Storytelling: profound stories

Lot’s of warm feelings and “colour” on Friday evening in the Witte de Withstraat during the  'Storytelling'. Musical performances and storytelling took place on three different locations, Blender, de Schouw en De Zondebok & ’t Zwarte Schaap. A short impression.

Transformation

Vanessa Lies Piergolam and Bijou Esajas were performing in De Schouw, which could be enjoyed both inside, but also outside on the terrace. Vanessa is yoga instructor from Delft, with an Indian background. She tells stories, writes poetry and sings. "I deal with the basic questions of life; I try to make everything fit for myself. I stay close to my feelings in a constant process of transformation, try to gain insight and stick to these and make them heard via iambus (metric feet)." Bijou Esajas supports these texts and her singing with music. The audience, both inside and outside, responded well to her performance. The usual buzz in the De Schouw was at times replaced by a silent attention to the performer.

Profound

“All my life already I have been playing with words, in which my Moluccan background plays an important part,” says Esperanza Denswil. She successfully lured people to the open-air terrace of Blender. A few musicians who happened to pass by were given the opportunity to join in. Within half an hour some 30-35 young people were gathered on the cool terrace, listening to the music, song and stories. Beautiful, disorderly and, at times, profound. Especially Dolores from Hoofddorp impressed quite a few people with her short stories and poetry. She is both a Jehovah’s Witness and a lesbian, a sheer impossible combination. She told the story of her life, thereto invited by Esperanza. Dolores did struggle a lot with her sexual identity within her strict religion Already at the age of 12, she realized that she had “ something” with women; her surroundings, however, forced her to be “ normal”. So she also had experiences with boys and men. Dolores: "Through prayers and bible studies I tried to resist my lesbian feelings, but around the age of 18 I stopped doing this. I do lead a double life; I am a lesbian, but do not divulge this. I now write a lot of poetry, fiction, non-fiction and short stories. After I turned 18, I let myself go free. I carefully come-out through my poetry and stories.” 

Some of her work can be found at: www.broken-rainbow.nl