Stephan Sanders
(Haarlem, NL, 1961) is a columnist, presenter, essayist and writer. In 2015 he came out of the closet for the second time: he publicly acknowledged that he believes in god, even if this is "not done" in intellectual circles. Since mid-2016 he has been a regular columnist with the Volkskrant newspaper. In his 2007 book Zon, zee en oorlog (Sun, Sea and War) he describes experiences in places like Capetown, where he discovered that his biological father was South African. Sanders, who was adopted by Dutch foster parents, studied philosophy and political science and has written for various dailies and weeklies since 1982. He has published story and essay collections, novels, journalistic pieces, and the 2013 book Iets meer dan een seizoen (A Little More than One Season).
(WIN 2017)Archive available for: Stephan Sanders
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Liberté! The Revolutionary meaning of Freedom
The Congolese novelist and essayist Alain Mabanckou opened Friday Night Unlimited with a lecture about the values of the French Revolution and their meaning in our time.
Afterwards, writer and essayist Stephan Sanders had conversations with Alain Mabanckou, with historian and political philosopher Luuk van Middelaar and writer Louise O. Fresco about the contemporary meaning of freedom as a driving force of European democracy.
What is the meaning of the French Revolution's motto in today's Europe? For the revolutionaries, freedom stood for much more than individual aims. it stood for the collective longing for self-determination and for the democratic consideration and manifestation of change and progress. Is anything left of the revolutionary meaning of freedom in contemporary Europe?
Alternating with the conversations there was live drawing by visual artist en book illustrator Gerda Dendooven (Belgium) and music by classical accordionist Oleg Lysenko (Netherlands), cello player Jole De Baerdemaeker and soprano Elisabeth Sturtewagen (both Belgium).
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Bas Heijne & Stephan Sanders
With: Bas Heijne, Raj Mohan, Stephan Sanders
We hadden een droom - de erfenis van drie wereldverbeteraars
Ze voerden een felle strijd tegen ongelijkheid, onderdrukking en haat: Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King en Gandhi. Naar aanleiding van een tentoonstelling in de Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam schreef Bas Heijne een bevlogen essay over deze strijders tegen apartheid, racisme en antikolonialisme. In zijn essay Wereldverbeteraars staat de filosofie van deze drie helden centraal. Volgens Heijne beschouwen we hun gedachtengoed vaak als vanzelfsprekend; maar waren hun ideeën over humanisme, de kracht van liefde en hoe zij vanuit compassie, niet vanuit haat, de ongelijkheid en onrecht wisten te bestrijden pas echt radicaal.
Op donderdag 14 december 2017 was Bas Heijne samen met schrijver en columnist Stephan Sanders te gast bij B-Unlimited. Voor De Groene Amsterdammer schreef Sanders een recensie over Wereldverbeteraars. Op ons podium in de bibliotheek vertelde Heijne over zijn boek en ging erover met Sanders in gesprek. Ook was er ruimte voor vragen van het publiek.
Deze laatste avond van B-Unlimited in 2017 sloten we extra feestelijk af met een bijzondere muzikale bijdrage van Raj Mohan, de bedenker van Sarnami-Bhojpuri geet and pop.
Programma samengesteld door Shervin Nekuee (Writers Unlimited).
Boekverkoop in de zaal door Van Stockum Boekverkopers
B-Unlimited: Bas Heijne & Stephan Sanders
We hadden een droom - de erfenis van drie wereldverbeteraars
Muziek: Raj Mohan
donderdag 14 december
zaal open 20.00 uur
aanvang: 20.30 uur
Centrale Bibliotheek, Studio B
Spui 68 Den HaagTijdens het Winternachten Festival 2018 (18 21 januari) leidden Bas Heijne en Stephan Sanders gesprekken met internationale schrijvers rondom het festivalthema We the People over het verlangen naar een daadkrachtig wij-gevoel. Kijk voor meer informatie op www.writersunlimited.nl
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This Is Not America (Part 2)
The unexpected election of businessman Donald Trump as president of the United States will be signed and sealed in Washington this Friday, 20 January. The choice of Trump is seen primarily as a protest by citizens against the established political elite, and a sign of broad discontent among the American public. Is the USA our role model - will voters stand up against the political establishment here as well? In Europe in 2017, significant elections will take place in the Netherlands, France and Germany; the Dutch will be first to go to the ballot box on 15 March to elect their members of parliament. Should we expect a surprise?
In This is Not America, writers and journalists will compare the USA and the Netherlands under the knowledgeable direction of Stephan Sanders. Margriet Oostveen wrote a column for NRC Handelsblad from the US about daily life there; currently she does the same for the Volkskrant about the Dutch from the Netherlands. Bas Heijne offers a broader cultural context for the general discontent; Ian Buruma, a citizen of and expert on both countries, makes comparisons; and Arnon Grunberg reflects on what he hears and sees in the streets of New York and The Hague. Jeanine Valeriano and her Spoken Beat Night finish up the evening with a sparkling performance. -
This Is Not America (part 1)
A late-night show about the United States of America that touches on many issues, from the shrinking middle class to the differences between whites and blacks, from hopeful new immigrants to the embittered white underclass. The America of the supporters of Donald Trump. A discussion between bestselling US author Colson Whitehead, Bolivian author Rodrigo Hasbún, Dutch writer Christine Otten and Anglo-Dutch writer Ian Buruma about America in the era of president Trump. Stephan Sanders moderates the conversation and Spoken Beat Night adds a jazzy musical interpretation of the American story.
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Writers Unlimited Brainwash: The Text of My Life
With: Andrew Solomon, Ignaas Devisch, Jan Drost, Simon(e) van Saarloos, Stephan Sanders, Tamar de Waal, Thijs Lijster, Tom Chatfield
Writers Unlimited nam deel aan de eerste Haagse editie van het Brainwash festival. In de Koning Willem foyer in de Koninklijke Schouwburg presenteerden we tussen 20.00 uur en 23.00 uur 'De tekst van mijn leven'. Stephan Sanders interviewde schrijvers en filosofen die te gast waren op het festival. Zij droegen hun favoriete teksten voor en lichtten toe waarom deze tekst, dit gedicht, romanfragment of deze songtekst hun leven en eigen werk heeft beïnvloed. Welke herinnering, welk gevoel riep die tekst nog bij hen op? Een doorlopend interviewprogramma, waarbij het publiek ook met de gasten in gesprek ging.
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I speak your language
The new generation of poets Ronelda Kamfer (South Africa), Alfred Schaffer (Aruba/the Netherlands) and Hagar Peeters (the Netherlands) recite from their work and talk to Stephan Sanders about their language and poetry. Ronelda Kamfer writes in Afrikaans. Is that language in her country still symbolic of the language of the Apartheid regime? Is Afrikaans beyond guilt, or is there a job to do here for Afrikaans poets like her? Alfred Schaffer, the son of an Aruban mother and a father from Limburg, writes his poems in Dutch and lived in South Africa for a while. In her poetry Hagar Peeters explores modern specimens of suppression in the Netherlands. How do these three young poets look at the guilt or innocence of the language they write in? And how does that language relate to the reality they seek to capture in their poems?
Dutch/Afrikaans. -
Sermonizing: Stephan Sanders
In his sermon on Passion and Love the writer Stephan Sanders gave us a picture of sex-life in the gay-scene. Dutch spoken.
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Sex on paper
'The sweetest margerine-advertising I ever heard,' responded writer Stephan Sanders to the sex-scene just his collegue Ronald Giphart just read from his work. 'Sex of men above fourty is disgusting', was one of Gipharts remarks. With Manon Uphoff, we had three trend setters when talking about putting sex to paper. Dutch spoken.