Posts Tagged ‘ABC Events’
An Hour With(out) Banksy
Thursday, July 5th, 2012The Amsterdamse Boekennacht: The Discovery
Thursday, March 24th, 2011
The American Book Center warmly invites you to the 3rd annual Amsterdam Boekennacht (Book Night) on Friday, April 15, 2011.
The theme of this year’s Boekennacht is “De Ontdekking” or “The Discovery”. It promises be an exciting and varied evening of books and book lovers with a wide array of authors, literary events and presentations in the participating book stores, cultural institutions, and cafés on and around the Spui.
All the participating venues have crafted their own program, making the theme their own. One can discover, poetry, music, art, evil, The Netherlands, Amsterdam, love, food, a theory, a calling and last but not least a great new author or a book!
The American Book Center Amsterdam program:
Discovering the Future of Publishing
- What: Introducing the Espresso Book Machine
- Who: ABC!
- Where: ABC Amsterdam, second floor
- When: 10.00-22.00
We would like to invite all Boekennacht visitors to drop by the top floor of our store to see the future of publishing in action.
The American Book Center has the first Espresso Book Machine on the continent of Europe. This revolutionary machine prints, cuts and binds your very own book (or previously unavailable title, chosen from an ever-growing database) right before your eyes! During Boekennacht we will introduce the €25 EBM gift voucher. Buy one for the book lover in your life and take part in our draw to win free tickets to the The Hague Jazz festival in June in the Kyocera Stadium.
(Dis)covering the English Language and Culture
Ronald van de Krol – an American with a Dutch surname – is the author of the best-selling ‘Native English for Nederlanders’ and its sequel ‘Voertaal: English’.
The aim of the books is to prevent Dutch speakers from falling into tricky cultural and grammatical traps when speaking English. Intended to be a survival guide for the Dutch in a globalized world, the books concentrate on the common mistakes which the Dutch tend make in English. Along the way, Dutch readers find out why they should never say ‘Welcome in Amsterdam’ or ‘I am working for Shell’.
In both books Van de Krol draws on his own experience of learning Dutch and describes the cultural challenges he encountered in speaking the language correctly. Whereas Americans need to become more direct and less polite when adopting Dutch as their second language, the Dutch need to do the opposite when speaking English — be less direct and more obviously polite.
Van de Krol currently edits the Saturday edition of Het Financieele Dagblad. Previously he was deputy editor of the newspaper, after earlier working for the Financial Times and for Reuters. He was born in the US to Dutch emigrant parents and is a graduate of Oxford University.
Discovering the Netherlands and Other Places
Teresa Gotay is a travel writer and lives in New York but is often away backpacking through new places all over the world.
She found love in the Netherlands and will share her observations and discoveries of the Dutch and their culture with us during Boekennacht. And she could have some tips for those who want to discover New York off the beaten track.
Discoveries and experiences in the Netherlands from the perspective of a black American woman
Carolyn Vines is the author of Black and (A)broad: Traveling Beyond the Limitations of Identity. Besides that Carolyn is also an editor, award-winning blogger, teacher and mother of two bi-cultural daughters. After accepting her Dutch boyfriend’s invitation to move from sultry New Orleans to soggy Holland, Carolyn found herself in a land of windmills and endless grey skies. On the way to self-discovery in a strange country her determination was put to the test as she dealt with motherhood, the Dutch, a career change and much more, and along the way changed her ideas about being a black woman.
“I come from a place where almost everything is seen through the lens of race, so it’s all a matter of black and white. For many Americans I am a black woman, and that label has centuries of stigma attached to it. In America it’s hard to be black in “a white man’s world” as my mother always called it. I discovered color in Holland. I discovered in the Dutch people a willingness to see the various tones that constitute a person’s background. The bulb fields alight with deep reds, passionate purples, regal oranges and pretty pinks, seen along the road as I discovered this country of contradictions, became something of a metaphor for my own self-discovery. I discovered that my passion for writing ran deep and that my journey to discover who I was at times regal. Through the eyes of Dutch people I’m pretty and the culture I physically left behind is always here – inside.”
Discovering Amsterdam through Poetry
Cralan Kelder was born in 1970 and grew up between California and The Netherlands. He is a trained anthropologist. He has edited numerous literary magazines, including Full Metal Poem and Retort.
His latest collection is Give Some Word. Previous books include ‘French Pastry’ (Coracle 2007), and ‘Night Falls and is Slow to Get Up’ (Longhouse 2005).
Cralan Kelder will close our evening poetically by leading us through the streets and alleyways of Amsterdam and beyond.
The complete Boekennacht program, covering all the venues and events, can be found on boekennacht.nl
The following event has been cancelled:
Discovering the Art of Music: Notations 21: Exhibition and Book Presentation
ABC Meets: Photographer Louise te Poele
Monday, March 7th, 2011“I look at people and just click. That’s the magic of the moment. But I pay extra attention to the details.”
Louise te Poele will present her new book Famers at ABC Amsterdam on Saturday March 26th at 3pm
Te Poele’s photographs come from her fascination with people. She picks out unusual characteristics, peculiarities that make up the individual. Acquaintances, strangers, family, casual passers-by; she is looking for the eccentric, the outstanding. Therein lies the beauty of every human.
For Farmers she took portraits of the inhabitants of her own village, in the Achterhoek.
“I took the people from my birthplace as a starting point for this series. When I first photographed them, I was touched by them. That was at my former neighbor’s 50th birthday party. It cheered me up to watch them party together and see how strongly they resembled each other. I decided to follow them to different parties and weddings and that’s how the series came about. I didn’t portray them posing. That’s where I touch upon documentation photography. By making the background black, the images become dramatic. I did this to remove these headshots from any context.”
“For me it’s about the person, not their surroundings. This way I added a personal interpretation of reality. The headshots become characters, they loom up from the pitch dark backgrounds and evoke images/memories from a distant past. From the date you can tell the photos are very recent and don’t stem from the era they’re referring to.”
You can see Louise talking about her work and her latest project (in Dutch) on the Dutch TV program Ochtendspits.
Events December/January
Monday, November 29th, 2010Wednesday, December 1st: Author Lionel Shriver will visit Spui25 in Amsterdam at the invitation of the John Adams Institute. Her gut-wrenching novel We Need to Talk About Kevin won the Orange Prize in 2005, and her latest, So Much For That, was shortlisted for this year’s National Book Award. Go see her! See the John Adams website for more information – this event is already sold out, so check their site often for if and when she returns.
Thursday, December 2nd: Author Wladimir Kaminer will visit Border Kitchen in Den Haag in honor of the Dutch translation of his latest novel Es gab keinen Sex im Sozialismus. As far as I can see only one of his books has so far been translated into English: Russian Disco. See the Border Kitchen website for more information.
Thursday, December 2nd: Palestinian Ambassador Afif Safieh will sign his book The Peace Process: From Breakthrough to Breakdown at the ABC in Den Haag from 19.30 – 20.30 hrs. See the separate blog post for all the details.
Saturday, December 4th: And again! Palestinian Ambassador Afif Safieh will present and sign his book The Peace Process: From Breakthrough to Breakdown, this time at the ABC Treehouse in Amsterdam, from 13.30 until 17.00 hrs. See the separate blog post for all the details.
Monday, December 13th: Filmmaker Spike Lee will sign his book Spike Lee: Do The Right Thing at ABC Amsterdam from 18.00 – 20.00 hrs. A detailed post will be up on this blog asap!
Tuesday, December 14th: The next day Spike Lee will visit the Stadsschouwburg in Amsterdam at the invitation of the John Adams Institute. This event is already sold out, so be sure to come meet him at ABC Amsterdam on the 13th instead! ^^
As far as I can tell, nothing has been listed yet for January 2011.
Free makeup and makeup lessons with Bobbi Brown and ABC!
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010The American Book Center and Bobbi Brown Cosmetics have the pleasure of inviting you to:
The Official Launch of Bobbi Brown’s Latest Book, Beauty Rules
At this event, you’ll be able to get makeup advice straight from Eduardo Ferreira, President of Artistry for Bobbi Brown.
You’ll also receive a voucher that entitles you to a free makeup lesson in one of the Bobbi Brown Makeup Studios in the Netherlands.
In addition, when you purchase the book at ABC, you’ll receive two free makeup samples so that you can immediately try out the techniques inside!
Where: The American Book Center Amsterdam
Date: Thursday September 23rd
Time: 6pm to 8:30pm.
About The Book
From best-selling author and famed makeup artist Bobbi Brown comes this definitive beauty book, empowering teens and twenty-somethings with age-appropriate makeup tips, style secrets, and self-esteem boosters.
Emphasizing natural beauty, Bobbi advises on the best products and tools for keeping skin of every type flawless, and shares step-by-step techniques for getting the prettiest hair, eyes, lips, and nails. Stunning makeovers inspire looks for school, parties, interviews, and beyond.
With hundreds of photographs of real girls, shots of celebrity role models, and Bobbi’s best tricks from her remarkable career in the cosmetics industry, Beauty Rules is the new go-to guide for all girls.