Masterclass with Teju Cole
23 september 2016 tot 23 september 2016On September 23 from 2 till 3pm Spui25 is organizing a masterclass with Teju Cole, Quinsy Gario and Daan Stoffelsen. During this masterclass we they discuss the importance of Cole's work in the Dutch context. And will focus on the opening essay 'Black Body' of his newly published collection Known and Strange Things. In this essay Cole discusses Baldwins experiences in the Swiss mountain village Leukerbad in the early '50s while working on his first novel Go Tell It on the Mountain. The distance from the States and crude racism he encounters in the small European village makes him reconsider his claims on the Western (mostly European) canon. Teju Cole follows in Baldwin's footsteps to Leukerbad but comes to quite another conclusion.
It is not possible to enroll fort his event, however Athenaeum Booksellers is giving away ten tickets fort his event. Send an email with subject “Ticket Teju Cole masterclass ” to [email protected] and maybe you’ll be joining us for this special masterclass!
Teju Cole will read from his work. Artist Quinsy Gario and literary critic Daan Stoffelsen react on aspects of his work that relate to their own interests and the Dutch context. These contributions will be the starting point for an interview with Teju Cole by Fiep van Bodegom. The program closes with ample time for questions from the audience.
About the speakers
Teju Cole (1975) is a writer, art historian, and photographer. He is the Distinguished Writer in Residence at Bard College and photography critic of the New York Times Magazine. He was born in the US in 1975 to Nigerian parents, and raised in Nigeria. He currently lives in Brooklyn. He is the author of three books, Every Day is for the Thief, named a book of the year by the New York Times, the Globe and Mail, NPR, and the Telegraph, and shortlisted for the PEN/Open Book Award, and Open City, which also featured on numerous book of the year lists, and won the PEN/Hemingway Award, the New York City Book Award for Fiction, the Rosenthal Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Internationaler Literaturpreis, and was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, and the Ondaatje Prize of the Royal Society of Literature. His new book Known and Strange Things, is a collection of essays.
Quinsy Gario is an artist and activist. His work raising awareness for the issue of Zwarte Piet (the tradition of blackface in the Netherlands) has brought this issue under national attention. The discussion still continues. His contribution to this program will be on the role of the black artist and intellectual on the (international) stage.
Daan Stoffelsen is responsible for Athenaeum Booksellers' website where reviews, prepublications and literary news is published. He is editor at literary journal Revisor. He used to review English and American fiction for the national daily NRC Handelsblad.
Fiep van Bodegom works and writes for literary magazine De Gids and weekly De Groene Amsterdammer. She writes essays, reviews and fiction.
1:30pm: doors open
2pm: start masterclass
3pm: book signing by Teju Cole
