Opening New Academic Year: Hidden Histories

Aude Christel Mgba and Vincent van Velsen, co-curators from sonsbeek2020 (the whole curatorial team will be announced end of September) will be in conversation with Jessica de Abreu and Mitchell Esajas from The Black Archives on the project 'Ten times more history'.

Building as a starting point of a long collaboration between ArtEZ studium generale and sonsbeek2020, the event of 11 September will mainly focus on the themes of Invisible Histories and how its lack in the education system can also shape labor conditions, gender and race issues.

'Ten times more history', is a collaboration with the World History Committee of the Association of History and State Institution in the Netherlands (VGN Kleio), Social Innovation Works and various historians and experts around a poster. The poster comes from series of articles about hidden histories that The Black Archives have published in collaboration with FunX and De Correspondent. It is aimed at promoting education about world history, concealed perspectives and stimulating a discussion about this at various levels.

The Black Archives is a unique historical archive consists of unique book collections, archives and artifacts that are the legacy of Black Dutch writers and scientists for inspiring conversations, activities and literature from Black and other perspectives that are often overlooked elsewhere. The Black Archives documents the history of black emancipation movements and individuals in the Netherlands. The approximately 3000 books in the collections focus on racism and race issues, slavery and (de)colonization, gender and feminism, social sciences and development, Suriname, the Netherlands Antilles, South America, Africa and more.


Speakers

Jessica de Abreu (the Netherlands, 1989) is an anthropologist, curator, and activist who graduated from the departments of Social and Cultural Anthropology and Culture, Organization and Management at VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam. Her passionate commitment to the field of African Diaspora has led to research on upward social mobility in New York, Amsterdam, and London.

Mitchell Esajas (the Netherlands, 1988) is co-founder and chairman of New Urban Collective, a network for students and young professionals from diverse backgrounds with a focus on the Surinamese, Caribbean and African diaspora. Esajas studied Business Studies and Anthropology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. In 2016 he co-founded the Black Archives in Amsterdam, a unique collection of books, documents and artefacts documenting the history of Black people and resistance in the Dutch context, and beyond.

Aude Mgba (Cameroon, 1991) is an independent curator based between Cameroon and the Netherlands. She was participant of De Appel Curatorial programme 2018-2019. She is co-curator of sonsbeek2020.

Vincent van Velsen (The Netherlands, 1987) is an Amsterdam-based writer and curator. He works as a freelance curator and advisor, holds the position of contributing editor at Dutch contemporary art magazine Metropolis M, was a resident at the Van Eyck and guest resident at the Rijksakademie. He is part of the Amsterdam Municipal Curatorial Advisory Group (Stadscuratorium) and a member of the board at De Appel. He is co-curator of sonsbeek2020.