The term “decolonize” has gained popularity over the recent years. One Google search can get you more than 800,000 results within a second. Many organisations develop initiatives concerning the decolonization of a workplace, a museum, an institution, a public space… Not only places can be decolonized, persons can be too. Decolonization is not a process you go through alone, you always decolonize with other people; you always decolonize together.

De//Colonize Together is a project created as a part of the course ‘Cultural Policy’ by Cultural Studies Master students Anke Stroobants, Wannes Van Ingelghem and Kaat Fransen. The end goal of this course is to successfully organize an event or several events concerning a topic of your own choice.

For De//Colonize Together the end goal is the 26th of March with an interesting and evocative evening filled with talented artists from in and around Leuven. Firstly, Peter Verlinden, Africa expert and professor at the KU Leuven, will start off the evening with a reading, and will be interviewed afterwards about his work and the colonization of Africa in general. He will also present his upcoming work “Zwarte trots, witte schaamte” (Black Pride, White Shame), which will hit the bookstores in May 2020. Afterwards we will switch over to poetry and its strong ability to convey emotions that are not so easily expressed through conventional speech. Three spoken word artists of Urban Woorden will present their work on colonization with a political, emotional and personal focus. Together with our partners we decided that with our event we wanted to create a safe space for everyone involved and interested in the topic of decolonization. Everyone is welcome to come and listen to the artists, have a nice drink and talk openly about what is on their mind.

For more information, visit our Facebook page and event on https://www.facebook.com/decolonizeleuven/. Feel free to contact us with questions or remarks via Facebook or via decolonizeleuven@gmail.com.