Aafke Romeijn
(Netherlands, 1986) is a successful musician, author and journalist. She debuted as a novelist with Concept M (2018). This well-received sci-fi novel takes place in the Netherlands in 2020. A young woman makes sense in a surprising way of her condition of colourlessness, a chronic disease that has grown to epidemic proportions in Europe. She radicalizes and ends up in an organization that carries out attacks. Romeijn has performed as a pop-music artist at festivals such as Lowlands and Noorderslag. With her beats, razor-sharp lyrics and analog synthesizers, she's the uncrowned queen of Dutch-language electropop. Her album M, the soundtrack to her novel and her first self-produced record, was released in 2019, followed in 2020 by her debut poetry collection Leegstand (Vacancy). In 2021 she released the album Godzilla and published 7B, another sci-fi novel set in the year 2040 in Groningen, where military personnel train in a huge complex for a war over natural resources.
(WN 2022)Share this page
Archive available for: Aafke Romeijn
-
Whose House is This?
A literary relay with Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Neske Beks, Aafke Romeijn, Rebecca Solnit (online), Robin Block, Pola Oloixarac et al.
Whose House is This? is Winternachten 2022's festival theme. In this event, we presented an exciting relay of readings and music, in which our festival authors put their own spin on the theme. Together they breathed new life into the house of family, society and literature.
All angles of the four-day Winternachten Festival were covered in Whose House is This? during a colourful parade of authors and performers. Various voices gave completely different answers to the great question underlying the festival. We listened to stories about being at home, to critical stories about the institutions to which we are subject, to cozy stories built on a solid foundation, and much more.
Author and artist Neske Beks got her teeth into our theme (and the question is what was left over); author Pola Oloixarac let us in on the fun of Mona, a parody of the literary world; multitalent Aafke Romeijn treated us to music; and writer and activist Rebecca Solnit (Men Explain Things to Me) came home to us on the podium all the way from the United States.English spoken.
-
A Book to Call Home with Aafke Romeijn
Following up on the festival theme Whose House is This?, in A Book to Come Home to we asked one festival author the following question: which book brought you home? The answers could go in all directions. Perhaps the author chose a book that describes a house that feels like his/her own home, or a place where he/she wishes to live. But it could also be a book whose style of writing or manner of thinking makes the author feel at home. Or it could be the relief of finally reading a story in which the protagonist reflects his/her appearance. The program was a peek into the bookshelves as well as the soul of each author.
Chris Keulemans interviewed Aafke Romeijn. -
WWZ x Winternachten Festival 2022
Yippee, WWZ was back at Winternachten! We ordered a drink and got carried away by today's top spoken-word artists and poets.
WWZ is a popular platform for authors, spoken-word artists and musicians that has, with energy and a deep love of language, staged the most beautiful performances and loveliest music for sold-out venues for many years. During Winternachten we joined forces with WWZ and PAARD. Besides Dutch poets and spoken-word artists, international festival authors let their voices be heard at WWZ x Winternachten Festival 2022 in an extra-long, high-profile program. Good vibes guaranteed!
Line-up
During this event you saw and heard performers such as: WWZ-founder and spoken-word artist Elten Kiene, writer and musician Aafke Romeijn, poet Derek Otte, spoken-word artists Kelvin Allison and Amara van der Elst, poet (and former Amsterdam poet laureate) Gershwin Bonevacia, poet Ellen Deckwitz, and Iranian-Swedish poet Athena Farrokhzad. -
Words Become Meaning - Winternachten Edition
With: Aafke Romeijn, Akwasi, Elfie Tromp, Elzahra Elkawafi, HemelBesem, Jennifer Muntslag, Mr. Winter, Quin Kempees, Roos Dickmann, Roza Lozica
During this special Winternachten edition of Woorden Worden Zinnen at Paard we enjoyed performers, poetry, punchlines, music, exhibits, beer & bites in a feel-good setting. The lineup included storyteller and rapper Akwasi; writer and columnist Elfie Tromp; writer and singer-songwriter Aafke Romeijn; actress Roos Dickmann; rapper, radio host and writer HemelBesem from South Africa; and singer Roza Rozica. Plus: verses to take home by Quin Kempees, your favourite host JNM The Naked MC, and tasty tunes by DJ Winter.
Woorden Worden Zinnen is a low-threshold platform and stage night for word art in the broadest sense. It takes place on and at stages and festivals throughout the Randstad and was founded in 2010 by spoken word artist Elten Kiene and literary organizer Wesley Loos. -
Aafke Romeijn Writes and Sings
With: Aafke Romeijn, Hassnae Bouazza
Heavy beats, razor-sharp texts and analogue synthesizers: Aafke Romeijn (1986) is the uncrowed queen of Dutch-language electro-pop. Think Spinvis meets Daft Punk meets Peaches and you're starting to get the picture. Maybe you've heard "Alles Went" ("You Can Get Used to Anything"), the hipster song she composed with Sef, or maybe you've caught her on Twitter -- Aafke isn't ever afraid to speak out. She made her debut as a writer in 2018 with Concept M, a highly praised novel about radicalization in the Netherlands.
At the Haagse Hogeschool's Speakers' Corner Aafke Romeijn performed a couple of her songs, read from her novel Concept M and had a conversation with Hassnae Bouazza and the public.
Romeijn also performed for the 2019 Winternachten festival during the festival edition of Words Become Meaning at the Paard van Troje on Thursday, 17 January, and during the main festival evenings, Friday & Saturday Unlimited, on 18 and 19 January at Theater aan het Spui/Filmhuis Den Haag.
-
Who Wants to Live Forever?
How did they express our (near) future in words or sound? In this literary and musical performance, seven festival authors each presented a new text or poem commissioned by Winternachten, with musical contributions by Syrian-born ud player Jaber Fayad. You saw and heard Ayelet Gundar-Goshen from Israel, HemelBesem from South Africa, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi from Uganda, Arshia Sattar from India, Leni Zumas from the United States and, from The Netherlands, Auke Hulst and Aafke Romeijn. Their inspiration was the festival theme Who Wants to Live Forever? The authors performed in their mother tongue or writing language with simultaneous projection of the English and/or Dutch translations.
-
Book of My Life: Aafke Romeijn
Writers tell us about their favourite book: the book that inspires or touches them, that set their artistic, moral or intellectual compass. In short, the book they would recommend to everyone. Interview: Hassnae Bouazza.
-
On the Couch: Aafke Romeijn as Katadreuffe
A fictional character visits the shrink! Psychiatrist Damiaan Denys invited musician, journalist and writer Aafke Romeijn onto his couch. As Jacob Willem Katadreuffe, the protagonist from F. Bordewijk's Karakter (1938), she reflected on desires, motives and life questions. What if I had eternal life? As a character, do I not already enjoy eternal life? And what is actually the meaning of life? Can one shape life, is everything possible if you will it?
-
How Dark Is the Future?
Writer and journalist Fiep van Bodegom talked to authors Leni Zumas (US), Mohammad Rabie (Egypt) and Aafke Romeijn (Netherlands) about their expectations and speculations about the near future. All three recently published futuristic novels. In Red Clocks, Zumas portrays women in a future US where abortion and IVF are banned and and adoption is illegal for single mothers. In Rabie's Otared, a police sniper joins the underground resistance movement when half of Cairo is occupied by mercenaries. And in Concept M, Romeijn presents a surprising sketch of radicalization in the Netherlands in the year 2020.
