After Summer School: FridayAfter Summer School: Friday

This year’s programme especially explores ways of learning that foster peace through empathy, curiosity, imagination, listening, resistance, and resilience. It aims to strengthen social cohesion and create a shared sense of security for all.

This programme continues to collectively build the idea for a city-based Curriculum for Change. It comprises a series of classes, talks, workshops, and encounters that showcase and explore a multi-facetted, plural, inclusive and post-disciplinary approach to the city.   

Resistance / resilience
Workshop by Convivium x Zoöp

Explore how local initiatives can connect and strengthen each other to build a regenerative urban foodscape in the city. In this workshop, researchers Klaas Kuitenbrouwer, Pia Canales (Nieuwe Instituut), Justyna Jakubiec and Kevin Lai (Utrecht University) invite those connected to open kitchen and open garden initiatives in Rotterdam to identify possibilities for mutual support. The participants will use the Zoöp method to learn how various initiatives relate to each other, and to the living world of Rotterdam. Together you will explore how the existing relations could be improved and new relations formed. This workshop is part of Convivium, a practice-based research project into regenerative foodscapes in European cities. This workshop concludes with a shared lunch.

Friday 19 September, 09:30–14:00 | De Hillevliet | English / Dutch

Resistance / resilience
Workshop by Loom

Protest in public space can take different forms. It can include blockages, barricades, banners, choreographies, legal tactics, social media memes, squatting operations, consumer strikes, or other, more subtle forms of dissent against the status quo. In this workshop led by Mark Minkjan of Loom you will go deeper in exploring ways of being heard in public space and designing non-conventional narratives of protest. You will learn about various modes of protest, investigate the spatial conditions of a site in Rotterdam, and develop ways to make your message heard in this context.

Friday 19 September, 09:30–11:30 | Rotterdam City Hall | English / Dutch

Empathy / curiosity
Guided tour by Fenmei Hu (Verhalenhuis Belvédère)

Visit the China Town of Rotterdam together with artist, community curator and foodie Fenmei Hu to explore the Chinese supermarket Wah Nam Hong. Learn about what to buy there, which products are tasty, easy to make and healthy, and how to prepare them. In this guided tour you will get insights into all corners of the store, experience some of its flavours, and learn about the Chinese food culture and community of Rotterdam: their heritage, traditions, and rituals.

Friday 19 September, 11:30–12:30 | Wah Nam Hong | Dutch

Empathy / curiosity
Interactive lecture by Els Desmet (Verhalenhuis Belvédère)

During this interactive lecture Els Desmet, one of the founders of Verhalenhuis Belvédère, will share the story of this social and cultural initiative in Katendrecht. Created with the bottom-up engagement of many Rotterdammers, Verhalenhuis has grown into a space where personal stories of individuals and communities from the city can be heard and experienced. Els will take you through the story of the building on Rechthuislaan. How it was purchased by Verhalenhuis, gradually renovated, and transformed into the vibrant place it is today. There will be ample opportunity to ask questions and engage in conversation with Els and fellow attendees.

Friday 19 September, 13:00–14:30 | Verhalenhuis Belvédère | Dutch

Listening
Workshop by Varia

In this workshop, by Mitsitron of the Rotterdam-based collective Varia, you will listen to public sound libraries and datasets to observe what categorisations they use, which narratives they reinforce, and what worlds they build. Participants will also record (their own) queer sounds of exclusion: sounds that fail, refuse, reject, resist the performance of the norm. Using recorders, phones and various prompts, you will collect different perspectives, positions, stories, experiences. These recordings will provide an entrance point for listening and sound making that challenge binary structures, and counter-act archives of sounds.

Friday 19 September, 15:00–17:30 | Varia | English

Imagination
City walk by OMI

Almost 50 years ago, in 1978, the waterworks in De Esch were appropriated by the Utopia live-work community. What can a utopia be today? Can we construct a contemporary utopia? What does utopia mean in the city context of Rotterdam? Subject to major public debate, a ‘third bridge’ is coming to Rotterdam. Landing in De Esch, it will act as a driver of change, whether desired or not. Join OMI and a local community of makers as they guide you through their (self-built) utopias. Explore the various layers of communities and the impact on the city landscape, from its histories and memories to futures and utopias. This class is part of OMI’s Building Bridges program, that officially opens on Friday, 26th of September.

Friday 19 September, 16:30–18:30 | Start at Café Tom Tom | English

After the walk, join us for drinks and an after talk at Bar OMI!

Resistance / resilience
City Walk by Stadspark West

During this twilight evening walk, Anne Karin ten Bosch will guide you through the Stadspark West, a ‘fictional’ community park that already exists. During the walk, a series of encounters will form a thread for sharing experiences, doubts, and perspectives. Explore what is already happening there, on a small scale and close-by, that nurtures hope and forges connections. Survival skills and networking experience are welcome, but by no means required. Let the park lead you, cross paths with others, and join us, as we close the evening gathered around a fire.

Friday 19 September, 20:30–23:00 | Volkstuinvereniging Tot Nut en Genoegen | Dutch/English

Listening
Podcast by Stine Jensen

In the chaotic times in which we live, philosophy often fulfils the role that religion used to play. Without religion, the wisdom of others can provide guidance on how to think and how to live. In the daily podcast Insight of the Day, philosopher, writer and podcaster Stine Jensen offers new wisdom, based on a particular insight into life. This special series, prepared for the After Summer School, features two new episodes with special guests.

Thursday 18 September, all day | Deck, Nieuwe Instituut | Dutch

The After Summer School is a Rotterdam-based programme of the New Academy where a wide variety of knowledge producers teach their methods. How can we change the city by looking, listening, writing, archiving, collaborating, activating, researching, designing, and walking differently?

If you have any questions regarding the programme or would like to request a free solidarity ticket for financial reasons, you can contact us through laura.lakam@nieuweinstituut.nl.