13+14/09

Take Back Mokum: squatting, printing, and the right to the city

Against the forces of capital and the housing crisis, squatting is one of our best remaining tactics of resistance. It is also an inherently creative act, transforming buildings, public space, and potentially the whole city. Spooktember opens with the launch of our new zine about the Klokkenhof squat and invites you to explore together how to reclaim the right to the city.

13/09

18:00 Expo opening! Launch of zine Permanence through print (made by Layla Gijsen & Boris, published by Spookstad), music by Big Toilet Radio, drinks, art, zines, books.

14/09

13:00 Linocut workshop by Layla Gijsen. Free, but register by sending an email

16:00 Film screening: Een videograaf filmt Amsterdam by Yannesh Meijman, with a Q&A after.

20/09

Between Palestine and us: publishing in the service of solidarity

The student encampments of 2024 marked a first global wave of mass mobilizations in support of Palestine and against Western complicity. On the basis of the Spookstad-published book about the student uprising in Amsterdam, we explore how art, writing and documentaries contribute to the Palestine solidarity movement, and how we can take it further.

14:30 Mapping solidarity: interactive session hosted by Removing the dot (Saja Amro & Wassila Abboud). What is the role of art, cultural work, academia, and activism in the West, particularly in the Netherlands, in times of genocide? And how to strengthen our networks to avoid fragmentation and consolidate our strategies towards effective aims?

We will create a map together to serve as an active tool for documentation and strategy building. This session is a continuation of the Mapping Solidarity Project, in collaboration with platform BK. Please register by sending an email to hello@spookstad.boo.

16:00 Film screening “Class outside”: a collective video diary capturing everyday moments of resistance, solidarity, and conflict, following the student encampments in Amsterdam during May 2024 and the various subsequent actions. By Aylin Kuryel, Fırat Yücel & Deniz Buga.

17:00 Performance of “Dear, Comrade”, by Lola Swindles and Olga Tsyganova. A play about the student occupations, resistance, collectivity, and the attempt to not lose hope. Program also part of Amsterdam Bangs.

27/09

Whoring art: sex work in the city

After years of liberal municipal oversight, legislation, and regulation we are at a tipping point in the history of sex work in the city. And we won't be silent as our workplaces, brothels, darkrooms, and queer bars are taken away from us! As the Amsterdam Gemeente continues their efforts to move the city's central Red Light District to a prison-like mega-brothel in Amsterdam Zuid, come together with sex worker organizers, performers, writers and artists to amplify the autonomy of whores in de Wallen, Amsterdam and beyond. Hosted by Mercy St. J, and teasing a forthcoming book on the subject published by Spookstad.

12:00 Whoreganizing brunch (SW only!)

14:30 Panel Talk: Whoring Utopia

16:30 Poetry, Porn & Perfomances

04/10

Amsterdam Conference of Autonomous Book-Makers

“To create is to resist”, the more so when we do it together. On the last day of Spooktember, come in to make your own buttons or screenprint your clothes, while we’re joined by other autonomous and anarchist book and zine crafters to provide a mini book and zine fair!

13:00–18:00 Mini book and zine fair + make your own buttons + make your own anti-merch: on the spot screen printing on your garments of choice