International Literature Festival The Hague

Slow Winternachten festival February & March 2021

Sun 28 February - Sat 20 March 2021

Watch all the programmes, poems, short stories, interviews, spoken word and music performances of the online Winternachten international literature festival The Hague 2021!

Scroll on for the festival overview, click the programme of your choice and start the video. View for free and when you want.

Due to coronavirus restrictions, the Winternachten festival 2021 could not place in The Hague's theatres, libraries and schools. We did make five festival programmes of 75 minutes each. We gladly keep the video registrations of these programmes, live streamed from 13 - 17 January 2021, available here for free viewing.

Authors from home and abroad approached the festival theme It's Up to UsÂ in conversations and readings with creative energy. The deployed literary power for new perspectives on women's rights, climate injustice, self-care as protest and a planet in which non-human creatures and objects also have a voice. Along with the programmes, we present the previously filmed and commissioned short stories, essays and poems.

AnÂ addition to the #SoulCare-theme is an interview by Gerlinda Heywegen with writer Eva Meijer about depression, based on her book De grenzen van mijn taal (The limits of my language). The interview is Dutch spoken.

Also view the video poems made by Spot on Young Poets participants. Their personal images, poems and wishes portray a generation that is struggling during the corona pandemic.

Welcome to the Slow Winternachten festival 2021!

Retrospect

Online

It's Up to Us & PEN Award

Mirthe Frese in conversation with writers Arnon Grunberg, Eva Meijer, Raoul de Jong, Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe) and Samanta Schweblin (Germany). With contributions by Salena Godden (UK), Simon(e) van Saarloos and Jaap Tielbeke. English spoken.

"It's up to us" is a statement made by philosopher, songwriter and author Eva Meijer in a radio program, as she was speaking about her novel De nieuwe rivier ( The New River ), which deals with the …

Online

Writing Climate (In)justice - #StillWeRise

A programme about the climate, art and activism with authors Alexis Wright (Australia), Leena Norms (UK) and Sanam Sheriff (US) as well as Benjamin Fro, Chihiro Geuzebroek moderated by Fiep van Bodegom. English spoken.

More and more authors are giving the climate and the climate crisis a prominent role in their work. Think of the recent novels of Eva Meijer, Margaret Atwood and Richard Powers, for example. Few, …

Online

Sanam Sheriff in Writing Climate (In)Justice - #StillWeRise:

'What we now call the trees were once called the gods' - video reading (English spoken)

What we now call the trees were once called the gods. Their kingdom a green and honest song. While we look at trees, plants and flowers, at a blue sky and finally at an impressive mountain …

Online

Leena Norms in Writing Climate (In)Justice - #StillWeRise

'The Farmer's Great-Granddaughter' - video reading (English spoken)

I stand and inhale the fields That once were forests, lean on The kissing gate that puckers up To meet the blood under my wrists. Famous British poet and literary vlogger Leena Norms recites …

Online

The Female Convention - #TheFutureIsFemale

A programme about feminism and activism with authors Zsófia Bán (Hungary), Mona Eltahawy (US), Dilâra Gürcü (France), Mithu Sanyal (Germany) and Nazmiye Oral, Kaouthar Darmoni, Laura van Dolron and Nicole le Fever (moderator). English spoken.

It's up to us. This is what women in Poland and Turkey are demanding in their protests for gender equality and for better protection against violence. The ruling right-wing nationalist politicians in …

Online

Mithu Sanyal in The Female Convention - #TheFutureIsFemale

'Love Politics' - video essay (English spoken)

Hello! I love you. I love you all. But: what does it mean? Of course I am speaking about love. I am a women. I am so cis I haven't worn a pair of trousers in a year. In her essay, Mithu Sanyal …

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Mona Eltahawy in The Female Convention - #TheFutureIsFemale

'Imagine the patriarchy as an octopus' - video essay (English spoken)

When we talk about the Istanbul Convention, I want you to imagine women who are long ignored. All countries who are signatories or want to ratify the Istanbul Convention must remember migrant women, …

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Tout-monde - #BackToEarth

A programme about a new perspective on our Earth with authors Sulaiman Addonia and Annemarie Estor (Belgium), Amahl Raphael Khouri (Egypt) and Vamba Sherif, Chris Keulemans (moderator) and singer-songwriter Shishani. English spoken.

The image that we have of our world is purely human : a human-centred picture. It's up to us to give non-humans a voice and a stage. In this program created by Nisrine Mbarki, we give the floor to …

Online

Amahl Raphael Khouri in Tout-monde - #BackToEarth

'Can we think? Can we feel? Can we see?' - video reading (English spoken)

Can we think? Can we feel? Can we see? The journalists want to know. The scientists want to know. Hear how healing herbs, flowers and plants wonder why for thousands of years no man has …

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Sulaiman Addonia in Tout-monde - #BackToEarth

'Ixelles Ponds' - video reading (English spoken)

"Oh! The early mornings, the fragments of dawn falling over Flagey, the heaving breaths of joggers lapping around me, as the poet with a red scarf over his shoulders sits by my side, writing in his …

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Annemarie Estor in Tout-monde - #BackToEarth

'Canto excrementis' - video poem (English spoken)

Oh Man, Oh Man, Illustrious silk-pyjamaed occupier of lofts, conference rooms, palazzos and penthouses! 'Tis I who awaken thee! In no uncertain terms, human excrement addresses itself to …

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Radical Happiness - #SoulCare

A program about happiness and activism with authors Koleka Putuma (South Africa), Jens Meijen (Belgium) and Radna Fabias, Munganyende Hélène Christelle, Hassnae Bouazza (moderator), singer Bahghi and dancer Gil Gomes Leal. English and Dutch spoken.

"Joy is an act of resistance" is a slogan that is gaining traction. Can happiness be a form of activism? Is there such a thing as restful resistance? And why is self-care so important? These …

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Jens Meijen in Radical Happiness - #SoulCare

'For me, there are different kinds of happiness' - video reading (Dutch spoken)

While we see him silently and alone taking a walk in the woods, we hear writer, poet and journalist Jens Meijen talk about happiness. In his video column, he distinguishes types of happiness and …

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Bahghi in Radical Happiness - #SoulCare

'Joy' - videoclip

You gotta find joy in persistence So let's cry, dance and sing Enjoy the joy you bring Unleash the wild within On request of the Winternachten international literature festival The Hague …

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Eva Meijer: Depression in Times of Madness - #SoulCare

An interview by Gerlinda Heywegen with Eva Meijer (Dutch spoken)

Just as clearly as in her essay De grenzen van mijn taal, een klein filosofisch onderzoek naar depressie (The borders of my language, a small philosophical study about depression, published by …

Online