[Amsterdam] Book launch "Smash the Pillars" at The Black Archives

On Friday, 29 June, the book 'Smash the Pillars: Decoloniality and the Imaginary of Color in the Dutch Kingdom', edited by Melissa Weiner and Antonio Carmona Báez, will be launched at The Black Archives.

Contributing authors:
Artwell Cain, Antonio Carmona Báez, Jessica de Abreu, Teresa Maria Díaz Nerio; Mitchell Esajas, Quinsy Gario, Halleh Ghorashi, Francio Guadeloupe, Gloria Holwerda-Williams, Guno Jones, Lianne Leonora, Teresa E. Leslie, Egbert Alejandro Martina, Kwame Nimako, Patricia Schor, Jennifer Tosch, University of Colour, Melissa F. Weiner, and Gloria Wekker.

"Smash the Pillars builds on and captures the efforts by scholars and activists to decolonize Dutch history and memory and resist the physical, epistemological, and psychological violence imposed by the Dutch state, its institutions, and dominant narratives. Contributions not only offer an unparalleled glimpse into decolonial activism in the Dutch kingdom but also provide us with a new lens with which to view contemporary decolonial efforts, from the towers of academia to the streets, from theoretical publications to anti-colonial consciousnesses.

Smash the Pillars embodies a sociological call for the re-thinking of Dutch society throughout its transatlantic kingdom, from the perspectives of non-White Dutch thinkers hailing from former colonies and territories of the Dutch kingdom. It interweaves existing strands of decolonial thinking with those rooted in Dutch (contemporary) history to produce an edited volume that makes visible the often invisible, by featuring and centering the spaces, voices and actions of those most excluded within Dutch society. Central to the book is the argument, developed holistically in the conclusion, that in order to fully decolonize Dutch society, the current social organization in the Kingdom of the Netherlands that relies on separate pillars for each religious and/or racial group, must be dismantled."

Following the book presentation, a Q&A session will be held with Amsterdam City Council Member Alternate for Bij1,Jazie Veldhuyzen.

More information about the program and the speakers will be made available soon

- When? Friday 29 June 2018
- Time? 6.30 PM (Start 7 PM) to 9 PM
- Where? Vereniging Ons Suriname / The Black Archives: Zeeburgerdijk 19b, 1093SK
- Sign up? Donation (donations will be used for the development of The Black Archives)