; Municipality of Amsterdam; and VriendenLoterij Fonds.
This event is made possible by Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), Netherlands Institute for Cultural Analysis (NICA), and Framer Framed.
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Book Launch / Colonial history / Slavery /
Exhibitions
Exhibition: Shapeshifters
A group exhibition examining how colonialism has shaped museums, archives and other institutions of knowledge
Network
Marrigje Paijmans
Professor, Researcher
Bernice Vreedzaam
Writer
Buhlebezwe Siwani
Artist
Arnoud Arps
Professor, Researcher
