Symposium
James Baldwin and the voices of resistance

With Özkan Gölpinar, Ahmet Polat, Naomie Pieter, Dr. Edward Akintola Hubbard, Dr. Nawal Mustafa, Isaiah Lopaz, Sai Rodrigues, Diana Blok & Chris Keulemans.

04.07.2026, 12:00 — 18:00 West in the former American Embassy, Lange Voorhout 102, Den Haag €7,50
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After our exhibition ‘This Morning, This Evening, So Soon – Turkey Saved My Life’, the symposium ‘James Baldwin and the Voices of Resistance’ will take place on Saturday, July 4. The event features two panel discussions on the work and legacy of writer and anti-Black racism activist James Baldwin. These conversations will examine Baldwin’s influence on the contemporary art world and the ongoing struggle against racism in the Netherlands today.

James Baldwin left the United States in 1948, fleeing a society that offered no space for him as a Black, queer man. What followed was a life in exile, but not a life in silence. His years in Istanbul gave Baldwin the distance and freedom he needed to think, write, and grow. As he himself said: ‘Turkey saved my life.’ At some remove from the pressures of the American racial struggle, in a city with radically different social relations and histories, he wrote some of his most powerful works.

Curator Özkan Gölpinar drew inspiration from this period for his theatrical monologue 'In This Silence,’ which gives voice to Baldwin’s thoughts and experiences during his years in Turkey. The current exhibition ‘This Morning, This Evening, So Soon – Turkey Saved My Life’ is based on that work. Baldwin was an activist and civil rights leader, but above all he was a writer, essayist, poet, and witness. This intersection of art and struggle makes his work timeless. His ideas live on, and his fight is far from over. He remains an inexhaustible source of inspiration for artists and activists around the world.

On July 4, we invite you to reflect on the present with our panelists. What remains of Baldwin’s intellectual legacy, both explicitly and implicitly? How are writers and artists engaging with his inheritance today? How do Black and queer liberation movements in the Netherlands view the current context, and what lessons does the past offer?

The conversations will explore themes that occupied Baldwin throughout his life and remain highly relevant today: How are oppressed identities constructed in different cultural contexts? What does it mean to live as an artist outside one’s own cultural environment? How do diaspora communities relate to the societies in which they live in the Netherlands, Turkey, and the United States? Baldwin understood better than most that queerness always intersects with race, class, and culture, and that life at those crossroads can be both enriching and exhausting.

Perhaps the most personal theme in Baldwin’s work is the heavy burden of being a ‘spokesperson’: the fatigue of the activist who is repeatedly asked to testify, explain, and persuade.


Program

Inloop Tentoonstelling bezoeken met rondleidingen Özkan Gölpinar Panel 1: ‘Baldwin in de kunsten’ met Ahmet Polat, Dr. Edward Akintola Hubbard en Sai Rodrigues, gemodereerd door Chris Keulemans + Q&A Surinaamse gerechten uit de Marron cultuur en storytelling door Sisa Events Panel 2: ‘Baldwins nalatenschap in queergemeenschappen en anti-Zwart racisme activisme vandaag de dag' met Isaiah Lopaz, Naomie Pieter en Dr. Nawal Mustafa en Diana Blok met beeldbijdrage Beldan Sezen, gemodereerd door Chris Keulemans + Q&A Muzikale performance Orville Breeveld