On Thursday afternoon, 18 January, writer and poet Sholeh Rezazadeh was in Laak courtesy of the Writers Unlimited International Literature Festival The Hague (18-21 January). She recited poetry, accompanied by percussionist Hashem Kabreet on handpan in Bibliotheek Laakkwartier, Vadercentrum-ADAM and the VrouwenBuurtLab. Free entry, everyone was welcome!

Rezazadeh won the El Hizjra Prize for her poetry in 2019 en reached the finals of the Dutch Championship Poetry Slam in 2020. She wrote two wonderful bestselling novels in Dutch: De hemel is altijd paars (The Sky is Always Purple) and Ik ken een berg die op me wacht (I Know a Mountain Waiting for Me). Her books, poems and spoken-word performances are about family, identity, love, migration and nature.

Rezazadeh and Kabreet perform:
15:00-15:30 uur at Bibliotheek Laakkwartier, Linnaeusstraat 2
15:45-16:15 uur at Vadercentrum-ADAM, Jonckbloetplein 24
16:30-17:00 uur at VrouwenBuurtLab Laak, Van Meursstraat 1

Sholeh Rezazadeh (Iran, 1989) -- writer, poet, performer and columnist -- received much praise and prizes for her first novel De hemel is altijd paars (The Sky is Always Purple). Readers were moved by the story of a young woman working in a charity shop, who falls in love with a musician and remembers her native country of Iran with love and pain. Rezazadeh studied medicine and came to The Netherlands in 2015. She has been published in many Dutch publications and is a columnist with Het Financieele Dagblad newspaper.

Her second novel, Ik ken een berg die op me wacht (I Know a Mountain Waiting for Me), appeared in 2023. In the same poetic style as the first novel, Rezazadeh writes about a woman who turns her life upside down to travel from Amsterdam to Iran to join a nomadic family; it is a story of longing for space and quiet, told from the perspective of a river.

Hashem Kabreet is a percussionist, trainer and workshop leader. He plays on Eastern and world percussion instruments (frame drum, darbouka, djembe, cajon, handpan) in bands such as Étoiles Électriques and HAN Here & Now, in various musical styles. He leads music workshops and creative trainings for organizations such as Sounds of Change, Raw Resonance, Art Root Collective, Orchestre Partout and Fort van de Verbeelding.

Organization by Laaktheater and Writers Unlimited International Literature Festival The Hague.

Festival tip: Sholeh Rezazadeh and Hashem Kabreet also appeared on Opening Night (18 January, Theater aan het Spui); and Rezazadeh also performed during the grand festival event Friday Night Unlimited (19 January) where you chose your own route along some twenty programmes on five stages at Theater aan het Spui and Filmhuis Den Haag.

From 18 to 21 January 2024, the festival could be found in theatres, libraries and schools throughout The Hague: from Theater aan het Spui, Filmhuis Den Haag, Koninklijke Schouwburg and Paard to Theater Dakota, the Nieuw Waldeck, Schilderswijk and Ypenburg libraries and Haagse Hogeschool. With over ninety writers, poets and spoken-word artists and musicians from the Netherlands and abroad. With readings, prose, poetry, storytelling, spoken word, author interviews, topical talks, films and music.