Centraal Laat is the evening concept of Centraal Museum Utrecht. On a few Thursdays per year, you can wander through the exhibition rooms until after hours and lose yourself in performances, music, lectures and other cultural happenings in and around the museum building. Expect collaborations with both Utrecht locals and refreshing cultural newcomers. For this edition we will be reflecting on what it is like to build a new life in a new country and forming community. In the 17th century, The Bentvueghels discovered life and art in Rome. Nowadays, sense of belonging, art and the relationship with the hosting country are relevant to those who set out abroad. The community members of De Voorkamer, a cultural space that became synonym of community, will be the protagonists of this Centraal Laat, inviting all of us to think and get involved through poetry, musical performance, storytelling and workshops. What do you bring with you to your new home when it comes to habits, music, dance, poetry? How does creativity contribute to creating communities? On Thursday April 6 we will meet at Centraal Museum to delve into these questions with the De Voorkamer community.

TICKETS

About De Voorkamer

De Voorkamer is a meeting place where you get into contact with a diversity of cultures: a place to belong and a safe place to gain new experiences. Creativity and talent connects people with diverse cultural backgrounds on a personal level. De Voorkamer organizes creative workshops, cultural dinners, language cafes, lectures, jam sessions, women's cafes, storytelling evenings and much more. De Voorkamer offers a place where newcomers can settle down, where like-minded people meet and where the city of Utrecht can be discovered together.

Yetunde Olúdáre

Yetunde loves to connect with people and is interested in social and community-based projects, to create and promote links among people of diverse experiences and cultures. As a child, she enjoyed the sharing of stories with her community under the Nigerian skies. She wishes to share her discovery of an amazing community called De Voorkamer in Utrecht. Also, Yetunde is passionate about inclusion, mutual respect, and health. She enjoys public speaking and travelling.

"Live, Learn, Care, Share, and Connect"

Olupemi Olúdáre

Olupemi Oludare specializes in musicology and cultural analysis, with research interests in arts and language in society and intercultural communication. His research also interrogates the economic and political implications of arts, language, heritage, and identity in postcolonial and decolonial environment. While contributing to human and social development. Olupemi is also a professional music composer, artist, and cures exhibitions on African and Afro-diasporic arts and cultural heritage. His musical and cultural performances engage intercultural communication, African (Ubuntu, Omolúàbí) philosophies, and wellbeing. He offers social bonding, team building, pedagogical workshops, and training services through Isokan Concepts.

Dalshad Hasan

Dalshad Hasan is an industrial engineer and musician striving for spiritual freedom. He plays Saz, Oud, Tar, percussion and he sings. Dalshad considers music as his mobile home in which he finds shelter, safety and connection. He believes music is one of the most beautiful languages where feelings and emotions are the alphabet.

Randa Awad

Randa Awad is a writer and publicist, originally from Syria, of Palestinian origin. She currently lives in Utrecht with her two daughters. Awad writes short stories, poetry, theatre and articles. Her work has appeared in Homeland, Bread and Memory (2018), Hide and Seek (2021), Someone Just Turned on the Light (2021) and during Residencies in Utrecht. As an international artist, living in Utrecht, she shares her views on Utrecht society.

Bakr Al Jaber

Bakr Al Jaber is a 30-year-old Syrian poet. In his work, Bakr explores the relationship between universal beauty, war and the duality of existence. In collaboration with Dutch photographer Hillie de Rooij, he published the project 'Let's talk hard and laugh a lot'. He was shortlisted for the 'El Hizjra literature prize 2020' and performed at De Balie, TivoliVredenburg, RAUM and Mooie Woorden, among others. In 2022, he did an art residency in Jeddah at Hafez Gallery and at Woord900, organised by Mooie Woorden and ILFU. He is currently starting an art residency at The Front Room.

Amara Diabate

Amara Diabate was born in Conakry, the capital of Guinea in West Africa. He and his five brothers and three sisters descend from a Griot family. Griots are musicians who use their music to tell the history of their region. During Central Late, Amara will share his story with you through his beautiful West African instrument; the Kora.

Sapin Makengele

Sapin Makengele was born in the land of the Rumba: Congo. A country with about a hundred million inhabitants, four national languages, over four hundred dialects and three hundred different ethnicities. While each ethnic group has its own way of expressing culture, music is prevalent in every group. Sapin has a great love for Congolese music in addition to passion and talent as a visual artist. He is a great dancer and will teach us some Congolese dance moves during Central Late. The hips are guaranteed to loosen up!

Embroidery session

Join us in De Voorkamer’s Embroidery Session! Together we will embroider on one long fabric that will become a tablecloth for De Voorkamer’s regular Community Dinners. Inspired by the idea of communities in migration and the importance of sitting together around food, we would like to gather again, at the same table to create a shared embroidered piece for future shared moments! Join the session and at a later point, a dinner!

Linoleum workshop

During the lino session we will make postcards together using lino printing. We will be specifically printing ‘Flying Birds’ (Inspired by the Bentvueghels), in the context of thinking about migration, the meaning of travel, and people’s movement around the world. For this session, participants will be drawing, tracing, carving and finally printing these birds onto postcards which they can then take with them. Everyone is welcome to join at any time.

Jam Session

We close the evening in a festive way with De Voorkamer's On the Spot: Jam Session! Several old and new musicians from De Voorkamer community take the stage for splashing jam session! Expect a mix of all kinds of different styles that are sure to get you dancing.

TICKETS

Attend the Facebook event for all updates.

timetable